The Tainted Sidelines
by matrixnis
Summary: When the universe is split into 4 dimensions, you know there must be some people from each that share a destiny together and they simply need a push to accomplish that. Because the world you live in is a giant tinderbox, all it takes is someone to light the match. A dangerous match started everything, changing their entire lives forever. Rated T for dark stuffs.
1. Scale 1: In The Beginning

**Hello everyone! I am matrixnis and here I present to you my first fanfic story ever!**

 **After 4 months reading stories after stories in this big website, especially those of Nox Descious, Frost190, Court Morningstar, Imagine97 and Gentyman, I finally got enough inspiration to make my own one. This story will have all the 4 Dragon Boys as main characters, but I made sure to have Yugo and Yuto more prominent roles, especially the former. I would like to say that the Yugo you see in this story will be very different from what the anime offers us, he will be more serious, more sensitive towards others, especially girls (hehe). In other words, he will still retains some of his stupidity (I'll try) but he will be very different. If you guys are offended by this, I apologize, but this is my story after all.**

 **Also, for update schedule if you wonder, I don't really have one since I am at the final year of high school but I'll try to update once every two weeks.**

 **Big thanks to Gentyman for allowing me to use some of his concepts of the character Yuto that you may or may not see in his own story.**

 **Disclaimer: I just own this story, not the base… (lol)**

 **Update 04-03-2018: ****Disclaimer: I do not own Yu-Gi-Oh ARC-V and this story is rated T for Violence, Blood, Coarse Language and some Minor Adult Themes like Rape, Death and Implied Torture.**

 **Without further adieu, let's get started!**

* * *

 **Chapter 1: The Regretful Fallout**

The night began to appear as the sunlight got lighter and lighter, the dim orange and yellow lights illuminated the face of a boy. The yellow bangs that spikes upward, combining with the base blue and the blue part of his hair that flows on the right side did not hide the frowned expression on his face. The watery blue eyes looked at the sparkle of the Stardust River with sadness, wondering about something. This boy, an adolescent boy with tactless issues is regretting, regretting about possibly the biggest mistake he has made recently…

"What can I do now to make up with her…?"

* * *

"Wake up, stupid boy! It's already 4 in the afternoon!"

The voice of a young girl spoke up. The boy looked at her annoyingly. Shoulder length aqua green colored hair with two light green side tails and orange eyes, beautiful features that any girls wishes to have, even more amazing for an orphan like her herself. But he inwardly thinks it would not fit the angry look on her face at the moment.

"Dammmittt… couldn't you let me sleep more? It's still early…"

"Yugo, this is the third time you have overslept, the same amount of time you have missed our duel. What the hell is wrong with you?"

"Then just leave it for another time, Rin." He grossly replied.

"Another time? You said that countless times already!" Rin briefly breathed out in anger before proceeding:

"Besides, you are too lazy Yugo! You don't cook, you don't clean the house, you don't play with other children and you don't even check our D-Wheel! I don't even know what is wrong with you, you asshole!"

"Asshole? What rights do you have to call me an asshole?"

"I have! Especially with your laziness now! Jerkass! Idiot! Usel…"

"You bitch! You nutter!" Yugo lashed out "You interfere too much Rin! You're not my mother, so stop all of that bullshit nonsense, you shameless C###!"

Yugo repeated that awful word seven more times, each with increasing volume. He did not even know how much more he would growl, but he is forcefully stopped when Rin gave an angry, powerful slap to the left side of his cheek.

Shocked for a moment, he finally grabed his reddened cheek with his right hand and looked at Rin. She seems much more shocked than him, tears are threatening to fall.

"C###? I, even at the worst of times, would never say the same thing to you!" Rin whispered painfully, her orange eyes widen in shock with tears falling down freely "I did everything for the children, for you and for our dream! And now you say those to me like that? You're such a tactless boy, Yugo! Very tactless! Awfully tactless! I can't bear your insensitivity anymore!"

With that, she angrily and bitterly ran out of the orphanage, crying blubberingly, ignoring the scream of Yugo. He chased after her, yelling her name in an attempt to make her stop, but to no avail with Rin screaming "Stop" everytime. Eventually, he gave up and stops, catching his breath.

He tiredly looked at her fading body until it disappeared with wonder: "What the hell did I just do…?"

Unknown to him, a young man was looking at him from behind with a disappointing expression on his face.

* * *

The boy continued looking at the small waves of the river, then at the sunset, sadly thinking about himself. He knew Rin was very motherly, she always looked after him and the children in the orphanage. She always cooks meals for everyone, always the first to wake up, never the first to sleep at night unless everyone else has done the same thing. For this, she can be demanding at times and he would sometimes argues with him, however things have never got this far and terrible like today, clearly there has been something wrong about him.

He was snapped out of his thoughts when a voice spoke out from his back:

"You're too childish Yugo! You need to change."

He looked back, not surprised, for he knew the tone of that voice. Low, but clear, mature. Only one person he knew would have that kind of voice. That tall, tan man with the upper layer of his hair juts upward while the lower layer arches down and a yellow line acrossthat marks him as a criminal, or not so much to Yugo.

"Yusei" he said. "What are you doing here?"

"I'm here because you just said something terrible to Rin, Yugo."

"…"

Yusei sighed and rested his hands at the safety bars of the river, standing next to Yugo.

"Yugo, I don't know what is bothering you recently, but the way you talked to her this afternoon is very unforgivable"

Yugo listened, not saying a thing.

"She is kind, caring and motherly. She cares for everyone's well-being and most of all, she cares about you. She is like your girlfriend."

Yugo only slightly blushed at the comment, unlike any other times that he loudly denies it with a huge blush and an equally big smile when Yusei or other kids say it. Probably a bad mood will subdue overexcitement, he thought.

"How do you know, and are you sure about the last part?"

"Guess who is the first that she wakes up in the morning? You. Who always smiles when you duel happily with others? Her. Who is always helping you when you construct your D-Wheel and anything else? Her. And remember this, one night when you fell asleep while checking your ride, who kissed your face and helped you get to bed? Rin did it."

A huge blush appeared on Yugo's face for he didn't know the last part but for some reason, he quickly regained composure. He sadly smiled: "Yeah… she's always that amazing. She's always there for me, yet I do not know it and mistook it as messing me up. I uh… I gotta say sorry to her later.''

Yusei smiled and continued: "But a single sorry is not enough. Like I said, you need to change Yugo. You're so insensitive, you definitely have no sense of personal space with all that hugging Rin, you need to know no girls can stand it, even her. You don't know how much sacrifice Rin has made for you, for your dream with her. She endures every hardships because of you, Yugo. I know that you are her reason to live. You must know it Yugo…"

He pauses for a little bit to look at Yugo's stunned face, clearly not knowing how Rin has helped him so much like that.

"And be a real man to her." He finished.

Yugo remains stunned. He froze for a moment before looking down, then facing forward, not looking at Yusei.

"You're right…"

Yusei patted the boy's shoulder: "Don't worry, you're still 16, mistakes happen all the time but there is always room to fix. I'm sure she will forgive you. Just remember to say sorry sincerely and change your personality after that. Man up Yugo, only 2 years left until you become an adult, and a man to her."

Yugo nodded and hugged him. Yusei realized it was not a tight hug Rin has to endure all the time, but a warm and manly one that he can only describes it as a "thank-you" to him. He smiles, remembering how Yugo would usually do the same thing when he was in trouble and Rin could not give him the comfort he needed. He was like a younger brother to him, albeit a foster one. And for Yugo, Yusei is always the big brother of the house, the man he could rely on when life pushes him hard. They are orphans after all, so they find comfort in each other easily.

"Come on, it's night time. I guess Rin is at home now and also Aki is waiting for me."

Yugo chuckled at the mention of Aki, Yusei's girlfriend. She is the most beautiful girl of the orphanage. Red hair, porcelain skin, big eyes and huge "assets" as he usually jokes. She is usually seen with Rin, helping her with the housework and stuff. Also, the four "grown-ups" of the orphanage have the same dream of achieving a better life in the Tops so they are very close to each other. He almost laughs thinking about the times when he tried to hug her, not caring others, especially Rin was nearby.

"OK. Let's go. By the way when will Aki and you get at it?" Yugo joked.

"As soon as you two loudly do the same first!" Yusei played back.

Yugo playfully kicked Yusei in the butt as they returned.

* * *

When they returned, Yugo prepared himself mentally before saying: "Rin."

No reply.

"Rin, are you there?" He repeated.

Still no reply.

"She's not here yet Yugo." Came a voice of a girl.

"Aki?" Yugo and Yusei said at the same time. "Do you know where Rin is? I suppose she would be here now." Yugo asked.

"No idea…"

"Aargh" Yugo suddenly groaned out, painfully. Both Aki and Yusei looked on with curiosity.

"Yuugou… yougou… nearby…" A muffed voice. "Rin… danger… ger… rrr…" Another one, though slightly lighter in tone.

The pain and the voices stopped.

"What's wrong, Yugo?" Both Aki and Yusei asked.

"I don't know, but maybe Rin's in danger."

"WHAT?" The older couple exclaimed. "You sure?"

"I don't know, but… I just feel it okay? We need to find her as soon as possible!" Yugo still wondered what had happened to him, but decided to act on his feelings.

Despite the strange situation, Yusei quickly acted: "Okay me and Yugo will look for her, Aki, you stay here watch out the kids."

"K, be careful and bring her back." Aki replied.

And so without even changing into riding duel clothes, they each took their own D-Wheel, a white one to Yugo and a blue one for Yusei and drove away, frantically looking for Rin.

Little did they know, this is just the beginning of the nightmare that they will have to endure, and surely one they will never forget…

* * *

 **So that was the first chapter of the story! I was tired and shocked at the amount of time I took to finish just a single chapter like this! Story writing is as hard as hell! With this chapter, a change to Yugo's personality will definitely happen.**

 **Did I surprise all of you with Yusei and Aki appearing? I have planned for them to appear since when I took concept of the story. I hope Yugo and Rin's fallout is not too chessy to you guys though.**

 **Of course since this is my first story, I am bounded to make mistakes, probably more on the grammar side as English is not my native language. Also I cannot guarantee that every chapter will have good quality, I only tried to make one as good as possible. Any possible errors I have made, please kindly point out. This way, I can learn from them and improve my writing. Trial and error is the best way to learn after all.**

 **This is matrixnis, out!**


	2. Scale 2

**Welcome back everyone!**

 **Surprise! So soon! I was actually in the Lunar New Year Vacation so I had plenty of time to make the story, sadly it will only last for 4 days though…**

 **I hope you guys enjoy the first chapter and the changes I made for the main Synchro cast!**

 **Big thanks to Gentyman for the first review to my story and 4 people who loved and followed my project.**

 **To Gentyman, Yusei is 18, Aki is 17, all the Dragon Boys and Bracelet Girls are 16 in this story. I felt like lifting the main cast's age up will allow more mature, intimate scenes to both appear more and be more reasonable, because a romantic relationship between two people of different genders at age 13 (Yuto and Ruri) seemed… illogical for me. And about Yugo, his personality change will be more apparent in future chapters but he is already smarter than the anime, even only by a little bit.**

* * *

 **Chapter 2: Futile Effort**

People say that as a man, never make a woman angry as she will remain distant with you for a very long time, and what is happening between Rin and Yugo is a clear example. For the entire afternoon, while the tears have stopped, she still felt sad and angry for what Yugo did to her. She does know he is still very childish and she would scold him at times, trying to make him more mature but he is still as stupid as ever. She thought she could bear with it but today, at that moment, she realized Yugo has went too far, not only he did not care a bit about her caring to him, he outrightly called her with that awful word that, although the life of an orphan does make her say harsh things occasionally, she thought she would never say that to him. Leaning against the wall, she internally curses him and thought she would just leave him. But then, a feeling washed over her. She still had the kids, Yusei, Aki to look after, she still had duty to do at the orphanage, and… and… and…

She still cared about him.

She still cared about that idiot but joyful boy, her good moments with him, the times they constructed their D-Wheel together, and that one time he smiled in his sleep after she gave him a kiss to his cheek. A small blush appear on her face.

"Maybe he just feel tired and I did went too far." She thought, finally returned to be more insightful after that awful argument. Still as strong internally and understanding as always. With that in mind, she took a deep breath and go to the grocery store to buy foods to cook.

Unknown to her, someone was standing at the rooftop opposite of the store, staring at her emotionlessly…

* * *

Despite being an orphan, Rin does not worry about money since she could now make some. A year ago, Aki told her about the difficulties of the orphanage, one of them being lack of money. A friend of theirs, Shinji Weber formerly supported them with his job as a mechanic for the Tops. However, as the market changed, so did the income. He could not make enough money to give to them anyone, he only barely made it for a living. With that in mind, Rin decided that Aki and she each will take a part-time job to support the orphanage themselves, not relying on Shinji anymore. Yugo and Yusei protested this heavily but once the girls explained the situation to them, along with some sweet convincing words and help from the head of the orphanage, they relented. They each worked part-time as waitresses at two coffee stores. Due to Aki being more beautiful, more guests came to the coffee store she worked and earned more money than Rin as a result. Whatever it is, the money they made managed to give them, Yusei, Yugo and other kids a more comfortable life with better clothes, more food, money to pay electricity and especially for the girls, make-up. Yusei also started took steps after Shinji, working as a D-Wheel mechanic also.

It is good that there are still shops that accepted paper money as means of payment. Most of the stores like this in Neo Domino City and Japan now only accepts credit cards, which no one in Rin's orphanage had. Despite the harsh life, she could still find support in this competitive society. Taking all the needed products, she gave the storekeeper her money and walked out of the grocery store. However, no sooner had she stepped her feet out of the store than she got an incredibly nervous, scary feeling, her heart was beating faster and faster. She frantically looked around her, every possible spots that might had given her this uneasy feeling. However, nothing suspicious was founded. She thought she was just oversensitive of the surroundings and walked back home. But the fear kept returning.

Rin could not shake off the uneasy feeling creeping over her, as if someone was stalking her from behind. She looked back, no one was acting strange, no sign from above either. She composed herself and continued walking. However, the fear kept returning and increasing, in tune with every footsteps she made.

Tick… tick… tick… tick…

Rin began to feel scared for her own safety, probably some kind of green-eyed asshole was following her. Suddenly, a creppy, strong, nervous kind of wind swept through her right side. She freaked out, quickly looked at her right and grasped her luggage tightly when she finds out the source of the creppiness.

A boy in a black cloak covering the top part of his face was standing at the rooftop behind, looking down at her with the eyes of a… predator. All of a sudden, he jumped down to the ground, a small wind splashed, throwing up the lower part of the hood for a moment, revealing a white and purple uniform and conveniently throw down the hood, allowing Rin to see the stalker. She shocked and froze, for the face of the boy, only one person she knew would have that.

"Yugo? What are you doing? Why are you stalking me like that?" She loudly wondered.

"Yugo? You mistook me girl! I am Yuri." The boy corrected. "…and I'm here to catch you alive." He said in a creppy monotone.

Rin stepped back in fear. One, two, three steps backward, trembling in each movement. Then, she quickly turned around, running away from him. She continued running, fearful for what he might do to her. However she stucked at a dead end after running for a while and suddenly, the boy stopped right behind her.

"What are you doing? Let me go?" She protested.

"Order is order, I must comply. So come on, come here and return to the Professor, no harm will be done to you." Yuri told her, with a smug, sadistic smile.

"As if I would do it!" She quickly reached her duel disk hidden from the back of the jacket, took it out and strapped it to her left hand. A semi-circular orange blade appeared from her duel disk. Luckily she always has one when she goes out shopping, thanks to Aki reminding her: "As a girl like me, you need to be careful. Boys love to take advantage of you and your body when you're alone. You surely don't want it to happen, do you?"

"Wanna do it harshly, don't you?" Yuri said annoyingly, quickly raised his right hand up, a black duel disk appeared, along with a purple, sword-like blade shot out from the front.

"What is that duel disk? Neo Domino City never issues one to the people here. And why is he left-handed like Yugo?" Rin inwardly thought to herself. She may have to think about it later.

Yuri speaks up: "A hunting game like this is not fun unless there is resistance from the prey. If you win, I will let you go, if you lose, I will take you alive, got it?"

Rin wondered why he described this bullshit stalking as a hunting game, but decided to drop it for now, her well-being is more important. Rin instantly said: "Fine to me, you asshole!" even though she knew there is no room for the first condition.

 **DUEL!**

Yuri: 4000 [5]

Rin: 4000 [5]

* * *

"We need to widen our search area, let's split up Yusei!" Yugo told Yusei, who gave him a thumbs-up in agreement.

 _"_ _Be safe… Rin… I still need to say sorry to you… until then, do not leave me…"_ Yugo quietly hoped.

He was so focused at finding Rin and the road ahead that he did not notice something was shining in his Extra Deck slot on his Duel Disk, albeit dimly.

* * *

"Today predator gives prey a chance to resist first!" Yuri mocked Rin.

"You'll regret that choice! Watashi no turn!" Rin declared her turn.

 _"_ _I need to get this quick."_ She thought to herself.

"Magic Card Wind-Calling Bell Chime! By revealing Wind Witch - Ice Bell, I can special summon another copy of it from my deck." Rin took out Ice Bell that was partially pulled out from her deck and slapped it into the blade, shen then summon another Ice Bell from her hand.

Wind Witch – Ice Bell WIND Effect LV3 **1000** /1000

"And now, Ice Bell, freeze him!" The two female monsters materialized their wands and blasted Yuri with two strong gusts of wind. Yuri covered himself with his Duel Disk but was otherwise unmoved.

Yuri: 4000 - 3000 [5]

Rin then slapped another card to the blade, Wind Witch – Snow Bell and summoned it. "This card can be special summoned when I control 2 or more "Wind Witch" monsters."

Wind Witch – Snow Bell WIND Tuner Effect LV1 100/ **100**

"I tune these 3 monsters!" Snow Bell turned into a blue ring with rectangles then go through the two Ice Bells, which turn into a straight, bright light.

"Winds of winter, snow and ice! Become my power to blow everything away! Synchro Shōkan! Appear, Level 7, Wind Witch – Winter Bell!"

Wind Witch – Winter Bell WIND Synchro Effect LV7 **2400** /2000

"Once per turn, Winter Bell can gain the effect of a Wind Witch monster in my graveyard, I choose Ice Bell, which means another blast to you!" Winter Bell rang its bell before blasting another gale at Yuri, lowering his life points.

Yuri: 3000 - 2500 [5]

"Now I banish Bell Chime to add Wind Witch – Glass Bell from the deck to my hand." Rin add Glass Bell to her hand.

"Setting 2 cards, turn end."

 _"_ _Burn tactic? That's quite cheap but effective."_ Yuri thought to himself.

"Which means it's my turn." Yuri said. "Boku no turn, draw!"

"I summon Predator Plants – Fly Hell."

Predator Plants – Fly Hell DARK Effect LV2 **400** /800

"Then Continuous Magic Predator Planter activate! I summon Predator Plants – Moray Nepenthes with its effects negated."

The card materialized on the field, from the image of it, a purple orb bursts out and disintegrates, revealing the plant-animal hybrid monster.

Predator Plants – Moray Nepenthes DARK Effect LV4 **1600** /1000

"Once per turn, Fly Hell can place 1 Predator Counter on your monster." On cue, a small parasitic monster flies out, biting the bell of Winter Bell.

Ice Bell LV7 - 1

"What? It reduces level?" Rin said in surprise.

"Yes, and there is a lot of things my deck can do with that counter." Yuri answers her.

"What is he planning to do, no monsters he summoned is a tuner." Rin nervously thought.

"Battle! Fly Hell, attack Winter Bell!" Yuri declared an attack.

Rin was surprised of course, wondering why he would take 2000 damage and lose Fly Hell like that.

"Fly Hell can destroy the monster it battles with an equal or lower than it at the start of the damage step." Yuri explaned.

"That's a good effect for a level 2 monster. But Winter Bell cannot be destroyed by card effects due to using Snow Bell as a Synchro Material!"

"If so, Flash Fusion activate!" Yuri slips that Quick-Play Magic Card into the small hole in the back of his Duel Disk.

"Fusion?" Rin never heard of the name of that card before. No one in Neo Domino City would have it.

The two monsters on Yuri's field, each turned into a swirl of energy, one red, one blue, then they swirled together into the spiral before entering the portal. Then a bright light appeared from it.

"Yuugō Shōkan! Appear, Level 7, Predator Plants – Chimerafflesia!"

The monster comes out of the portal. True to its name, it is a hybrid of the Rafflesia and the Chimera-like carnivorous mouths. An abomination of living beings.

Predator Plants – Chimerafflesia DARK Fusion Effect LV7 **2500** /2000

"A Fusion Summon? I've never seen it or heard it before! You're not from here are you?" Rin asks.

"Yes, just like your Synchro Summon in my homeplace." Yuri cryptically answered. "In fact, this is my first time I've dueled against a Synchro user. This is interesting! Anyway, Chimerafflesia attacks! With its effects, it gains 1000 ATK while your Winter Bell lose the same amount!"

Suddenly, a strong wind slapped over Yuri's monster, weakening it.

"What happened?" Yuri wondered. Then he looked at Rin's field only to find a trap that was already activated.

"Trap Card, Bewildering Wind! It halves Chimerafflesia's ATK and negates its effects when you summon it, which means you cannot attack Winter Bell!" Rin said to him.

Chimerafflesia ATK 2500 - 1250

Yuri chuckled: "I see, you're tougher than I thought, such a brave person. I end my turn with these 2 face-downs. At this moment, Chimerafflesia is destroyed due to Flash Fusion." Yuri's monster destroys itself the moments he finishes saying. "Come on, come hit me and entertain this hunting game more punny girl!" Yuri mocked Rin, who ignored his gloating, hiding her disgusted emotion quite well, even though she was still nervous.

 _"_ _There must be a reason why he destroys it. I need to be careful."_ Rin thought to herself. "Watashi no turn, draw!"

Yuri suddenly acted: "Trap activate! Predator Planet!" A trap card with the image of a dinosaur and a carnivorous plant on the former's back appeared. "If a monster with a Predator Counter leaves the field, I can add 1 "Predator" card from the deck to my hand."

 _"_ _Dammit. I wanted to get rid of this counter, but it doesn't matter now, no time to think about that. I need to beat this guy and run back to the orphanage!"_

"I activate Winter Bell's effect again, that's another 500 damage to you!"

Yuri: 2500 - 2000 [0]

 _"_ _He has no monsters on the field and one facedown, he wants me to direct attack him for something? I have to reinforce my attack power and lock his traps!"_ Rin cautiously examines the field in her thought.

"I summon Wind Witch – Glass Bell!"

Wind Witch – Glass Bell WIND Tuner Effect LV4 **150** 0/1500

"With its effect, I can add Snow Bell to my hand and now I special summon it!" Snow Bell returned to the field once again. "It's good that you reduce Winter Bell's level to 1 since now I can Synchro Summon this monster easier! I tune the level 4 Glass Bell and the level 1 Winter Bell!"

"Synchro Shōkan! Show yourself, level 5, Wind Witch – Zero Bell!"

Wind Witch – Zero Bell WIND Synchro Effect LV5 **2100** /1900

"Since Winter Bell leaves the field, I can add Predator Plants – Sarraceniant into my hand from my deck!" Yuri quickly retorted.

"That card won't help you a bit! Zero Bell's effect! By banishing Winter Bell from my graveyard, I can summon 2 non-synchro Wind Witch monsters from the grave with their effects negated!" On cue, the two Ice Bells returned.

"The total level of the non-synchro monsters on your field is 7, which means…" Yuri wondered.

"Yes, I can call another Winter Bell again!" Winter Bell returned to the field in a bright blue light.

"Which means another 500 damage is delivered!" Once again the strong gust of wind swept through Yuri, who staggered back a bit due to repeated strikes and low LP.

Yuri: 2000 - 1500 [1]

"You thought my deck can only burn of LP didn't you? Wrong! It can go on the offense just as well! This is the end to you, asshole! Zero Bell direct attack! You cannot activate magic or trap cards when this card attacks!" Rin loudly order Zero Bell to attack.

"Useless! When you declare a direct attack, I can special summon Sarraceniant from my hand!" Yuri quickly slapped the only card in his hand to the blade, special summoning the ant and the sarracenia plant hybid to the field, shielding him from the direct attack.

Predator Plants – Sarraceniant DARK Plant Effect LV1 100/ **600**

"Kurrh… Then I attack it." Rin switch the target to the monster Yuri just special summoned, destroying it.

"When Sarraceniant is destroyed, I can destroy the monster that destroyed it after damage calculation! Bye bye Zero Bell!" Yuri reminded her with a sadistic grin on his face.

"Trap card, Wind Witch – Wind Barrier! I banish Snow Bell to protect Zero Bell!" Rin quickly acted back. She breathed out of relief while Yuri became annoyed.

"And now Winter Bell finish him!" The monster rang its bell, sending a circular wave of wind at Yuri, however…

"Hmm. Trap activate! Predator Ambush!" Yuri pointed at the remaining trap card on his field, activating it.

"What?"

"It banishes Winter Bell, recovers my LP equal to its ATK, inflicts half of its ATK to you as damage! Then I can special summon 1 Predator Plants monster from my graveyard!"

On cue, the trap fire a purple blast of energy at Winter Bell, disintegrate it. It swiches its target to Rin, which made her scream in pain. Then Fly Hell appeared from the back of the blast.

Rin: 4000 - 2800 [1]

Yuri: 1500 - 3900 [0]

Rin angrily cursed herself since her Barrier trap only activated once per turn and she could not end this dangerous duel quickly, the only card in her hand would not help her at all. "Turn end." She whispered bitterly, looking away.

Seeing Rin giving away her chance like that, Yuri smiled in amusement before mocking her "Although I appreciate you for the dueling skill you showed me, this is still nothing. Your effort is strong, but very futile! Prepare to lose Rin! Draw!" He loudly declared his turn with a creppy smile like a madman, which scared the hell out of her. Suddenly, a roar of a dragon resonated in his mind, wanting to come out of its cage. Yuri realized what his dragon wanted and reeled in agreement, accepting its wishes.

* * *

Yugo felt a hot burn in his chest. He stopped, holding his chest in pain. That was when he realized something is shining within his Duel Disk. He inspected it and was surprised to find the source. His ace monster, Clear Wing Synchro Dragon is shining. Without even time to take it in, he saw a vision of a purple dragon roaring at the one and only girl of his, Rin.

"Rin!" Yugo snapped out of the vision and drove faster, unknowingly guided by the vision to somewhere…

* * *

"At this moment, I pay 800 life points to keep Predator Planter on the field, and to gain benefit from it!"

Yuri: 3900 - 3100 [1]

"Come back, Sarraceniant!"

After that annoying monster returned to the field, Yuri holds up a green card and shows it to Rin, a card with the image of the 2 monsters joining together in a blue-dark blue vortex.

"Magic Card, Fusion, activate!" Yuri activates the card, using Sarraceniant and Fly Hell as Fusion Material. Those two deadly plants turned blue and red each and going into the fusion spiral together.

"Two beautiful flowers with an insect-alluring fragrance. Now become one, and from a hell under your petals, give birth to another dreadful terror!"

Yuri claps his hands together, wielding that trademark grin again.

"Yuugō Shōkan! Appear, poisonous dragon with hungering fangs! Level 8! - Starve Venom Fusion Dragon!"

From the fusion portal, a purple dragon appeared, the orbs on its body shines up red, the long tail with a sharp blade at the end combing with the sharp teeth drooling in hunger only add up to the horror this monster gave to Rin, who falls down in fear at the moment it gave her a loud, threatening roar. Never before have she been scared as much as such a sight to this, which can only be described as a literal demon dragon rising from Hell, obsessed with turning this very Earth into a raging wasteland.

Starve Venom Fusion Dragon DARK Dragon Effect LV8 **2800** /2000

At the sight of Rin being reduced into a scaring worm like that, he cruelly smiled at her, yelling in sadistic joy:

"Scary, right? I like it when girls act like this. Now let's end this glorious hunting game! Starve Venom Fusion Dragon gains ATK equal to Zero Bell as it was Fusion Summoned using monsters from the field. Also I can steal its effects for its pleasure, which means your Wind Barrier is useless, even though it would not help much anyway!"

Rin froze at his words, realizing she was lost since the beginning already…

"Also, Chimerafflesia would have allowed me to add a "Fusion" card like the two I have used every Standby Phase while it rests in the grave, but I did not because…" Yuri paused for dramatic effect , watching the surprised face of the crumbling prey in front of him before proceeding "You're still not a worthy prey for me to hunt anyway! Hahahahahahahaha!"

Anger rose up within Rin as more fuels were just added to the flames.

Starve Venom suddenly lights up in purple flames, before firing them at Zero Bell, binding it painfully, stealing away its ATK and effects. Rin could only watch her monster being cruelly derived like that.

Starve Venom Fusion Dragon ATK 2800 - 4900

"Starve Venom Fusion Dragon, attack Wind Witch – Zero Bell! Starving…Carnivorous Blast!"

The dragon arched back, pink lines appeared on its back, charging energy into the holes the lines created. Then the lines shot forward, wrapping Zero Bell as the energy focus into the center, above Starve Venom's head. Finally it fired the energy as a light blue blast into the body of Zero Bell, destroying it but not before it yelled in pain from the hit. Rin was hit by the strong shockwave, yelling loudly, and was thrown into the wall at the back and fell into the ground, unconscious. Her only last thought was: "Yugo… I'm sorry…" then she passed out. The only card in her hand was dropped near her, as if trying to wake Rin up, but to no avail…

Rin 2800 - 0 [1]

Starve Venom for some reason remained on the field, continuing to roar upward. Having no time to think about it though, he took off his Duel Disk to make his dragon disappear, then took the card on the blade away and put it back to the Extra Deck and put his Deck back again, the blade disappeared at the same time. He looked at Rin's defeated form and grinned evilly. Yuri's gleeful grin at that scene was only stopped when someone called her name loudly from behind,.

"Rin, Rin… RIIINNN!"

Yuri put back his hood and looked back to see a boy in a dark blue shirt and yellow pants driving in a strange kind of motorcycle in white pants. He however was momentarily shocked by his face, which is exactly the same has him, expect his strange hairstyle, which was just as exaggerated as his own.

Yugo was shocked at well, but he quickly snapped: "What the f*** did you do to Rin? Give her back!"

Yuri simply gave him a sly smile: "Try then." He then grabed Rin on his shoulders and quickly chose the location appeared in the screen of his Duel Disk: "Academia". Then both he and Rin disappeared in blue particles, avoiding the reckless Yugo who tried to run him over with his D-Wheel.

Yugo was wide-eyed in shock before angrily slapped his left fist into the front of his D-Wheel and mutters: "Dammit… Rin… RRRIIIINNNNNNNN!"

Yusei drove behind Yugo and upon realizing what happened, he can only look away in bitterness before confronting the latter…

* * *

Aki was waiting at the orphanage' door, impatiently, arms crossing her waist. Rin was one of her closest friends and the only female friend that she had, so Rin is the person she always confined in, whatever about the orphanage, the kids there, the harshness of life, her relationship with Yusei and of course, the usual "girl talk" between them. Hearing from Yugo that Rin was in danger, it was like a stab to her heart. She wanted to go find her immediately but she could not leave the kids behind so she had to stay here, putting faith in Yugo and her boyfriend Yusei.

"Yugo, Yusei, please find her quickly…" Aki thought.

Few moments later, she heard the engines of two D-Wheels approaching. She immediately knew it was them and she was smiling happily with joy at the thought of seeing them bringing Rin back. But the frowned face of Yusei and the furious one of Yugo told her the opposite.

"Where's Rin?" Aki couldn't help but wonder.

"She was abducted." Yusei told her.

"WHAT?" Aki screamed. "Do you know who, and where is Rin now?"

"No idea. A boy captured her, probably after a duel and… vanished." Yusei answered. "What intrigued me is that he had the exact same face has Yugo."

"Vanished? Like teleporting? And you wanna say he is like a doppelganger of Yugo?" Aki asked, and a nod from Yusei confirmed it. Yugo couldn't hold his distraught any longer. He slammed his fists into his D-Wheel and cursed himself. "F### F### F###! How could it happen like this? It's… it's… it''s all my f####### fault!"

Yusei immediately told him to calm down but instead of doing so, he growled and ran into his room, changing himself into his Riding Duel outfit and ran down to his D-Wheel, roared it and drove away, leaving Yusei, Aki and the kids behind calling him to stop, but to no avail…

Yugo internally cursed himself as he drove into the streets at high speed, frantically looking for Rin. Suddenly, a bright light appeared from his Extra Deck slot. He slowed down and take out a white card, the source of the light.

"Clear Wing Synchro Dragon? What is it doing?" Yugo wondered. But he had no time to think about it as it suddenly lit up brighter and brighter, before illuminating him and his entire D-Wheel. Seconds later, both the white D-Wheel and its owner was nowhere to be found…

* * *

Opening his eyes after that bright light, Yugo shocked at the sight in front of him, A grey color enveloping the destroyed city, the remains of probably a high tower appeared on his right. Yugo instantly knew this was not Neo Domino City, but a different one, probably at war. Whatever this place is, he must get out of there soon and find Rin.

He realized he was at a rooftop of a miraculously intact building. He looked down below on his left, a graffiti sprayed on the wall: "Heartland City die!"

"Heartland City… poor town…" Yugo thought. What caught sight of him after that however was the sight of three man. One in blue coat, one in purple long-sleeved shirt and one that made him angry. Spiked, two-tone hair, black and purple, a long coat and the face, the familiar face, his own face. Those are enough signs to Yugo to realize he was Rin's kidnapper. He stared at him angrily, trying to calm his wrath. Said kidnapper suddenly looked up at him with a frowned and angry look…

* * *

 **Fanfic OC cards:**

 **Wind Witch – Zero Bell**

WIND Synchro Effect LV5 2100/1900

Once per turn, you can banish 1 Wind Witch Synchro Monster, special summon 2 non-Synchro Wind Witch monster from your graveyard with their effects negated.

 **Wind Witch – Wind Barrier (Continuous Trap Card)**

Only activate when you each have at least 1 Wind Witch monster on the field and in the graveyard. (Quick Effect) Once per turn, you can banish 1 Wind Witch monster in your graveyard, the first time that monsters you control would leave the field, they are not. When you control no Wind Witch monsters, destroy this card. You can banish this card from your graveyard when you have no monsters on the field, you take no damage this turn.

 **Predator Ambush (Counter Trap Card)**

When your opponent declared an attack involving a Predator Plants monster you control, banish the attacking monster, and if you do, gain LP equal to the attacking monster's original ATK, also inflict damage to your opponent equal to half of the attacking monster's original ATK. Then you can special summon 1 Predator Plants monster from your graveyard.

 **Changed effect to anime cards**

 **Wind-Calling Bell Chime (Magic Card)**

Reveal 1 Level 4 or lower "Wind Witch" monster in your hand; Special Summon 1 monster with the same name from your Deck. Then you can banish this card from your graveyard, add 1 Wind Witch monster from your deck to the hand. You can only activate this effect only once per turn.

* * *

 **So that was it, Rin was kidnapped and Yugo, Yusei, Aki and other kids are in the nightmare!**

 **There is a big change that I've made in this story, did you guys find it? If so, remember to leave it in the review section. I will explain in the next chapter. Also, please review this story so that I can find out what I did well, what I did not so that I can change those mistakes soon.**

 **As for the duel, this is the first time I've written one. Only 4 turn but took me 5 hours to write! Very exhausting! Of course, it is not good for any standard, but it is just the very first duel of the story, both Rin and Yuri did not show what their arsenal can do which I will develop. As for the fanfic original cards, if the names did appear in another story, then I will say this: I swear I did not look at their stories and copied it, I just thought of it in my mind and wrote it here. By the way, my duel writing style is different from other writers, mixing usual anime style with GX and DSOD-style into it. If you guys feel strange and unfit for the story, I will change it into normal style for the next chapter.**

 **I forgot to do this last time but**

 **Next Chapter Preview**

 **Hope Within Despair**

During the chaos, a boy unleashed horror to a certain someone. He regretted it soon, and it only intensifies when a dear friend of his has gone missing…

 **This is matrixnis, out!**


	3. Scale 3

**Welcome back everyone!**

 **I'm sure that the last chapter wasn't too much of a shocker to many considering that Yuri loved to push the plot forward (lol). Thanks to all the reviews, likes and follows you guys gave to me. They really meant a lot to a newcomer like me. Also one thing, I tend to add some drama to the story to make up for the shorter duel style I have. Hope you guys can comment about it.**

 **About the one big change I've made to this story, it is actually not much of a factor, I just did it for my own reasons. But since nobody had found it out yet, I will leave it for the next chapter, but you guys may know it just from reading this chapter. There are more major changes that I will do, just wait for that.**

 **To Gentyman, the person you wondered will obviously appear in this story, along with… you may already know (lol). You may realize the change I've made just by reading this chapter carefully. P.S: Thanks, I have fixed it.**

 **To jaden johnson, I'm glad that you liked my story. You have to wait for the duel though.**

 **To guest, don't worry. It just that I haven't find any good stories about Yugo and Rin besides City of Iliaster by Court Morningstar. Gentyman had already written a story about Yuto and Ruri which had Yuto as the protagonist. I wanted to write my own version of Yu-Gi-Oh ARC-V with the sidelines having more scenes. Yuya and Yuri will still have moments. And please don't spam "Pls update" or something similar, I can and I will update when I have time, and I will do it as soon as I can.**

 **So, let's get goi… Oh wait! Yu-Gi-Oh ARC-V is not mine, almost forgot!**

 **OK… Let's get going for real now!**

* * *

 **Chapter 3: Hope Within Despair**

Huh… huh… huh… huh…

Tired…

Pain…

Anger…

Despair…

A mix of feelings swept through him at he looked at the man in front of him. That man, however, does not even seem to have an identity to tell apart from others with that blue and white uniform and a mask covering his face. The gem on the mask helps it though, a red one, different from the yellow and green ones that the man's two fallen comrades lying behind him had. Whatever color it may be, one thing that is apparent is the smile on his face, a very creepy one which, because of the war happening right now, did not scare him anymore. That smile does its job to one person though, who was standing on his right, tiredly and scared.

A girl with long dark purple hair, shorter lilac side tails wearing a necklace, a tattered cream vest, grey pants with a red scarf on her right side and brown boots. Her beautiful face with pale skin was trembling in fear at the sight of that frightening smile. It scared her a lot, seemingly killed off her resolve to fight back. Looking at the boy on her left though helped her overcome that awful sensation as she declared the attack.

"I'll put that smile of yours off! Assembly Nightingale, direct attack!" On cue, a beautiful human-bird-like creature fired a blast at the madman, but he quickly countered.

"Trap Card, Magic Cylinder! Now take 300 damage punny girl!"

The blast returned to the girl upon hitting the trap, sending her flying backward and onto the ground. She grasped painfully.

"Ruri!" The boy exclaimed.

"I'm fine Yuto." She reassured the boy, who is one of her closest people in her life. He still seemed concerned though.

Ruri: 400 - 100 [0]

Looking at the wounded Ruri, Yuto's temper was slowly sent over the roof. He hated them. He hated the people who did this to her. He hated the very people who unceremoniously, heartlessly and cruelly turned his hometown, his beautiful, colorful hometown of Heartland into a crumbled warzone, destroying the peaceful atmosphere here to replace it into a messy wasteland, claiming the lives of many innocents in the process. The moment he thought about that, he suddenly felt something strange, something unfamiliar slowly rose up from within his body. It went through his legs, his stomach, his beating heart, seemingly freezing him, then it went through his neck and finally, his mind. He knew no more, he was lost…

"How dare you did this to her! I will… I will… I WILL MAKE YOU PAY FOR THIS!" Yuto turned around and yelled at the blue-uniformed man, who was laughing very hard at the scene but was quickly shocked at the sight of Yuto's eyes, which was no longer the usual grey, but a bright blue and white inside. The expression on his face now could only be described with one word, one sick word: Furious.

"ORE NO TURNNNN! DRRRAWWWW!" He put his left hand on his deck on his Duel Disk and loudly declared his turn, sending a black energy wave at his enemy, who barely avoided it by crouching down, while Ruri looked at Yuto worryingly as he was never this angry before.

"Rank-Up-Magic Phantom Knights Launch activate!" Dark energy surrounded Yuto's monster, a ghostly knight in a black horse. Inside the hole, the monster turned purple, flying up before crashing down the hole, an explosion occurred in the hole.

"From the pitch-black darkness. Rise up against the foolish oppression, Fang of Rebellion! Descend now! Rank-Up XYZ Change! Come forth! Rank 4! Dark Rebellion Xyz Dragon!"

A purple dragon with a sharp black fangs came out of the hole, roaring in anger. Two purple lighting orbs flew around it in an orbital path each.

Dark Rebellion Xyz Dragon DARK Dragon Xyz Effect R4 **2500** /2000

Yuto's eyes were still not normal as he said to the enemy in a harsh way, unlike every time when he was nice and polite around Ruri and others.

"For each Overlay Units it detaches, this turn it can halve a level 5 or higher opposing monster's ATK and add the lost amount to it! TREASON DISCHARE!" The two Overlay Units snapped into Dark Rebellion's outer scissors-like ornaments on each side, opening them and charging purple energy on them and the entire wings, before blasting them at the multiple-headed mechanical dark brown dog and a three-headed one, wrapping them, making them scream in pain.

Antique Gear Ultimate Bite Hound Dog DARK Machine Fusion Effect LV9 **2800** /2000 - 1400

Antique Gear Triple Bite Hound Dog DARK Machine Fusion Effect LV7 **1800** /1000 - 900

Dark Rebellion XYZ Dragon ATK **2500** \- 4800

"Also for each Overlay Units this card detaches, it gain a same number of attacks!" Yuto told the enemy. "REBELLIOUS… LIGHTNING DISOBEY!" Dark Rebellion charged at the dogs right after its master's order.

Said enemy was trembling in fear as he realized his loss was imminent. He could only scream in pain as Dark Rebellon flew over and pierced through the two dogs, costing him the duel.

Red: 4000 - 0 [2]

The duel had stopped, but Dark Rebellion still remained. It gave a big roar before smashing every buildings around with its fangs, shocking the downed man and Ruri, who was frozen in the sight of the carnage ahead whose cause was none other than Yuto's dragon. She looked at Yuto, who was still not himself with the blue grow in his eyes.

"Yuto?" She asked, but no reply came from him, only…

"BASTARD… YOU DESTROYED MY HOME… MY FAMILY… YOU HURTED MY FRIENDS… AND HER! YOU CANNOT GET AWAY WITH THIS! DIEEEEEE!" Yuto screamed at the top of his lungs. Dark Rebellion flew up before charging down the man, preparing to kill him.

"Yuto, YUTO! STOP!" Ruri called Yuto, shaking his shoulders. He struggled for a moment before breathing out heavily, his eyes returning to the normal grey. At the same time, Dark Rebellion disappeared inches in front of the scared man.

"Ru..ri… what the hell happened?" He weakly asked before seeing her. She was close to tears, fearful of what Yuto nearly did.

"We won, but you went all crazy! You nearly killed him!" Ruri answered, nearly shocked at what Yuto nearly did.

Yuto looked at the man, who was frightened at the sight of seeing his bewildered face before running away for his dear life. _"What the hell did I just do?"_ Yuto wondered, not even able to find any usual confront at the sight of the girl next to him, who is hugging him tightly…

* * *

Yuto, along with Ruri, walked back to the resistance camp. He was too bothered by the event happened during their last fight against the invaders that he couldn't even look at Ruri, who was trailing behind him with a worried look. She was deeply concerned for him, the dear person of hers, who was kind, calm, thoughtful and caring, had never acted all this crazy and psychotic before. Just a moment before, his eyes turned bright blue, he roared at the Obelisk Force member in primal rage and brutally beated him, the he proceed to order his dragon to destroy everything around, nearly killing the enemy if not for her quickly talking him back to his senses. Seeing him right now, depressed and frowned, she thought she had to do something to him. She tried to come near him and talk to him, but each time she attempted, he immediately walked away from her, not even batting an eye. Ruri realized Yuto needed time to think straight again so she decided to just walk behind him, watching out for any stupid things he might do.

Walking to the gate, Yuto showed the red Resistance scarf worn on his neck to the guards to tell him he was a Resistance member. The guards looked at it and immediately opened the gate for Yuto and Ruri to enter. Yuto walked inside, frowned, not saying a single thing, not even attempting to call to his three friends. Returning to his tent, Yuto washed his face with a towel and laid down on the makeshift bed next to him. His head, unlike his body, was still not resting, for he was wondering what happened back there. The Obelisk Force running away in fear, partially destroyed building collapsed, and most of all, his girlfriend Ruri was scared because of him. He internally cursed himself for doing that, even though he did not know anything.

"So what happened back there? You look so depressed that you did not say anything." A male voice asked him.

Yuto looked at him, a young man, same age as him, ragged purple shirt and dark blue pants. His ridiculous "tentacles" purple hair, at the moment, is not the source of fun and amusement Yuto usually had.

"I don't know, Shark. I only knew me and Ruri beated another squad of them." He replied back at him.

"Don't lie to us. Ruri already told me." Another man behind Shark told him. His long blue bangs definitely did not hide the suspicious expression he had right now.

"Shark, Shun, I do not know okay, I did not remember anything!" Yuto exclaimed, tiredly.

"You went all out, you destroyed everything around you with Dark Rebellion, you nearly killed the Obelisk Force member and yet, you said you did not remember?" Shun angrily demanded an answer from Yuto.

Shocked for a moment, he replied: "I… If what you told me is true, then so be it. I did not remember anything about what I did back there, I do not even know why I couldn't recall it, so stop prying me!"

With that, he turned away from his two friends, not saying anything. "You better say sorry for Ruri later!" Shun reminded him and the two left the tent.

After a while, Yuto sat up. He walked out of the tent then sat down besides the flames, relishing the warmth it brought to him. It helped him forget about it somewhat.

He looked at the flames, frowning. He remembered the times before, when Heartland City was still a beautiful, bright city with people living happily, smiling every day and dueling for fun only. It all changed upside down when six months ago, numerous people in red, yellow and blue robes appeared from nowhere and shot purple blades from their strage duel disks, turning many innocent people into cards. He and others had to use the very thing they love as weapons to fight back the invaders. This war has destroyed the life, the spirits and the smiles of every Heartland citizen who was still alive at the moment. Even worse is that the invaders have placed a strong barrier emitter at the center of this city that is so powerful that it produced an energy barrier across the entire Japan, blocking communication and physical interference from the outside, rendering other countries from helping this poor country.

He was brought out of his thoughts when someone hugged him from behind. He hugged the hands back, knowing whose hand it was…

"Don't think too hard on yourself Yuto." Ruri said.

"I frightened you. I should be the one to say sorry to you Ruri." Replied Yuto as he continued looking at the flames. "Besides, I couldn't control myself. I could have killed you back there…" He said, trembling.

"It wasn't your fault. You were not yourself. Your eyes were glowing blue. Most of all, you didn't hurt me." Ruri tried to give him confront, hugging him tighter, her head resting against his right shoulder. The sweet words and the confronting heat her body gave to him managed to release the tenseness around his body

"I was still responsible for this Ruri. I made you scared. I am truly sorry for that." Yuto still felt guilty for what he did to her. He then turned his head around, looking at her, his hands were holding hers, slightly but firmly.

"Whatever may happen, Ruri, I want you to know that I will never let anyone, anything harm you or take you away from me and our friends. I will never abandon you. I promise with all my heart." Yuto promised to Ruri, his girlfriend, who nodded at him in agreement. They looked at each other's eyes for a moment. She then moved her face closer to him and gave him a kiss to ease him of his doubt, who quickly returned, touching her face with his hand, deepening it.

After they broke the kiss for air, he once again promised to Ruri, eyes still closed "I'll always be there for you." Ruri said back with closed eyes "OK…"

After that, she gave him another kiss to his forehand and stood up, walking away. Yuto looked at her, feeling better after their makeout.

* * *

After saying sorry to Ruri, Yuto returned to his tent and slept. The kiss really helped him forget the awful things. He briefly wondered how much pleasure he could find in that simple but beautiful thing God offered to every human being. He internally laughed when he thought he could do it every day to relieve the stress caused by the war without caring how Ruri and Shun would react…

"Arrghhh!" Yuto suddenly held his head in pain as painful images appeared in his head, along a voice.

"Yuugou… Yuugou… here…"

"Ru… ri… danger" another voice whispered in his hand, lighter in tone.

The pain stopped, but in its place was an immeasurable worry.

"Ruri!" Yuto instantly thought about her, worrying over what may happen if he does not do something now.

Yuto immediately stood up from his bed, ran out, putting his purple, military-style Duel Disk on his right hand and went to Ruri's tent, only to find it was empty. His worry increased.

"What's wrong Yuto, didn't you say sorry to her yet?" Yuto looked back to find Shun and Shark asking him.

"I don't know what happened, but Ruri is in danger! She may be out of the camp right now, we need to quickly find her!" Yuto explained in hurry.

"What?" They became shocked. "…okay, let's go."

With that, they ran to the gate, preparing to get out of the camp and search for their dear comrade. Each preyed that Ruri would be okay.

Somewhere else, a young man with orange hair is looking down at the scene, sadly thinking about how screwed they will become, and himself too…

"It's sad that things had to go this way. I really wanted not to do this, but orders are orders…" He thought "Anyway, take her quick…"

"Yuri…"

* * *

 **Changed effect to already existing card**

 **Dark Rebellion XYZ Dragon**

DARK Dragon XYZ Effect R4 2500/2000

You can detach 1 Overlay Unit from this card, then target 1 Level 5 or higher monster your opponent controls; its ATK becomes half its current ATK, and if it does, this card gains that lost ATK; also it can attack an additional of times equal to the number of Overlay Units it detached this turn. These changes last until the End Phase.

* * *

 **Surprise! The one and only two-faced bastard appeared! He will have an impact on a certain someone later. And you're right! Another girl will bite the dust now…**

 **I was surprised at how quickly I was able to roughly write this chapter, half the time I took for chapter 1. I guess it is because Yuto actually had enough backstory to easily develop from, unlike Yugo who I had to create a situation by myself. Either way, I was happy when I typed this! A non-duel chapter (mostly) is really hard to write this long, but it is really too short compared to many other stories. And as I said during the last chapter, there will be more intimate scenes between the boys and girls, and the kissing scene above is an example.**

 **Like Imagine97, I gave Dark Rebellion Xyz Dragon an additional effect. I think that because this is one of the first cards introduced in the anime, the creators do not think too much about how to make it more powerful, it is one of the Four Dimension Dragons after all. Which is why Clear Wing and Starve Venom are much more powerful than the other 2.**

 **And now the usual Next Chapter Preview:**

 **The Fallen Nightingale**

Chased by a man, Ruri bravely fights back. As the duel rages on, she was shocked to find out a secret about him, and something strange happens…?

 **This is matrixnis, out!**


	4. Scale 4

**Welcome back everyone!**

 **Thanks all of you for the reviews you guys have given me so far, it really motivated me during these days.**

 **So now the fated duel between Ruri and Yuri will happen, who will WIN? (Lol, but take notice of this, you guys will understand later).**

 **I decided to leave my reply section at the end of the chapter because of the reveal of the one big change that I've been hiding, waiting for you guys to find it out. But I will warn you that, it may not be surprising at all (lol).**

 **Anyway, let's go!**

* * *

 **Chapter 4: The Fallen Nightingale**

Ruri searched the rubble outside the camp walls, looking for a bucket to store water. She attempted to find one back there but upon realizing that there is no more to spare, she persuaded the guards and her friend Kamishiro Rio who was standing at the gates to allow her to come out alone, on the condition that she must only searches around the camp, must wear her Duel Disk on her left arm and put on the emergency button, in case the enemy suddenly attacks. As she attempted to find something usable as a bucket, she recalled the good times before the war. How amazing Heartland City used to be, how cheerful the residents were, how grateful she was to make friends from the rival duel school, the Clover Branch, namely Tenjō Kaito, Kōzuki Allen, Kamishiro Ryoga and Rio. Through Rio, she learned the owner of that rival school was Sakaki Yūshō, a well-known duelist with the Entertainment Duel style at brought smiles to countless citizens and also took his advice of dueling: "Always smile even at the worst of times." She heard that a person even got inspired by him and learned his duel style too. It was beautiful, and peaceful, until those people destroyed it all…

What remained after the war, right here, right now, is just a colossal wasteland. A creepy grey color of destroyed buildings, the smokes, the sky and even the once greeny ground brings terror, fear and sadness to everyone. Everyone is either broken, or carded, no one could smile anymore. Even her parents and Yuto's suffered the same fate, in cold, lifeless cards that hurted Ruri the most because the back of those cards is the same as the cards everyone has, but the front is replaced with the scared, pleading faces of people. It is like the very thing that is integral to everyone's joyness is now the source of despair. It brought Ruri to tears everytime she thought about it, but she has to remain strong, she has to retain her smile that makes Shun and Yuto warm from the inside, she has to… to keep hope to everyone… and herself…

After finding an old, tainted but usable blue bucket, Ruri turned around and began to walk back when suddenly someone slowly walked out of the abandoned building nearby. Appearing in front of her was a cloaked figure. Male, young but dangerous as the slasher smile on his face indicated.

Fearful for her own life, she quickly ran away from him, a sensation creeping her pale skin, increasing in urgency. The boy chased after her. She kept running until she met a dead end.

Ruri turned back to the enemy and without another word, she raised her Duel Disk, a blue blade shot out from the front. She then took a look at the chaser's face which was partially hidden by the cloak, but from what she saw, especially the lower lines on his face, she realized it was pretty similar to Yuto's. She thought he was Yuto for a moment, but she knew Yuto, her boyfriend, would never do this creepy stalking like this. She decided to keep it for herself.

The boy chuckled at her actions "Resisting already? I appreciate the bravery and boldness a girl like you just showed! With this, the hunting game is much more fun now!"

Hunting game, an already uneasy word describing the practice of killing and trapping of animals in wild life, which not many people in Heartland even attempted to do, is now used in a more horrified way: hunting the people living here and carding them. Even though no blood is bled, they are practically dead anyway, and there would be no way to change them back to what they used to be. That word disgusted Ruri and everyone all over Heartland.

"I will not let any of you card any of our comrades anymore!" Ruri defiantly said to the cloaked figure.

"Come on, I'm not here to card you lady, I wish I could. But I got an order to capture you alive." The man nonchalantly told her.

" _He's not gonna card me but capture me? Why?"_ Ruri thought worriedly, before saying "What the hell are the people of yours going to do with me?"

"Don't know, don't care, but orders are orders. And looking at you, we are going to do this the hard way…"

"Of course, and I will beat you Academia soldier!"

"Very well… this game will be interesting." The figure concluded with a sinister smile before raising his right up and across him, an Academia Duel Disk appeared under the cloak, shooting out the Duel Blade. Realizing he was left-handed, the suspicion before arose within her again, but she shrugged it off, for there is one much more important thing to handle now: Duel of Die.

 **DUEL!**

Ruri: 4000 [5]

Unknown: 4000 [5]

* * *

Back at the Resistance camp, Yuto asked the guards: "Where is Ruri now?"

One of them answered: "She is outside alone looking for a bucket of water."

Shun immediately got worried: "What the hell? You two let my younger sister go out there alone?"

"Open the gate! We are going to find her, she may be in danger!" Shark demanded.

The guards hesitated for a moment before complying their wishes, opening the gate.

"What's going on Ryoga? Are you looking for Ru…" A girl ran from behind, asking the purple-haired teenager.

"Ruri is out there and she could be in danger, we're gonna find her! Rio, you stay here watch out for everyone!" Shark, or Ryoga, replied to her quickly.

"What? She's in danger?"

The three boys nodded their heads in agreement.

"…OK, please get her back, we don't have many members left!" Rio got shocked for a moment before regaining composure, a serious face appeared, hiding the guilt that she had left her friend alone.

* * *

"Predator took the lead today! Boku no turn! Lonefire Blossom summon!" A blossom appeared on the field.

Lonefire Blossom FIRE Plant Effect LV3 **500** /1400

"Then I'll release it to special summon another one from the deck, and repeat this one more time." With this, he got a third card on the field and two Blossoms in the graveyard.

"This time I'll summon Predator Plants - Ophrys Scorpio." A plant-predator hybrid appeared.

Predator Plants - Ophrys Scorpio DARK Plant Effect LV3 **1200** /800

"Using its effect, by sending Drosophyllum Hydra from my hand to the grave, I can special summon Darling Cobra form my deck."

Predator Plants - Darling Cobra DARK Plant Effect LV3 **1000** /1500

"Cobra allows me to add a "Fusion" card from my deck to the hand." The man added Fusion to his hand and gave a smile at the sight of Ruri, who was seething in fear and anger.

"That face, that frightened face, I like it a lot!" He mocked before sliding Fusion into the disk, activating it.

"Yuugō Shōkan! Level 7! Predator Plants - Chimerafflesia!" The dreadful fusion monster showed up.

Predator Plants – Chimerafflesia DARK Fusion Effect LV7 **2500** /2000

"I'll end my turn with these 2 face-downs." Yuri concluded his turn.

Seeing the fusion monster, the anger within Ruri rose up again, hating every mention of that word. But she quietly and calmly returned her composure. Luckily she can do this much better than his brother Shun.

"Watashi no turn, draw!" Ruri started her turn.

" _Calm down, I need to beat him quickly! With these cards on my hand I can do it!"_ "I summon Lyrical Luscinia – Cobalt Sparrow and special summon Shappire Sparrow and another Cobalt Sparrow!" On cue, three small humanoid birds appeared, two browns, one blue. XYZ users love to swarm monster with the same level to overlay them, summoning their ace monster, so these special summons are not a surprise to everyone.

2x Lyrical Luscinina – Cobalt Sparrow WIND Winged Beast Effect LV1 **0** /100

Lyrical Luscinina – Sapphire Sparrow WIND Winged Beast Effect LV1 **100** /0

"By Cobalt Sparrow's effect, I can add Lyrical Luscinia – Ruby Canary into my hand. And I will special summon another Shappire Sparrow and this card!"

Lyrical Luscinia – Ruby Canary WIND Winged Beast Effect LV1 **0** /0

"Canary allows me to draw one card for every 2 LV1 monsters on my field!" Ruri drew 2 cards in a quick motion and smiled at the sight of the cards she just drawn. The man looked on with caution.

"I set 3 cards and now I use these 5 monsters to construct the overlay network!" The monsters on her field turns into green, flying up to the sky before going through the black portal appearing at the sky.

Ruri chanted "Birds with beautiful wings! Gather on the battlefield and take brilliant flight! Xyz Shōkan! Dance in the sky! Rank 1! Lyrical Luscinia - Assembly Nightingale!" Another humanoid bird appear, her face showed more maturity compared to the last 5 monsters she just summoned before.

Lyrical Luscinia – Assembly Nightingale WIND Winged Beast Effect LV1 **500** /0

"Only 500? What a weak and pathetic monster! Hahahaha!" The man mocked her in the high-pitched voice…

"Uh huh." Ruri mocked back. "It can attack you directly 5 times because it has 5 overlay units!"

"WHAT?" The man was totally shocked, surprised at this monster's ability.

"And then Continuous Trap, Lyrical Luscinia – Sharp Wings! It can be activated during the turn it was set if I control a Lyrical Luscinia XYZ monster! Each time a Lyrical Luscinia XYZ monster deals battle damage to you, it inflicts an additional 100 damage! Assembly Nightingale, direct attack that bastard 5 times!" Ruri shouted. The humanoid bird fire energy waves from its mouth, blasting the enemy five times, making him scream in pain and fell backward after the fifth attack.

Yuri: 4000 - 1000 [1]

Watching that madman falling down on the ground covered in smoke, she breathed out of relief but was shocked when a small green parasitic predator flew past her, biting the wings of her monster, making it scream in pain.

"What happended?" Ruri wondered.

"Trap activate: Predator Reinforcements! After you have attacked the fifth time, I can special summon Predator Plants - Spino Dionaea from my deck and when it is summoned, it can place a Predator Counter on your monster." He explained to her while still lying down, slightly annoyed that in the shock of her monster, he forgot to activate it after she finished her fourth attack.

Predator Plants - Spino Dionaea DARK Plant Effect LV4 **1800** /0

"You're lucky that your main deck monsters are all level 1, since Predator Counters reduce their levels to 1 if they are 2 or higher, but in truth there's more to it than just reducing level." He warned Ruri, his slasher smile returned.

"Suit yourself, I have preparations for that. Turn end." Ruri concluded her turn, but was shocked when the man got up. His hood was down after the blasts and she could clearly see the face of her enemy. It was exactly the same as Yuto's, only his purple hair distinguished him from her boyfriend.

"Who are you? Why do you look like him?" Ruri couldn't hide her curiosity.

"I am not like the one that you know. Geez, one girl complaining is enough, now another one? My name is Yuri, not your friend. And by the way, you do look like someone else." Yuri explained, revealing a bit.

"I am as well? Who?" Ruri asked.

"Doesn't matter. That's none of your business. _That bitch Selena…_ " Yuri felt uneasy at the thought of that "special someone", a sickening remembrance of his old days.

"Let's return to this hunting game! Boku no turn!" Yuri declared his turn.

"Drosophyllum Hydra's graveyard effect activate! I can special summon this card back by tributing your monster since it has a Predator Counter!" Yuri prepared to bring back his monster but nothing happened. He looked at Ruri to find a trap shining in white light, signifying it's activation.

"Sorry but this trap Lyrical Luscinia – Power Integration equips itself to Assembly, allowing her to stay here once when you want to kick her off the field and increases her ATK by 500, at the cost of only able to attack once!" Ruri explained.

Lyrical Luscinia – Assembly Nightingale ATK 500 - 1000

Yuri just smirked "Well then I can use it to banish Darling Cobra to take the ATK of your monster away!" A red blast shot out from Yuri's graveyard slot at Ruri's monster, weakening it.

Lyrical Luscinia – Assembly Nightingale ATK 1000 - 500

Ruri can only muttered a single dammit at this scene.

"Battle! Chimerafflesia, attack Assembly Nightingale! Chimera Devouring! And hear this! While it attacks, your monster loses 1000 ATK while my monster gains 1000 ATK!"

"Power Intergration halves the battle damage!" Ruri covered herself with her duel disk as her monster was destroyed.

Ruri: 4000 - 2250 [0]

"Trap activate! Lyrical Luscinia – Rebirth! It allows me to special summon 2 LV1 Lyrical Luscinia monsters from my graveyard with their effects negated! Return, my 2 Cobalt Sparrows! Also your Battle Phase ends!" On cue, the two Cobalt Sparrows returned to the field.

"My turn ends here. Come get me pretty!"

"Wait there asshole. Watashi no turn, draw!" Ruri looked at the card, her chance of victory is right there!

"I summon Lyrical Luscinia – Amber Warbler!" A new humanoid female bird materialized.

Lyrical Luscinia – Amber Warbler WIND Winged Beast Effect LV1 **100** /0

"I would have ended the duel right here with her burn effect but Power Intergration prevented me from doing so, but whatever! I will still end you!" Ruri declared her resolve, immediately after that, her 3 LV1 monsters flew into the overlay network again.

"XYZ Shōkan! Fly up high! Rank 1! Lyrical Luscinia – Recite Starling!" Ruri's another XYZ monster flew out, a darker, blue humanoid bird with dark blue wings. It arched its wings backward before pointing outward with a strong force, causing a gust of wind to fly past Yuri, but he was unsurprised.

Lyrical Luscinia – Recite Starling WIND Winged Beast XYZ Effect R1 **900** /900

"You powered up her with her own effect again?" Yuri asked with an annoyed face.

"Right. It can target 1 monster and have it gain 300 ATK and DEF for each overlay units it has! And now I will attack your Chimerafflesia with Recite Starling!"

"Hummh? Why are you committing suicide? You wanted to go with me willingly?"

"A mutual hurt is more appropriate! Any battle damage I take is also inflicted to you asshole! I did know that your monster can reduce Recite's ATK and increase its own, but I can simply banish Rebirth to halve all battle damage and negating my monster's destruction this turn!" Ruri explained with a triumphed smile. Her monster charged at Yuri's, preparing to make a phyrric victory. Recite Starling hit Chimerafflesia, exploding herself due to having weaker ATK. The resulting blast went to both Ruri and Yuri, sending both of them flying.

Ruri: 2250 - 500 [0]

"Now you lose!" Ruri got up, pained but smiling at her victory but was surprised to hear a smile suddenly sounded up from the side of Yuri. He got up, damaged but still standing.

Yuri: 1000 – 900 [2]

"To make me go this far… you good bitch! Look at your field!" Yuri told her.

Ruri looked back, surprised as Recite Starling was disappeared.

"…How?" Ruri wondered fearfully. Yuri answered by holding up 2 cards, Predator Reinforcements and Ophrys Scorpio "By banishing this trap from my graveyard, I negate that battle's battle damage to me and place a predator counter on your Starling. And I have activated the Trap here! Counter Infection! It will banish all of your monsters on the field by banishing the same number of Predator Plants monsters in my graveyard."

Ruri cursed himself, before declaring in bitter "Turn end…"

"Well, thank you for providing me a very entertaining hunt. I have never come close to defeat and have never actually scared like this, but it pumped me up! Yes, this is real life, thank you once again for that!" Yuri happily told her with once again a slasher smile. Ruri this time is truly disgusted at his behavior, as if he was really a psychopath.

"Boku no TURN!" Yuri drew his card. He suddenly felt something strange, coming from his dragon. He realized it wanted to be summoned even though it is unnecessary. However, he complied its wish.

* * *

"Urggh!" Yuto suddenly felt a burning heat and a roar, a loud roar, ringing in his head. He did not know what that was. He stopped, grasping his chest in pain.

"What's wrong, Yuto? Are you hurt?" Shun asked when he noticed Yuto had trailed off behind him and ran back.

"I… uh… I'm fine now…" He said between breaths, lying his condition right now to his two friend, who, to his luck, did not notice.

"Well, if you're good, let's go! We need to find Ruri!" Shark told Yuto, grabbing his hand to help him get up.

"Wait… I think… I know where she is! Follow me!" Yuto told them, running immediately, guided by a certain feeling. Although not knowing why he was acting like that, they followed his lead.

* * *

"Magic Card, Dragon's Mirror! By banishing Chimerafflesia and Spino Dionaea I can fusion summon this awesome monster!"

"Two beautiful plants with an insect-alluring fragrance. Now become one, and from a hell under your petals, give birth to another dreadful terror! Yuugō Shōkan! Appear, poisonous dragon with hungering fangs! Level 8! - Starve Venom Fusion Dragon!"

Yuri's venomous dragon rose out of the fusion spiral, roaring loudly at Ruri, sending shivers to her. Ruri looked at the dragon in total fear, feeling the malicious intent on its eyes, wanting to burn everything around it.

Starve Venom Fusion Dragon DARK Dragon Fusion Effect **2800** /2000

That fearful expression, the one Yuri see in his opponent, is the one he always like, for the feeling of supremacy arose within him every time.

"This is the end for you! Starve Venom Fusion Dragon, direct attack!"

"Trap activate, Divine Wind Barrier - Air Force!" Ruri defiantly declared, but…

"Counter Trap, Magic Jammer! It negates your trap's activation and destroys it!" Yuri told her, sending Predator Plants - Easter Lily Lizard to the graveyard. Starve Venom guided its tail and slapped Ruri on the side, deeply hurting her. Blood came out of the hitting spot on her right waist. The necklace she wore was cut off by the very strong ground impact.

Ruri: 1000 - 0 [0]

Ruri looked at the approaching Yuri weakly, feeling her consciousness begin to fade.

"All right, let's take you to the Professor." Yuri told her, smiling creppily.

" _Dammit, is this… my last moment?"_ Ruri thought sadly, remembering about the good times in here with everyone, her friend, Rio, Ryoga, her brother Shun, and Yuto…

" _Yuto… I'm sorry…"_ that was her last thought until…

"Woah! What the…" Ruri's bracelet suddenly grew and the next thing he knew, Yuri was gone, nowhere to be seen.

" _What the… what happen…"_ Ruri thought before giving in to the coldness that creeped her and passed out.

Moments later, her bracelet suddenly grew in blue, enveloping her body before turning Ruri into blue particles and disappeared, nowhere to be seen…

* * *

Yuto, Shun and Shark run into the closed corner where Ruri was before, hearing the scream of a girl they dearly loved. They grasped when they found the necklace, one with a blue gem that Ruri's mother bought to her on her 15th birthday.

"This is Ruri's necklace!" Shark picked up the necklace, confirming.

"Which means she was here!" Shun concluded.

"But where is she? And why she left it here?" Yuto wondered.

"Is she carded?" Shun asked in worry.

"If so, then there would not be this necklace, which means…" Shark answered. "She was kidnapped… for some reason…"

"No… no… it can't be…" Shun broke… "NOOOOOO!" He screamed at the sky.

Both Shark and Yuto could only looked away in sadness. Inside, Yuto was losing, losing himself. The dearest friend of him, the light to his darkness, his girlfriend, was gone… A single tear dropped from the corner of his left eye. Even that does not erase the endless pain coming from his very beating heart. It felt like his heart was being hit by a hammer, shattering it into pieces, destroying every fiber of him and his very reason to exist…

"Ruri… Ruri… Ru…" He whispered, his voice trembling in every word.

"I found you grinning bastard! You will not getting away with taking Rin away from me!" A young man in a white form-fitting suit growled on the top of a building on the right. The three broken men looked up. Yuto cleaned his tear with his left hand and looked at him, angrily.

"Are you from Academia? Fusion scum?" Yuto asked. He had heard about a member from Academia posing as a spy from Eisuke, Kaito's father, Heartland's lead programmer. He once managed to hack into Academia's base in Heartland and found out about this certain spy, and the very world itself he lived, is just one of the 4 dimensions in this whole multiverse. Despite its ridiculousness, it was confirmed to be true when he and Shun interrogated an Orisis Red soldier. Which mean the guy he is seeing right now would probably be the spy. Yuto looked at him with pure disgust. This guy probably had convinced one of his friends to betray the Resistance, to kill his own people for Academia's profit. Just thinking about it made him want to vomit all out.

"Huh? Academia? Fusion scum? You told me Fusion? Yuugō jya nee! Yuugo da, teme!" The man, now named Yugo, replied harshly.

"You destroyed my home, you took away my dearest comrade from me! I will never forgive you for that!" Yuto told him, bitterly and angrily.

"I didn't do anything about this place! Besides are you trying to hide that you took my girl away from me?" Yugo snapped back, not caring about the word he described Rin despite having a small blush now. "I will kill you for that, dog!" With that he turned on his rounded Duel Disk on his D-Wheel, Yuto swang his right hand, activating his own. Yugo roared the engine and drove down, facing Yuto with pure hatred on his eyes. Yuto also looked at him with the same expression.

 **DUEL!**

* * *

 **Fanfic OC ca** **rds:**

 **Lyrical Luscinia – Ruby Canary WIND Winged Beast Effect LV1 0/0**

When this card is Special Summoned from the hand, you can draw 1 card for every 2 level 1 monsters you control.

 **Lyrical Luscinia – Amber Warbler WIND Winged Beast Effect LV1 100/0**

When this card is Summoned or Special Summoned, you can inflict 200 damage to your opponent for every Lyrical Luscinia monsters in your graveyard.

 **Lyrical Luscinia – Sharp Wings (Continuous Trap Card)**

If you control a Lyrical Luscinia XYZ monster, you can activate this card during the turn it was set. Each time a Lyrical Luscinia XYZ monster inflicts battle damage, inflict an additional 100 damage to your opponent.

 **Lyrical Luscinia – Rebirth (Trap Card)**

When a Lyrical Luscinia XYZ monster you control is destroyed, special summon 2 LV1 Lyrical Luscinia from your graveyard in Defense Position, but they have their effects negated, also every Lyrical Luscinia monsters in your hand have their effects negated until the end of your next turn, even when they move to a different place. If this card is activated during your opponent's Battle Phase, end the Battle Phase. You can banish this card from your graveyard, halve all battle damage this turn, also monsters you control cannot be destroyed this turn.

 **Lyrical Luscinia – Power Integration (Continuous Trap Card)**

Target 1 Lyrical Luscinia XYZ monster, equip it with this card. It cannot leave the field once per turn, it gains 500 ATK but it can only attack once per battle phase. When the equipped monster leaves the field, destroy this card.

 **Predator Reinforcements (Trap Card)**

This turn, if you take battle damage, you can special summon 1 Predator Plants monster from your deck. You can banish this card from your graveyard, you take no battle damage this turn.

 **Counter Infection (Trap Card)**

Banish up to 5 Predator Plants monsters from your graveyard, then target that many of your opponent's monster, banish them. If this card's activation is negated, take damage equal to half of the total ATK of all your banished Predator Plants monsters.

* * *

 **Well, that's what had happened, and a customary duel is on the way.**

 **Alright, now for the reveal: All the Dragons Boys are left-handed! Yes, all of them.**

 **The main reason I made it is, firstly, the sinister clue, an old plot device in every films since they existed. Because Zarc, their original incarnation, is the big bad, to me it would be more appropriate to follow the old ways and make him a left-hander, also for the 4 boys. And secondly, I am left-handed myself (lol).**

 **I decided to take Rin off but keep Ruri on the game because, firstly, I wanna spare Yuto, Shun and Shark from their already horrible war life, they deserved peace in their minds after 6 months of unrest horror; and secondly, since I will focus more on Yugo and the changes I have made for him, there will be more things to develop from that. But don't worry, the others will have focus as well.**

 **To guest, yes, I will do it. Yuto, Yugo and Yuri all did not have any important flashbacks about their childhood, with not even a single mention about their parents.**

 **To And then the sky, thank you. I'm glad you liked my story, I will do more in the future.**

 **To jaden johnson, I actually did not realize it until I post the 2** **nd** **chapter, but I found out I could do it to my advantage in that Yuri is a really competent hunter, capturing Rin and immediately go after Ruri in a short amount of time. Well, he failed (lol).**

 **To Gentyman, there is it, the reveal. You got shocked, no?**

 **Next chapter preview**

 **Misunderstanding: The Fight Between The Losts**

Thinking Yuto is Yuri and Yuri is Yugo, the two boys in opposite outfits engages in a heated duel, each trying to duke it out at maximum capacity. After that, another strange thing happens…? And wait, another one…?

 **So did you like this chapter or not? Whatever they are, leave it in the comment section below!**

 **This is matrixnis, out!**


	5. Scale 5

**Welcome back everyone, duel time is up! I hope it will be entertaining enough, considering this is maybe the only time they will duel.**

 **Finally I got back to school, which means I cannot update this story as frequently as before. School really sucks. Anyway, I want to say thank you to all of you guys out there who had read, reviewed, loved and followed my story, your appreciation has given me a lot of motivation to write new chapters, and the burning desire to write this story would not have been this strong if not for all of you. And don't worry, I will update this story as soon as I can.**

 **And now, let's get started!**

* * *

 **Chapter 5: Misunderstanding: The Clash Between The Losts**

"Stand down Yuto! We can deal with them!" Shun and Shark told Yuto, who responded by waving his hand behind.

"No need! I can and I must take on him alone!"

As reckless as he was right now by charging right at the 'kidnapper' of his closet friend, Yugo did not fail to notice that the other 2 teammates of his could prove themselves to be a threat to him. He instantly knew he needed to kick them out of the way in order to focus completely on the bastard doppelganger of his. As they prepared to activate their Duel Disks, Yugo suddenly changed direction by steering his D-Wheel, hitting them by the back wheel, knocking them backwards. They hit the wall behind, sliding down, holding their stomaches in pain, shocked by the sudden turn of events.

Yuto was shocked by his calculating move, hurting his comrades and forcing him to face off that motorcycle duelist alone. He looked back at his friends, blaming himself for not being able to predict this situation. First he lost Ruri and now he was involved in another fight to the death, all by himself due to his own stupidity. But he had no time to contemplate such as that asshole harshly said "I take the first turn! Ore no turn!" Yuto immediately drew 5 cards from his Duel Disk and put them in his right hand in a quick, fluid motion, then he took a fighting stance, ready for anything that enemy might throw at. And indeed, he had to… roll away from him as he attempted to run over his body. Yuto took notes to himself that he must be really careful right now and stood back on his feet.

"When I control no monsters, Speedroid Beigomax can be special summoned!" Yugo slapped a card, a lot of orange beigomas appeared from the ground.

Speedroid Beigomax WIND Machine Effect LV3 **1200** /600

" _He used toys as his weapon to kidnap Ruri?"_ Yuto thought in his mind.

"Then I can special summon Speedroid Taketonborg that I just added into my hand!"

Speedroid Taketonborg WIND Machine Effect LV3 **600** /1200

"Then I can special summon Speedroid Tri-Eyed Dice by tributing Takentonborg!" A pyramid-like toy appeared.

Speedroid Tri-Eyed Dice WIND Machine Tuner Effect LV3 **300** /1500

"Two level 3 monster. A Fusion Summon or a… XYZ Summon?" Yuto wondered, fearful for the last part, afraid that another person of the Resistance had probably turned on his comrades. Yugo spun his D-Wheel around before proceeding:

"I tune the level 3 Tri-Eyed Dice and level 3 Takentonborg!" Yugo declared, shocking Yuto, who was expecting something else. Tri-Eyed Dice turned into three green rectangular rings, Takentonborg flew in between them. It then disappeared, leaving only the yellow line covering its body and 3 stars, which aligned themselves horizontally at the center of the rings, before a blue streak of light shone up.

"Magical sword with the form of a cross. Use your power to rend all enemies! Synchro Shōkan! Appear now! Level 6! High-Speedroid Maken Dama!" A kendama with a sharp front and oddly, 4 hammers appeared from the light.

High-Speedroid Maken Dama WIND Machine Synchro Effect LV6 **2200** /1600

Shark, Shun and Yuto was shocked, never seen this kind of special summoning before.

"What the hell is this?", "What the hell is a Synchro Summon?"

"You don't know? Whatever…" Yugo said, bewildered by their lack of knowledge of Synchro Summon. _"Probably those kidnappers are stupid enough not to know…"_ Yugo thought "This is a Synchro Summon. Using a tuner and a non-tuner monster, I can special summon a Synchro Monster from the Extra Deck with the level equal to the levels of the monsters used to Synchro Summon it!"

"So the tuner monster you used was Speedroid Tri-Eyed Dice?" Yuto speculated, seeing it turned into the three green rings first.

"Yes, and now by banishing Taketonborg, I can deal 500 damage to you!" Maken Dama turned to Yuto before firing a blue blast at him, who covered it by the front of his Duel Disk.

Yuto: 4000 – 3500 [5]

"2 cards facedown, turn end! Now, come at me you grinning bastard!" Yugo concluded his turn.

Yuto retorted "I did not do anything to you, you did! Ore no turn, draw!" He drew his card and looked at his hand. "Phantom Knights Rugged Glove summon!" Yuto put his monster into the blade, a ghostly creature with large hands wearing gloves showed up.

Phantom Knights Rugged Glove DARK Warrior Effect LV3 **1000** /500

"And Phantom Knights Silent Boots special summon!" Another ghostly monster appeared.

Phantom Knights Silent Boots DARK Warrior Effect LV3 **200** /1200

" _A level 6 Synchro Summon?"_ Yugo wondered but…

"I, using the level 3 Phantom Knights Rugged Glove and Phantom Knights Silent Boots, overlay!" The two monsters turned purple before flying into the vortex appeared on the ground, shocking Yugo. "What the hell is this?" Yugo said.

"Soul of the Knights who fall on the battlefield. Now revive, become the light that rend the darknss! Xyz Shōkan! Come forth! Rank 3! Phantom Knights Break Sword!" The vortex shot up a bright blue pillar of light, then Yuto's iconic ghostly monster rode out of the pilar, nickering. A black knight wielding a big sword sitting on top of it.

Phantom Knights Break Sworld DARK Warrior XYZ Effect **2000** /1000

"An XYZ Summon? Just who are you, and where do you come from?" Yugo couldn't help but asked Yuto.

"I wondered about it just as much as you! Battle!" Yuto countered, running, raising his left hand at Break Sword, ordering it to attack. "Break Sword, attack Maken Dama!"

"It only has 2000 ATK, you crazy?"

"No…"

Phantom Knights Break Sword ATK 2000 – 3000

"It gained an 1000 ATK boost from Rugged Glove by using it to summon this monster!" Yuto explained. Break Sword slashed its weapon against the toy, cutting it in two, making it explode. Yugo covered himself a bit.

Yugo: 4000 – 3200 [2]

"I end my turn by activating Phantom Death Spear and these 2 set cards!" Yuto set down 2 cards and activated a Continuous Magic Card which had an image of a black spear with some with ghosts.

"I see… this is why you could capture her so easily!" Yugo 'realized'

"I said it before and I will say it again, I did not kidnap your friend! You did it to me! Stop barking at the wrong tree asshole!" Yuto angrily retorted.

"As if I would belive you, you deceiving liar! Ore no turn, draw!" He drew a card and drove past Yuto. They exchanged hateful looks.

" _So that is an Xyz Monster. It had Rank instead of Level, so maybe Level-affecting effects will not work on it. I need to be careful!"_

"Reverse Card open! Speed Recovery! I add Beigomax back to my hand and special summon it again since I control no monsters!" He took Beigomax which was open in the graveyard slot back to his hand and special summon it again. Yuto was surprised at this similar tactic of his, setting normal Magic Card down. Rarely does anyone set normal Magic Cards down due to being unable to response to an effect.

"Surprised, are you? And then the Tuner monster, Speedroid Red-eyed Dice!" A six-sided dice appeared.

Speedroid Red-Eyed Dice WIND Machine Tuner Effect LV1 **100** /100

"Tuner monster? Again? A level 4 Synchro monster?" Yuto told Yugo.

"No, level 5. I can use its effect to change Beigomax to level 4!"

Speedroid Beigomax LV3 – 4

"I tune the level 1 Red-Eyed Dice and level 4 Beigomax!"

"Synchro Shōkan! Feel the pulse of this swordsman's soul! Come forth Level 5! High-Speedroid Chanbarider!" Yugo's another Synchro Monster, a sword-like monster with another, more literal one riding at the back of the blade appeared.

High-Speedroid Chanbarider WIND Machine Synchro Effect LV5 **2000** /1000

"Magic Card, Speed Recovery activate! I special summon Maken Dama back!"

"And now Quick-Play Magic, Limiter Removal, activate! It doubles the ATK of all Machine-Type monsters on the field!" Yugo said to Yuto who was shocked by this large ATK gain but he quickly countered "By sending Phantom Knights Rusty Saber from my hand to my graveyard, I can increase the ATK and DEF of Break Sword by the same amount that 1 of your monsters just did! I chose Maken Dama! This card's effect can be activated in response of a Quick-Play Magic, but I have to banish it instead!" Yugo gritted his teeth, losing the chance to OTK this son of a bitch.

Maken Dama ATK 2200 – 4400

Chanbarider ATK 2000 – 4000

Break Sword ATK 3000 – 5200

"If so, reverse card, Hidden Shot activate! By banishing Beigomax, I can destroy Break Sword!" The D-Wheel shot a yellow burst at Break Sword, destroying the horse. At the same time, a spear appeared from Yuto's magic card, flying at Yugo and hit him in the jacket. Yugo felt lucky himself, he would not dare to target his monsters for effect again.

Yugo: 3200 – 2700 [0]

Yuto immediately acted "When Break Sword is destroyed, I can special summon its XYZ materials back and they become level 4!" Two of Yuto's main deck monster returned in defense position, their levels increasing by 1.

Rugged Glove LV3 – 4

Silent Boots LV3 – 4

Yugo thought _"If I attack Rugged Glove with Maken Dama, he will lose due to its effect! Yes!"_ Smiling, he declared battle. "Battle! Maken Dama, attack Rugged Glove! And there will be no next turn for you! You will take 3900 piercing battle damage!"

"What?" Yuto was surprised at Maken Dama's effect.

"Yeah, pay for capturing Rin you bastard!" Yugo grinned at his supposed victory, but was stopped when a black hole appeared and absorbed the attack.

"What happened?" Yugo was shocked to see the reason why.

"Counter Trap, Attack Nullification! It negates your attack and ends your Battle Phase!" Yuto explained, sighed in relief. Yugo angrily ended his turn. His two machine monsters destroyed themselves due to Limiter Removal.

"Ore no turn, draw!" Yuto drew his card, but was suddenly stopped by a burning sensation on his chest. Unknown to him, Yugo was having the same strange phenomenon. Yuto heard the roar of his dragon. It wanted to be called out.

"Dark Rebellion… you wanna… be called?" Yuto wondered. This never happened to him before, but he complied its wish, for it could be effective in this fight.

"I, using the 2 level 4 Rugged Glove and Silent Boots, overlay!"

"From the pitch-black darkness. Rise up against the foolish oppression, Fang of Rebellion! Descend now! XYZ Shōkan! Come forth! Rank 4! Dark Rebellion Xyz Dragon!" Yuto's iconic dragon appeared. The moment it came out, however, the burning become hotter. Both Yugo and Yuto gripped their chests in pain. They both sweated heavily, feeling something creeping them from the inside. Forgetting it for now, Yuto looked at Yuto and declared his attack!

"Dark Rebellion XYZ Dragon! Direct attack!" Dark Rebellion flied at Yugo "Rebellious… Lighting Disobey!" Yugo could have banished Tri-Eyed Dice from his graveyard to negate this attack but decided to save it for later and braced himself for the attack. He screamed in pain when it knocked him off his D-Wheel. He got up with a pained face.

Yugo: 2700 – 200 [0]

"Get up. We're not finished yet. I'm gonna ask you where you took Ruri later. Turn end." Yuto concluded his turn.

"I don't know who the f### is Ruri and I don't care! All I care about is killing you! Ore no turn, draw!" Once again, that strange, painful feeling returned to Yugo, who also heard Clear Wing's roar. It sent a signal to Yugo, who instantly realized that it wanted to come out, to fight Yuto's dragon.

"So you wanted to come out? Good, just wait a little bit! At this moment, Maken Dama returns to the field since my field is empty!"

"Then I'll banish Speed Recovery to add Red-Eyed Dice to my hand and summon it!"

"This is it! I, using the level 6 Maken Dama and level 1 Red-Eyed Dice, tuning!"

"Spread those wondrous and beautiful wings. Strike down our enemies at light speed! Synchro Shōkan! Come forth! Level 7! Clear Wing Synchro Dragon!" A white-blue dragon with light blue illuminated wings appeared, roaring at Dark Rebellion, who roared back with equal hatred.

Clear Wing Synchro Dragon WIND Dragon Synchro Effect LV7 **2500** /2000

Yuto and Yugo felt even more pain than before. They held their chests tighter, trying to muff the screams but failed. Suddenly, something… something dark… and something bad… threatened to take over both of them. They used their inner strength to fight off this painful but… welcoming kind of thing that wanted to… to take over them completely. Luckily, they succeed, but it seemed that that certain thing intentionally gave up. Maybe it liked toying with them for some reason. Shun and Shark looked at them in wonder, not knowing what was going on.

Regaining composure, Yugo slapped Speedroid 5 6 Plane into the blade, special summoning it.

Speedroid 5 6 Plane WIND Machine Synchro Effect LV5 **1800** /0

"I can special summon this monster when Clear Wing did the same, then your dragon loses 600 ATK." The new plane monster fired bullets at Dark Rebellion.

"At this moment, Clear Wing will negate its effect activation and destroyed it since it is level 5! Dichroic Mirror!" Clear Wing shot out a burst of light from its wings, destroying 5 6 Plane.

Clear Wing Synchro Dragon ATK 2500 – 4300

Yuto was surprised by this "That card gains ATK equal to the ATK of the destroyed plane? No way!"

Yugo grinned at Yuto, confirming the latter's suspicion. "Battle! Clear Wing Synchro Dragon! Attack Dark Rebellion XYZ Dragon! Whirlwind… Helldive Slasher!" Clear Wing flew up high, looking at is prey, shining its wings before flying down, charging at Dark Rebellion.

"Trap Card, Phantom Sword! I equip it to Dark Rebellion and destroy it to prevent its destruction!" Yuto quickly acted, trying to run away from the battle. Dark Rebellion spun its wings toward Clear Wing, hitting the latter. It growled in pain due to having weaker ATK but was still alive due to the trap Yuto activated earlier. As for its master, he was thrown down to the ground when the ensuring blast of the attack reached him.

Yuto: 3500 – 1700 [1]

"Yuto!" Both Shun and Shark called out to him in distress, worrying about their dear friend and comrade.

"I'm fine…" Yuto reassured his two lying friends, getting up.

"Turn end. At this moment, Clear Wings returns its ATK to normal."

Clear Wing Synchro Dragon ATK 4300 – 2500

"So it seemed this fight has went to the fight between our dragons. I don't really know what happened there but now I don't care. Well, come get me! Who will win, your Dark Rebellion XYZ Dragon or my Clear Wing Synchro Dragon?" Yugo challenged Yuto.

"Ore no turn, draw! Dark Rebellion's effect activate! By detaching one Overlay Unit, it can halve your Clear Wing's ATK and add the lost amount to itself and gain an additional attack! Treason Discharge!" An Overlay Unit disintegrated, generating purple electricity, charging Dark Rebellion and blasting at Clear Wing, but Yugo countered "When a level 5 or higher monster is the target for a monster's effect, I can negate it and destroy the monster who activate it! Dichroic Mirror!"

"What? A second effect?" The three Resistance member couldn't hide their surprises at the powerful white dragon. Clear Wing resisted the purple electricity and fire a blue blast at Dark Rebellion.

"Trap activate! Phantom Wing! It negates Dark Rebellion's destruction and increase its ATK by 500 points!" Yuto countered. A ghostly wing appeared, taking the blast from Clear Wing and nullified it.

Dark Rebellion XYZ Dragon ATK 2500 – 3000

"Shit, I can only attack once and cannot use its effect anymore!" Yuto thought. "Battle! Dark Rebellion, attack his dragon!" Suddenly, a three-faced dice appeared, hitting Yuto's dragon, forcing it to stop the attack.

"I banish Tri-Eyed Dice to do that!" Yugo explained.

"That's a powerful dragon you have there. I guess it was the dragon who defeated Rin!" Yugo told Yuto.

Having enough of his resisting confusion, Yuto said to him "First off, I don't know who is Rin. Second, I have never left this place since the war began!"

"A war? It really happened?" Yugo asked.

"Yes… it destroyed my hometown as you can see, and the people who caused it, they took Ruri, my dearest friend and comrade away from me and these two friends of mine…" Yuto told him with a sad look on his face. Yugo realized the truth.

"So you didn't kidnap Rin?" Yugo just asked to be sure, even though he already knew the answer.

"Of course, and it seemed you did not capture Ruri either."

"Yes, I did not know who she is. But look…" He looked around before continuing "I am sorry, sorry for your hometown, sorry for your situation, sorry for hitting your friends like that, and… I am sorry for mistaking you for the kidnapper."

"It's alright." Yuto told him. "So I guess you didn't know about the four dimensions right?"

"Four dimensions? What is it?"

"We got information from our source that the war happening here is for the unite of the four worlds into one, an utopia." Shark got up, telling Yugo.

"Four worlds? Creating an utopia by ruining one of the four smaller worlds? Are they insane?" Yugo said, angered by the revelation.

Yuto told him "Yes, we haven't know what is it, and why they invaded this place yet. According to the same source, this universe is divided into 4 worlds, each by an Extra Deck summoning method of the game Duel Monsters. Each world only used 1 summoning method. They said this is the Xyz Dimension, theirs is the Fusion Dimension."

"Which means my hometown, Neo Domino City is the Synchro Dimension…" Yugo concluded. "So what is the last one?"

"They said it was the Standard Dimension. Since there are only 3 Extra Deck summon methods, that dimension does not have any. They probably only had Advance Summon and Ritual Summon, main deck summon methods."

"I see…"

"About the kidnapper, why did you say that he looked like me, and you?" Yuto asked him.

"I saw his face before he disappeared with Rin, and I swear he had the exact same face as us two. You need to be careful with him. He probably had captured your friend Ruri too." Yugo warned the three. "And now I'm gonna get outta here to find my friend. Stay safe. We're probably gonna see each other soon."

"OK." Yuto and Shark told him, but Shun wasn't convinced.

"Are you sure this son of a bitch told the truth? He might be the Pawn of Fusion!"

Hearing his name got wrong, Yugo angrily snapped at Shun "Yuugō jya nee! Yuugo da!" and drove off, looking for a way out of this mess. Yuto looked at Yugo, who slowly disappeared from his view.

" _Yugo, I hope I can trust you…"_

"We can't trust him, Ryoga, Yuto! He might have captured Ruri and he lied to us!" Shun warned the other two.

Yuto immediately gave Shun an angry look, shutting him up.

"Shun, we all know this war has destroyed us, but we cannot let our humanity suffer the same fate!" Yuto raised his voice "You are now too distrusting! You even carded people like Academia! You now behave like one of them!"

With that Yuto walked away, back to the camp, leaving the stunned Kurosaki Shun behind. Shark looked at Shun for a moment before going off with Yuto. Shun remained frozen, shocked at what Yuto, his best friend had told him. He then harden his face, trying to forget those awful words. He remembered back then, when his and Ruri's parents were carded, he was shocked to the core; and then the first time he carded a Ra Yellow soldier with an Academia's Duel Disk, everyone, especially Yuto and Ruri, watched in pure horror. After that, Ruri avoided meeting him. It took words from Yuto and Rio to make her feel easier, albeit she couldn't talk to him as much and as easily as before anymore. Since then he had card more, more, more, more and more members of Academia by his Human Sealing Technology installed Duel Disk with no remorse, he felt like he is no longer himself anymore, the encouraging words from Yuto, Ryoga and Ruri no longer resonated within him. He felt like he now had a drive to card as many enemy soldiers as possible, in order to bring piece back to his homeland, to bring his family back, even though he did not know how to reverse the carding process. He wondered if he had done the right thing, but he snapped out of that thought, returning to his now predator mindset. With that, he walked back to the camp, emotionlessly…

* * *

Unknown to Shun, Yuto was thinking about the same thing. The war had changed them a lot, but way more severe to Shun. He thought he was lucky since he only lost his father, he still has his mother and his girlfriend, Ruri to keep his humanity at sake. Speaking of humanity, he worried about it a lot, starting from the moment he attack that Obelisk Force guy and destroyed the ruins around, scaring Ruri, and then during his duel with Yugo, he felt that same thing trying to creep him, trying to possess his body completely. And now she was gone, how can he ensure that he is still himself? How can he make sure that he do not lose himself?

Yuto suddenly felt something else though, a voice in his head. But it was different.

"I, using the Scale 1 Stargazer Magician and the Scale 8 Timegazer Magician, Pendulum Scale setting!"

…

…

"Swing, Pendulum of the Soul! Draw an arc of light across the ether! Pendulum Shōkan! Appear now, my monster servants!"

…

…

"Inverse Gearwidth!"

…

…

"Horoscope Divination!"

…

…

"It's time "Odd-Eyes", burn everything to cinders that your heterochromatic eyes catch a glimpse of! Spiral Stirke Burst!"

…

"When Odd-Eyes Pendulum Dragon battles a level 5 or higher monster, the battle damage is doubled! Reaction Force!"

…

…

Yuto stood still for a while, wondering what had happended. It was only when Ryoga slapped his face that he returned to reality.

Unknown to Yuto, Yugo was experiencing the same thing after running over an Obelisk Force squad who tried to stop him, along with Clear Wing Synchro Dragon shining brightly once again. He took it out and said "Clear Wing, what are you doing… again?" Seconds later, it shone brighter, enveloping the D-Wheel and just like before, Yugo disappeared along with his D-Wheel once again.

* * *

A morning, just like every morning in this city, with the sounds of the birds, the swish of the wind, peace of everyone's mind. The sunlight went through the leaves in a big tree, ending its journey at the cutted grass below. Suddenly a bright blue light shone up near the bushes and disappeared. Laying there was a girl in tattered clothes, sleeping. Her light yellow dress had a single cut on the right waist area.

An hour later, she stirred, tiredly and grossly woke up. She slowly looked around her, a bright, colorful city, very different from the condition her own hometown is now. She realized she was definitely not in her hometown anymore…

"Where… where am I…?"

* * *

 **Fanfic OC cards:**

 **Phantom Knights Rusty Saber**

DARK Warrior Effect LV4 1900/1900

When an opponent's monster(s) increases its ATK (Quick Effect), you can send this card from your hand to the graveyard, then target 1 of your opponent's monster they control that increased its ATK and 1 "Phantom Knights" monster you control, the second target gain ATK equal to the ATK increase of the first target. This effect can be activated in response to the activation of a Quick-Play Magic Card or a Counter Trap Card. You can banish this card from your graveyard, special summon 1 "Phantom Knights" monster from your hand, Deck or graveyard.

* * *

 **Cliffhanger! Now I can understand why Nox Descious is doing this all the time! (lol)**

 **As you probably have guessed, Yugo is back in Synchro and Ruri is in Standard now. How this event will affect both of them will be revealed in the next chapter.**

 **To Gentyman, it is rather annoying for me that the writers did not use older but still effective cards in the past, which is what I am trying to do in this story.**

 **Next chapter preview**

 **A different world, a different life**

Lost in an unfamiliar city, Ruri tried to find a way to return to her homeplace when she found a strange boy. Meanwhile, Yugo dealt with the aftermath of losing Rin and the knowledge of the four dimensions.

 **This is matrixnis, out!**


	6. Scale 6

**Welcome back everybody!**

 **Finally I could finish this chapter! Something unexpected will happen, I can only say it, but I'm sure you all are going to like it!**

 **I was surprised that no one mentioned the COD and VRAINS references in this story. Well, there's another one here, hope you guys could find out and comment.**

 **To And the the sky, thank you for your statement, especially about the drama part. I will try to keep the desire always burning in my soul.**

 **To jalen johnson, I may give them Pendulum Cards, but just from the storyline, you may know who will definitely get. Shun and Yuto will still do the same, only now with Nasch, oh sorry, Shark.**

 **Do not own ARC-V, like any fanfic writers here!**

 **Let's go!**

* * *

 **Chapter 6: A different world, a different life**

Yugo opened his eyes after closing them to cover the bright light coming from Clear Wing Synchro Dragon. He looked around to try to recognize where he was now. Quiet, at night, small winds sweeping around him. On his left, tall buildings hit his eyesight, the color yellow momentarily blinding him briefly. It was the moment when he realized he was back at his birthplace, Neo Domino City. Not that he cared. What is on his mind right now is a different story.

Bewilderment, for the fact that the place he lives, the very Earth itself, is just a small piece of a multiverse consisted of 4 different dimensions, only Extra Deck summon methods told them apart from each other.

Pity, for the condition the dimension he just jumped in and out right now. A battlefield, grey, black. Even worse, he met a boy who 100% looked like him, mentally damaged from the war, and he and the boy just fought each other because of the stupid misunderstanding. Said misunderstanding is a reason for his greatest, strongest and most painful feeling right now.

Hopeless.

He was hopeless. The girl who was the closet to him ever since he knew he existed, the mother figure like of him, who looked after him, watching him grew up, fixing every mistakes he had made, is gone. Rin, is gone. Rin, the very person he just had a fight recently for his laziness, the very person he said those harsh words, is gone. He felt very guilty now. He damaged his dearest friend in the worst way possible and he may never have a chance to say sorry to her anymore.

"Rin… Rin… I wasn't good to you, and now I had lost you… I'm sorry… I hope you're OK." Yugo whispered, in pain.

He was so absorbed into himself that he did not realize that he was at a section of the Tops until sirens could be heard from a distance. Security is on the way to catch him.

"Security… I need to get outta here…" With that, he roared the engine, turned the D-Wheel around and drove away, back to the Commons section. He was driving so fast, maybe too fast, lost in the thought of the recent events that he did not even heard a bit about the Security Officer ordering him to slow down.

"Fugitive! This is Officer 227! You have been spotted at the Tops! Under the 3825968 rule, you are under arrest! Stop your D-Wheel ride now!" The officer declared arrest, using a loudspeaker device on his own D-Wheel.

" _Such gratuitous English"_ Yugo simply ignored him and suddenly made a sharp turn to the left to avoid being in a Forced Duel initiated by the Security Officers. Said catchers had to make a sharp stop to avoid being hit by an oncoming truck from under the bridge at the T-junction Yugo escaped. They cursed him, a Commoner, a smart one, for escaping so easily and nearly killing them all.

* * *

"Where's Rin-neechan?"

"Where's Yugo-niichan?"

"Are they going to be okay, Yusei-niichan, Aki-neechan?"

Those are the questions the kids bombarded Yusei and Aki ever since Yugo went away looking for Rin. To be honest, they did not even know what to say to them, things happened too quickly, they had no time to prepare for that situation. All they could say to them was a single "They are going to be okay, go back to sleep. You all sure that they will not be happy if you just keep wondering like this, don't you?" Some of them, mainly girls, complied and went back to their rooms, while others did not. They still kept asking them those questions with some began to cry. Yusei and Aki did not know what to do anymore.

A sound of a D-Wheel suddenly roared up, louder and louder every second. All the people in the orphanage stopped what they were doing and looked out, and were surprised and happy to see a familiar face returned.

"Yugo-nichan! He's back!"

"Yeah!"

The older couple was about to smile, but they held it back when they saw the expression on Yugo's face: frowned, devoid of hope, along with the fact that there was no one on the passenger seat. They instantly knew one thing that could only have happened: Rin is not founded.

If not having Rin there was not enough for the kids to stop smiling at the false delight, Yugo's next action did. He stopped at the basement, got out of the D-Wheel, took off his helmet and went upstairs, all without a single word. A hard door slamming could be heard.

"Rin-neechan is not home? Rin-neechan is not home?"

A boy told the obvious then began to cry, followed by the rest. Yusei, Aki and the owner of the orphanage had to stop them from crying and herd them back to their own rooms. They let out a huge sigh at this tragic situation they are in now. Without Rin, there will be no emotional support for the kid. Without Rin, they have lost one primary sources of income. And without Rin, the orphanage has lost a part of its soul, forever…

After a while, Shinji returned from his work. He saw the frowned expression on their faces, a sign of something bad.

"What happened?" He asked.

Aki then proceeded to tell him everything, and he looked away, sad and angry.

"Dammit… As if life is not hard enough, now we lost Rin to some unknown kidnapper? You guys know who he is?" Shinji asked.

Yusei told him "Yugo knew, but he is in no mood to talk right now."

Shinji frowned, cursing the kidnapper for ruining their lives, and this fricking competitive society as a whole, stealing hope within everybody of the Commons. After a while, all adults returned to their rooms, not saying anything…

The light was off, the fan was also off, people would think that no one was in that room right now. No, someone was right now. And that someone did not have a mind to think about it, for the only image of a girl appeared in his mind.

Yugo stayed up, looking at the picture of him and Rin playing Duel Monsters together, another one of them smiling at his 16th birthday with tons of people around cheering. It was funny to think about it, for he did not know when he was born, who his and Rin's parents were, what they even looked like. For a normal person who had one, it would hurt them like hell for the rest of his life, but for Yugo and the rest here, it did not bother them a bit. Besides, a depressing sense of guilt is on his mind, a failure, a complete failure. He looked outside the window, cold and mindless with only winds occasionally flew through.

Wind…

Another reminder of his friend, a Wind Witch user. It was very fitting for her, a dream of passing the winds on a D-Wheel to get a better life. That was also the same dream for Yugo, so they bonded, for life. The same hope for everyone else. Now, useless, meaningless, as the main drive for his dream, is gone, and it was his fault, no denying it. Even worse, a year ago he found out about the horrible secret behind the Friendship Cup as well. It initially did not bother him as much as he and Rin had promised. A single tears fell down at the corner of his eyes, another trail, another… And then the hiccup, one… two… three… four… and more, louder but still small. Finally, he couldn't keep it anymore. He cried, freely, like a child losing its sweets…

"Rin… I… am… sorry…" was all he said.

He continued through the entire night, till the tears were dried, and the sun rose up…

* * *

Yusei stopped at the door of Yugo's room, hesitating for a moment, before opening the door. He was there, sitting against the wall, looking down, all emotions destroyed.

"Yugo…"

No reply.

"Get down there and eat something, it'll make you feel better…"

No reply.

"…"

…

"Look, go down and eat. We'll find Rin after breakfast."

Yugo still did not say anything.

"Fine… just go down soon…"

With that, Yusei closed the door.

Yugo still sat there, alive on the outside, dead on the inside. Or maybe not yet, for a strong feeling was rising on him now. A desire, a new sparkle in his soul, maybe a source of hope…

He slowly stood up, went to the picture on the desk next to his bed. He caressed it, gently, like a father. Then he opened the door and went downstairs. He opened the door to the basement, looking at the white D-Wheel of his, no, of theirs. His face, hard and serious. Then he walked to the D-Wheel and brought it out. He climbed up, preparing to roar it up.

"I knew you would do it alone."

Yugo looked up. Yusei, he was at the gate, a Duel Disk on his arm, with a serious look on his face.

"What are you doing, stay of out my way."

"I won't let you do it, Yugo."

"Stay out, or I will run over you and the gate!"

"Try."

He knew Yugo would never do it, and he was right. Instead, he took off, grabbing the rounded duel disk into the Wrist Dealer on his right arm and swang up, activating it.

Yusei did the same, a blue blade shot out.

 **DUEL!**

Yusei: 4000 [5]

Yugo: 4000 [5]

"If I lose, you may go looking for her freely. If you lose, you have to stay here." Yusei gave the condition.

Yugo said nothing, but a hard look on him said it all. He understood, although Yusei knew he would be reckless again.

"I go first. Ore no turn. Beigomax and Takentonborg Special Summon!" His two usual opening moves, 2 toys on clue appeared.

Speedroid Beigomax WIND Machine Effect LV3 **1200** /600

Speedroid Taketonborg WIND Machine Effect LV3 **600** /1200

"By tributing Takentonborg, I can special summon Red-Eyed Dice and make Beigomax level 5!"

"Already?" Yusei thought, noting his quick turn.

Speedroid Red-Eyed Dice WIND Machine Tuner Effect LV1 **100** /100

Beigomax LV3 – 4

"Tuning! Synchro Shōkan! Feel the pulse of this swordsman's soul! Come forth Level 5! High-Speedroid Chanbarider!"

High-Speedroid Chanbarider WIND Machine Synchro Effect LV5 **2000** /1000

"And now Speedroid Double Yoyo normal summon! Then I can special summon Red-Eyed Dice back and change Yoyo's level to 6!"

Speedroid Double Yoyo WIND Machine Effect LV4 **1400** /1400

Double Yoyo LV4 – 6

"Tuning! Spread those wondrous and beautiful wings. Strike down our enemies at light speed! Synchro Shōkan! Come forth! Level 7! Clear Wing Synchro Dragon!" Yugo's signature monster appeared.

Clear Wing Synchro Dragon WIND Dragon Synchro Effect LV7 **2500** /2000

"And now I activate Speed Draw!" Yugo sent Tri-Eyed Dice to the grave and draw 2 cards, then he set one card and declared "Turn end."

At that point, Aki and the kids came out at the yard, hearing the roar of a dragon outside.

"What is going on?" One kid asked.

"Yugo-niichan and Yusei-niichan are dueling?" Another chimed in.

"Wow! This is exciting!"

"Wait, why do they look serious?" A young girl wondered.

Aki looked at the boys, saying nothing, for she knew the real reason why they are dueling right now. She looked at them, in sadness, for the kidnapping of Rin, her close friend, had torn apart Yugo, and probably the friendship between them. She hated the kidnapper for doing that to them and this orphanage as a whole.

"You're too quiet and you had used all of your hand! You're not yourself Yugo!" Yusei told him.

"I don't care. Proceed with your turn."

"Whatever. Ore no turn, draw!"

"Trap activate, Dragon's Bind! By targeting Clear Wing, we both cannot special summon monsters with less than 2500 ATK!" Yugo activated his trap.

"Yugo's deadly lock tactic!" A kid exclaimed.

"Too predictable Yugo! My Cyclone will handle it easily!" A big cyclone appeared, sucking Dragon's Bind into it. Yugo was slightly annoyed.

"Wow, Yusei-niichan is really good! He broke the lock in a single move!" The same kid said.

"Since my field is empty, I can special summon Junk Forward!"

Junk Forward EARTH Warrior Effect LV3 **900** /1500

"And now Magic Card, One for One! By sending Bolt Hedgehog to the grave, I can special summon the level 1, Jet Synchron from my deck!"

Jet Synchron FIRE Machine Tuner Effect LV1 **500** /0

"Since there is a Tuner Monster, I can special summon Bolt Hedgehog back, and now I summon Tuningware!"

Bolt Hedgehog EARTH Machine Effect LV2 **800** /800

Tuningware LIGHT Machine Effect LV1 **100** /300

"I, using the level 3 Junk Forward, level 1 Jet Synchron and the level 1 Tuningware, tuning! Clustering stars will call upon a new force. Become the path its light shines upon! Synchro Shōkan! Show yourself, level 5, Jet Warrior!" A dark blue and white humanoid machine appeared from the Synchro light, its jetpack behind in ready.

Jet Warrior WIND Machine Synchro Effect LV5 **2100** /1200

"Using its effect, I can target Clear Wing and return it to your Extra Deck!" Yusei declared.

"Useless, Clear Wing will negate and destroy it." Yugo countered.

"Only if I do not send Synchron Protector to the grave! It will negate Clear Wing's effect activation and destroy it!" A big black machine appeared, crushing Clear Wing by its body, destroying it.

"Since Jet Synchron leaves the field, I can add Junk Synchron to my hand. And Tuningware lets me draw 1 card when it does the same!" He added Junk Synchron and drew one card.

"Now I banish Synchron Protector to draw 2 cards from my deck, and for the rest of this turn, 1 monster on your field cannot activate its effects! I choose Chanbarider!" Yusei took out Synchron Protector from the graveyard slot and drew two cards, and then Chanbarider got a red aura, signifying its effect being negated.

"Now by sending Level Stealer to the grave, I can special summon Quick Synchron! Then I will reduce its level by 1 to bring it back!"

" _His usual combo…"_ Yugo thought.

Quick Synchron WIND Machine Effect LV5 **700** /1400

Level Stealer EARTH Insect Effect LV1 **600** /0

Quick Synchron LV5 – 4

"I, using the level 4 Quick Synchron and the level 1 Level Stealer, tuning! Clustering stars will call upon a new force. Become the path its light shines upon! Synchro Shōkan! Show yourself, level 5, Junk Warrior!" Yusei's another humanoid machine appeared. It had a large right fist, ready to punch any monsters.

Junk Warrior WIND Machine Synchro Effect LV5 **2300** /1300

"And you will bring back Level Stealer and use Junk Warrior's effect will increase its own ATK right?" Yugo disinterestedly told Yusei.

"Yes." On cue, Level Stealer returned to the field in defense position.

Jet Warrior Level 5 - 4

Junk Warrior ATK 2300 - 3700

"Battle! Junk Warrior, attack Chanbarider!" Junk Warrior flew forward, delivering its right fist to the toy, destroying it. Yugo slightly arched sideways.

Yugo: 4000 – 2300 [1]

"Jet Warrior, direct attack!" Jet Warrior boosted the jetpack behind it, ready to ram at Yugo, but suddenly, Clear Wing Synchro Dragon returned to the field.

"Trap Card, Call of The Living Dead!" Yugo explained.

"Jet Warrior, stop your attack!" Yusei ordered the monster, who returned to his field. "I end my turn with this face-down. Now, make your move Yugo, if you wanna do what you think you have to do!"

"Still as strong as always, but I will not give up! Ore no turn, draw!"

"I banish Speed Draw and Double Yoyo to draw 2 cards and add Takentonborg back to my hand! Of course I can special summon it since I control Clear Wing." On cue, Takentonborg returned.

"And then Magic Card, Speed Recovery! I add Red-Eyed Dice back to my hand!" He added back the dice from his graveyard to his hand.

"Takentonborg's effect! By tributing it, I special summon Speedroid Malicious magnet into the field!" Tankentonborg disintegrated in yellow dust, then the dust joined together, shining in bright light. Another monster, dark in appearance, consisted of multiple magnets showed up.

Speedroid Maliciousmagnet WIND Machine Effect LV1 **0** /0

"What the hell is that monster?" One boy exclaimed at the sight of the unfriendly-looking toy.

"It looked scary…" A girl said.

"That dangerous Tuner…" Yusei whispered. He knew Yugo was dead serious on finding Rin. The appearance of this Tuner Monster is a clear proof.

"Yes, since I will use it and your Jet Warrior for tuning! Magical sword with the form of a cross. Use your power to rend all enemies! Synchro Shōkan! Appear now! Level 6! High-Speedroid Maken Dama!" A kendama with a sharp front and oddly, 4 hammers appeared from the light.

High-Speedroid Maken Dama WIND Machine Synchro Effect LV6 **2200** /1600

"And now I will summon Red-Eyed Dice to the field and tune it with Clear Wing! Spread those wings shining with scared light. Strike down your enemies with that radiance! Synchro Shōkan! Come forth! Level 8, Crystal Wing Synchro Dragon!" Coming out from the white light, a white dragon with beautiful transparent wings appeared, roaring in pride.

Crystal Wing Synchro Dragon WIND Dragon Synchro Effect LV8 **3000** /2500

"Finally your evolved dragon is out…" Yusei whispered, looking at the magnificent white dragon.

"And finally Magic Card, Resurrection of the Dead! Come back, Clear Wing!" Clear Wing Synchro Dragon rose up from behind Yugo, roaring.

"Battle, Crystal Wing Synchro Dragon, attack Junk Warrior! And this monster's effect will increase its own ATK! Reppu no… Crystallos Edge!" Crystal Wing flew up high, made a turn before flying down at the machine warrior, leaving a white trail on its way. The dragon slammed at Junk Warrior, destroying it.

Crystal Wing ATK 3000 – 6100

"Urghhhh!" Yusei groaned in pain, covering himself and crouching down.

Yusei: 4000 – 1000 [2]

"Yusei!" Aki became worried for her boyfriend.

"If Yugo attacks now he will win!" A boy realized the situation.

"End this now, Clear Wing! Attack Bolt Hedgehog!" Clear Wing flew over Yusei's field, ready to ram Bolt Hedgehog, but suddenly, a black hole appeared, forcing Clear Wing to stop its attack.

"Counter Trap, Attack Nullification! I end the Battle Phase!"

"That fricking card…" Yugo became annoyed at the sight of that single, but always effective card. "I end my turn!"

"Ore no turn, draw!" Yusei looked at the card he just drew. "It's over now Yugo!" Yusei warned Yugo, who hardened his face in preparation.

"I summon Junk Synchron and use its effect to bring back Tuningware!"

Junk Synchron WIND Machine Effect LV3 1300/300

"You forgot Crystal Wing? It can negate Junk Synchron's effect and destroy it." Crystal Wing fired a white blast from its transparent wings, destroying Junk Synchron.

"Of course I know. This just sets up for my play. Quick-Play Magic, Dimension Synchro, activate!" Yusei showed the card to Yugo and slid it into the Duel Disk, activating it.

"What? That card? You had it in your hand?" Yugo was surprised at one of Yusei's trump cards. He always dreaded that card.

"Thanks to the effect of Tuningware, I got it in my hand! When my LP is 1000 or lower, I can target 1 tuner and 1 non-tuner in my graveyard or field, banish them to Synchro Summon!"

"I, using the level 3 Junk Synchron in my graveyard and the level 2 Bolt Hedgehog on my field, tuning! Synchro Summon! Synchro Tuner, Accel Synchron!"

Accel Synchron DARK Machine Synchro Tuner Effect LV5 500/ **2100**

"Shit…" Yugo could only mutter at this unexpected play.

Suddenly, a strong wind spun around Yusei. It spun faster and stronger every second before surrounding Yusei like a hurricane, hiding Yusei completely from Yugo, who looked at this phenomenon in awe. Aki and the kids also looked on, just as surprised as Yugo, though Aki did not seem to be bothered by this as much, as she had seen Yusei did this before.

"Yusei will win, Yugo…" Aki thought.

"Clustering power that dwells inside this fist, change into a will that shatters steel...! Become the path its light shines upon! Accel Synchro! Appear, Level 10, Stardust Warrior!" From the cyclone, a bright light appeared, clearing the black tornado, along with a loud roar. Then the light disappeared to reveal a shining, white, big machine in humanoid form. Yugo looked at the warrior in fear, knowing Yusei usually end the game with this monster.

Stardust Warrior WIND Warrior Synchro Effect LV10 **3000** /2500

"Battle! Stardust Warrior, attack Clear Wing Synchro Dragon! Charging Sonic!" Stardust Warrior flew up high, readying its fist, stardust sparkles appeared on its body, before charging down at the dragon.

"And now I will send my last card in my hand, Rush Warrior, to double Stardust Warrior's ATK! And since Crystal Wing has already used its effect, you can't negate Rush Warrior's effect!" Yusei sent Rush Warrior to the grave, the sparkles around the white warrior grew brighter and brighter.

Stardust Warrior ATK 3000 - 6000

"Useless. I can banish Tri-Eyed Dice to negate the attack!" Yugo defiantly declared.

"You will not do that! Remember Dimension Synchro's another effect?"

"Dimension Synchro? Wait! No… it can't be…" Yugo realized.

"Right, you cannot banish 1 card from your graveyard this turn!"

Yugo remained silent, looking at the charging warrior and his ace monster in sadness, nothing to avoid losing now. The warrior punched its large hand into the body of Clear Wing, destroying it. Yugo was blown away by the blast.

Yugo: 2300 – 0 [0]

Yusei deactivated his Duel Disk and walked to Yugo, who remained silent, not looking at him.

"I won. Now you have to stay here. Come on, let's get inside and eat breakfast."

Aki and the kids looked at Yugo, hoping that he will listen to what Yusei said. Yugo looked at Yusei's hand for a while, before saying "Suit yourself." He the got up on his own, not taking his hand, and went to the kitchen, grab some food and got back to his room.

"Well, at least he will not be doing anything reckless for a while…"

* * *

After wondering for a while, Ruri stood up, looking around the shining city before being surprised when she touched at the exposed wound to find it completely healed. She briefly wondered how this painful wound could heal so quickly. Maybe the time she had passed out helped, but she found it slightly inappropriate. Whatever it was, Ruri knew she had no time to think about it. She needed to find out what this place is first.

She was about to walk away from the park when someone spoke from her left.

"Oi, Yuzu, what are you doing here? I thought you were helping your dad at You Show Duel School?"

Ruri turned around, and the next thing she knew, she was totally shocked. The young boy who asked her had the exact same body shape and especially, the face of Yuto. However, he had red and green hair, instead of black and purple, and it also fell down instead of being spiked up. The boy was also surprised at the sight of her. She looked exactly the same as his childhood friend, Yuzu, besides the long dark purple hair and shorter lilac side tails, also the long, tattered dress she was wearing. He knew Yuzu had never worn them before. Was she cosplaying?

"Yuto/Yuzu?" was Ruri and the boy's respective thoughts.

They froze for a while, not realizing that they had made quite a scene in front of them. Some people gathered around, making fun of this situation.

"Damn, why are these two looking at each other like that?"

"Is this love at first sight?"

"Nah, "going to the motel tonight" is more likely."

Hugely embarrassed by those playful words, they turned around to the people, waving their hands in denial.

"NOO! We're not a couple or something, especially the last part!"

The people just kept smiling and joking at this scene.

Ruri was too embarrassed at this situation. She didn't know how to tell them anymore. So she grabbed the boy's hand and dragged him away, a huge blush still on her face. Said boy also complied her action, wanting to get out of that awful situation as well.

After running for a while, they went to a pier, and seeing they were away from the city, they stopped, breathing heavily, grasping for air. Ruri was the first to speak up after regaining normal breath.

"Phew… finally…"

"Yeah, I'm glad too."

"You good?"

"Of course!"

"Fine."

After truly being normal again, Ruri asked him "I'm sorry to say this but, who are you, and why are you looking like my friend?"

" _I'm not the only one? Well, lucky."_ The boy thought. "To be honest, you look exactly like one of my friends too!"

"What? You did too?"

They looked each other in bewilderment for a while, before laughing at the situation again. Well, at least they do not have to act strange in front of each other now.

"Thank god! I thought I was the only one!" Ruri told Yuya, who returned to her with a "same thing too" look. After letting Ruri finish laughing, Yuya asked her "So who you said that I look like?"

"His name is Yuto. He looked exactly like you, expect different hair. His is black and purple. He also had grey eyes."

"And you look like my friend Yuzu. But she has pink hair in pigtails and blue eyes. And never say this to Yuzu, but you seem to be more polite than her."

Ruri chuckled at this information, before saying "Sure. Also, what is your name?"

"Yuya, Sakaki Yuya."

" _Sakaki? In Sakaki Yusho? I need to ask him about it later._ My name is Ruri, Kurosaki Ruri." With that, they shook hands, though since Yuya was left-handed, he brought out his left hand before smiling awkwardly and switching to his right hand to shake hers.

Yuya then took a look at her clothes, ragged and dirty. He immediately became worried. "So where do you come from, and why are your clothes tattered like that?" Ruri was unsure of what to say to him, for he would not belive what she would say, a different dimension, so she simply told him "I'm from a different city. My parents left me so I was homeless. I wandered into this city. I don't know what this place is."

Yuya felt sad for her 'condition', never before had he seen a person like this before, especially a nice girl like her, and to the point she had to walk away from her homeplace? Those adults are too unresponsive!

"I see…" Yuya said, sadly. He wanted to at least help her at much as possible. "Well I know a place where you can live for now. Come with me."

Ruri immediate protested "No Yuya! Don't worry about me, I could handle myself!" She did not want someone to needlessly worry about her, besides the war had made her pretty independent.

"I cannot leave a poor girl like you alone like that! Besides, you do not know what this city is!" Yuya told Ruri, who frowned at his insistence. An unnecessary one of course. Seeing her like that, Yuya desperately thought of a way to convince her. Eventually, he found out a way.

"So how about this? Are you a duelist?"

"Yes." Ruri answered, wondering what he meant.

"Well we will duel, and if you win you can go away, but if I win, you will come with me to a place I know, OK?"

Surprised by his 'proposition', Ruri chuckled for a while, making Yuya looking at her in bewilderment.

" _He sure is a funny guy_. OK I accept."

"Good! Get ready Ruri! This will be a fun duel!" Yuya told her with a smile on his face.

" _Fun…"_ Ruri thought, forgetting that word because of the war. She felt something pleasant within her rising up after laying dormant for a long time. "Alright, do your best, Yuya!"

DUEL!

Yuya: 4000 [5]

Ruri: 4000 [5]

"Lady first, you mind?" Yuya asked Ruri, who slightly blushed at his word.

"Of course. Watashi no turn!"

"When I control no monsters, I can special summon Lyrical Luscinia – Turquoise Warbler from my hand!" Ruri pressed the card to the blade, special summoning it.

Lyrical Luscinia – Turquoise Warbler WIND Winged Beast Effect LV1 **0** /100

"And now I will special summon Shappire Sparrow and Cobalt Sparrow by the former's effect!" She did her usual combo.

Lyrical Luscinina – Cobalt Sparrow WIND Winged Beast Effect LV1 **0** /100

Lyrical Luscinina – Sapphire Sparrow WIND Winged Beast Effect LV1 **100** /0

" _3 level 1 monsters… what is this?"_ Yuya thought.

"Cobalt Sparrow's effect! I can add Lyrical Luscinia – Ruby Canary into my hand. And I will special summon it and another Shappire Sparrow and this card!"

Lyrical Luscinia – Ruby Canary WIND Winged Beast Effect LV1 **0** /0

"Canary allows me to draw one card for every 2 LV1 monsters on my field!" Ruri drew two cards.

"I, using these 5 level 1 monsters, overlay!" The five birds turned green before flying into the overlay network, a bright light shot up. Yuya was shocked at the scene.

Ruri chanted "Birds with beautiful wings! Gather on the battlefield and take brilliant flight! Xyz Shōkan! Dance in the sky! Rank 1! Lyrical Luscinia - Assembly Nightingale!"

Lyrical Luscinia – Assembly Nightingale WIND Winged Beast Effect LV1 **500** /0

"What? Xyz Summon? You from LDS?" Yuya asked her.

" _What? LDS? A duel school or some kind?_ " Ruri wondered. She then lied to him "My parents formerly worked for them. I got this deck as a birthday present. They left LDS to go overseas after breaking up. I never went to there before" Actually, she created this deck by herself and submitted it to the Duel Monsters Card Creating Competition back at Heartland City. The organizers then created this deck for her after that deck won the comp.

"I see... well, sorry for digging in your past" Yuya apologized to her, even though he never needed it in the first time.

"It's OK Yuya. Anyway, for each overlay units, which are the lights orbiting this monster, it gains 100 ATK. Turn end." Ruri finished her turn.

" _Only 500 ATK? It must had an effect of some kind. I need to be careful."_

"Ore no turn, draw! And now Ruri, since you surprised me with your Xyz summon, it is only appropriate that I will do the same thing to you!"

"Oh, what is that?"

"You'll see. For now I will summon Entermate Discover Hippo!" A pink pig dressed in a circus costume appeared.

Entermate Discover Hippo EARTH Beast Effect LV3 **800** /800

"It's cute!" Ruri complimented the monster, which winked at her in return.

"Wow! It's reacting back!"

"Yes, it is the power of Real Solid Vision, allowing the monsters to be tangible, having feelings too." Yuya explained. "Discover Hippo, attack Assembly Nightingale!" He declared attack.

"Assembly Nightingale's effect! I can detach an overlay unit to negate battle destruction and battle damage!"

"Just as I guessed, a monster with low ATK must have some protection effects. Well I set 2 cards and end my turn!"

"Watashi no turn, draw!" Ruri looked at the card she just drew, a strategy formed in her mind.

"I summon Lyrical Luscinia – Topaz Bunting!" A blue female humanoid bird, resembling a bunting appeared on the field.

Lyrical Luscinia – Topaz Bunting WIND Winged Beast Effect **0** /0

"Using its effect, I can attach it as an overlay unit to a Winged Beast Xyz Monster and increase its ATK by 100!" The bird turned green before flying towards Assembly as an Overlay Unit.

Assembly Nightingale ATK 400 - 600

"Prepare Yuya, I will not hold back!" Ruri told Yuya, who prepared in interest.

"Assembly Nightingale can make a number of direct attacks equal to the number of overlay units it has!"

"What?" Yuya was purely shocked "Which means 3000 damage to me?"

"Yes." Assembly Nightingale created five blasts, blasting them at Yuya, but he has prepared for that.

"Trap Card, Shock Draw and Quick-Play Magic, Emergency Provisions! With this, I can draw 1 card and reduce the damage from your last attack to 0!" Yuya immediately drew a card and shielded himself from the attack of the bird.

Yuya: 4000 – 1400 [4]

"A direct attack deck? That is unique, Ruri! I have never seen one before, it's interesting!" Yuya cheered at Ruri, who stood still for a moment as she had not heard that word for a long time.

"What's wrong, Ruri?" Yuya wondered.

"Nothing. It just that I have not felt so fun like this for a while." Ruri quickly told him.

"Well seeing you smile made me feel good inside! It means that I succeeded in making you have fun!"

"Is that what you're always aiming at in duels?"

"Yes, I want to bring smile to everyone!" Yuya told her.

Ruri felt something stinging in her heart. It felt like pain, but also a pleasant feeling. The war had destroyed her optimism, but right here, right now, it is returning again. Ruri mentally thanked Yuya for that.

"That's a noble goal, Yuya. Hope you succeed!" Ruri told him, even though she felt sad that he may not do it to everyone, especially her people in Heartland now.

"Well let's return to this duel! I set 2 cards and end my turn!"

"Which means it's my turn, draw!"

"Discover Hippo can treat itself as two tributes for an Advance Summon! I release it to Advance Summon Entermate Drumbull!" An orange bull in red shirt wearing a drum appeared.

Entermate Drumbull EARTH Beast Effect LV8 **2700** /2200

"Battle! Drumbull, attack Assembly Nightingale!" Drumbull rocked the drum, sending a shockwave at the bird.

"Assembly Nightingale's effe.."

"Drumbull negates the effect of the monster it battles!" Yuya quickly told her, who let out a what.

"If so, I activate Power Integration! I equip it to Assembly Nightingale, make it gain 500 ATK and allow it to stay here once more!" Ruri activated her trap, allowing her monster to stay alive this turn. She shielded herself from the resulting blast from the battle between two monsters.

Ruri: 4000 - 1300 [3]

"That was close! Glad that your monster still stands Ruri."

"Thanks Yuya."

"I set a card and end my turn!"

"Watashi no turn, draw!"

"Well Yuya. I don't know what you had in store for me, but I have something up to my sleeve, and I will show it to you right now!"

"Bring it on Ruri!" Yuya encouraged her.

"Quick-Play Magic, Rank-Up-Magic, Luscinia Force!"

"What? Rank-Up-Magic?"

"With this card, I can target a Lyrical Luscinia monster, Rank-Up it and special summon a Lyrical Luscinia monster with 1 rank higher!" Assembly Nightingale turned green before flying up to the overlay network.

"Birds with shining wings! Gather on the battlefield and lead the righteous way to victory! Rank-Up Xyz Change! Fly up bright, Rank 2, Lyrical Luscinia – Revolting Nightingale!" A mature looking bird in black armor and bright wings flew up, determined to win the battle.

Lyrical Luscinia – Revolting Nightingale WIND Winged Beast Xyz Effect R2 **1300** /1200

"This card gains 200 ATK for each Overlay Units it has!"

"Wait, it means the overlay units of Assembly Nightingale and that monster itself becomes overlay units for this card?"

"Yes, and of course it can direct attack as well!"

"Battle! Revolting Nightingale, attack Yuya now!" The monster flew up high, the sunlight brightening the wings more, before generating small sharp pieces of energy. Then it pointed its hand forward, the pieces flying at Yuya. However they never hit Yuya; they instead hit the brown barrier forming around him.

"What happened?" Ruri wondered.

"By tributing Drumbull, I take no battle damage this turn. It will return during the End Phase. If I use that effect the next time, I must banish it instead."

"I see… I had a feeling that the duel will end soon. I set 1 card and turn end!" She set one card from her hand.

"Well, before it ends, I will give you an exciting entertainment turn! Ore no turn, draw!" Yuya happily declared his turn. "Yes, it will work!" Ruri looked at him in interest.

"First off, Magic Card, Advance Draw activate! I can draw 2 cards by tributing Drumbull, a level 8 monster!" Drumbull turned into blue dust and Yuya drew two cards from his deck.

"Now, my reply to your Xyz Summon and Rank-Up-Magic!" Yuya smiled at Ruri before holding up two monster cards. They had the color orange in the upper background and green, like Magic Cards, in the lower background, along with 2 numbers, one blue, one red.

"I, using the Scale 1 Stargazer Magician and the Scale 8 Timegazer Magician, Pendulum Scale setting!"

Yuya set the two cards at the leftmost and the rightmost of the blade, the word 'Pendulum' showed up in between.

"With this I can simultaneously summon monsters with level between 2 and 7!"

"What?" Ruri was surprised, never seeing this kind of special summon like this before.

"Swing, Pendulum of the Soul! Draw an arc of light across the ether! Pendulum Shōkan! Appear now, my monsters!" Yuya raised his hand upward, a portal opened, allowing 2 swirls to come out, forming monsters.

"Come out, Entermate Sword Fish, Entermate Whip Viper! And the beautiful dragon in dual-color eyes! Odd-Eyes Pendulum Dragon!" Two monsters appeared, a sword fish and a purple snake in comedian costume.

Entermate Sword Fish WATER Fish Effect LV2 **600** /600

Entermate Whip Viper EARTH Reptile Effect LV4 **1700** /900

Odd-Eyes Pendulum Dragon DARK Dragon Pendulum Effect LV7 **2500** /2000

"The fun starts now! Sword Fish's effect will make Revolting Nightingale lose 600 ATK and DEF while Whip Viper will change them!"

Ruri was surprised of course.

Lyrical Luscinia – Revolting Nightingale **1300** /1200 - **600** /700

"Battle! Whip Viper and Sword Fish, attack Revolting Nightingale respectively!" Those two monsters attacked the bird, who detached its two overlay units to negate destruction and battle damage.

Lyrcial Luscinia – Revolting Nightingale ATK 600 - 400

"And now, Odd-Eyes Pendulum Dragon, attack Revolting Nightingale!" Yuya climbed on top of Odd-Eyes, which surprised Ruri, who looked on with a smile on her face. It gathered red energy on its mouth, ready to fire at her monster. Even then, Ruri did not give up.

"Revolting Nightingale's effect activate!" She told Yuya but…

"Trap Card, Recall! You can draw 1 card but your monster's effect activation will be negated and it will be destroyed!" Thanks to its effect, Revolting Nightingale is not destroyed, but the effect is negated.

"If so, Trap Activate! Divine Wind Barrier - Air Force! It will return your three monsters to the hand!"

"Timegazer Magician's Pendulum Effect activate!" Yuya countered.

"What?"

"You cannot activate Trap Cards when a Pendulum Monster, in this case Odd-Eyes, attacks!" Yuya explained.

"Well… I lost…" Even though she would lose, Ruri did not feel bothered at all, for this was the first time she had dueled a friendly, normal, non-life-risking duel like this for the last six months. She smiled, ready to take the attack from the dragon.

" _Thank you Yuya…"_

Ruri: 1300 - 0 [3]

Yuya ran to Ruri, who was laying down, smiling. He gave a hand to her, who immediately grabbed in return, standing up.

"That was a fun duel, thank you Yuya!" Ruri thanked Yuya.

"Well I'm glad you liked it. Now under the condition, you will follow me to the place I know you can stay."

Ruri thought about it for a moment before accepting the proposal. "OK. But where, Yuya?"

"Just follow me." Yuya told her.

* * *

They walked for a while before returning to a large building, called You Show Duel School. Yuya told Ruri "Wait here, I'll tell the school principal inside. You better prepare yourself, you will see Yuzu there."

"OK."

With that Yuya got into the school. After a while, he came out.

"I'll tell you the people in here first. The school principal is Hiragi Shuzo. His daughter is also my childhood friend Hiragi Yuzu. There are three children in here. There is a young, red-headed girl named Ayukawa Ayu; there is a fat boy named Harada Futoshi, he got some shivering antics though hehe; and there is a boy in blue hair named Yamashiro Tatsuya. You ready?"

"Yeah I'm ready Yuya." Ruri answered.

With that, Yuya opened the door and told the people inside "Everyone, prepare to meet a friend I just have made!" Ruri walked inside with a straight and confident face. She saw five people, matching Yuya's description. An adult in athletic clothes, a young girl, a fat boy, another thin boy, but her mouth dropped at the sight of the fifth person. A girl, about the same age as her, her face is exactly the same as Ruri's with only differences in hair and eye color. Said girl was also in pure shock at the sight of Ruri.

Everyone was shocked expect Yuya who had expected this situation. Not being able to hide her curiosity anymore, Yuzu slowly walked over Ruri and asked Yuya "Who is she Yuya?"

Yuya smiled and holding his hand on the shoulders of both girls "Yuzu and everyone, this is Ruri, Kurosaki Ruri, the friend I just mentioned you guys about."

Even though they were still in shock, they regained composure before introducing themselves. The children began walking towards Ruri.

"My name is Hiragi Shuzo. I'm the principal of this school."

"My name is Hiragi Yuzu."

"My name is Ayuwaka Ayu."

"Mine is Harada Futoshi."

"And my name is Yamashiro Tatsuya."

Ruri stood down on her knees and greeted the children with a gentle smile.

"Hi. It's a pleasure to meet all of you."

"Ruri's parents just got divorced and left her. She came to here by herself." Yuya explained. "Since she currently did not have a home, can you bring her in your house?"

Shuzo wondered, but the pleading look on Yuzu's face changed his decision.

'OK, I will." Shuzo told Ruri, smiling gently. "But one condition. Could you please a part of You Show Duel School as well? The more the merrier."

"Of course." Ruri answered immediately.

"Yes, I will get the papers!" Shuzo told her before running to his room. Everyone laughed at his antics.

* * *

The rest of the day was pretty funny with Yuya showing Pendulum Summon for the kids and Yuzu and Ruri talking to each other, befriending quickly like any girls would do. Shuzo made dinner for all of them at his house.

And then the night came. After setting up the guest room, Shuzo turned to Ruri.

"For now you will be staying here Ruri."

"Make yourself at home!" Yuzu told her.

"Yeah, thank you for your kindness Shuzo-ojisan, Yuzu-chan!" Ruri thanked the two.

"No problem. It's late now, you two get some sleep." Shuzo told the girls before walking off to his room.

"You can use my pajamas Ruri. We have the same body shape after all, also, we will buy you new clothes! Oh, drop the honorifics Ruri, I'm fine with that." Yuzu told her.

"Thanks a lot Yuzu." With that, the girls changed into pajamas and each took a bed. "I'm really grateful to both you and your father for letting me stay here like this."

"Friends help each other in need Ruri. Well, goodnight Ruri."

"Goodnight Yuzu." With that Yuzu returned to her room while Ruri turned to the guest room. She turned on the fan and got into bed. This is honestly the first night she could sleep freely like this, after 6 months in literal hell on Earth. Ruri thought she owned Yuya, Yuzu and Shuzo too much and she would repay them in kind later. If only Yuto could be here, it would be so much nicer.

" _Yuto, Shun, Ryoga, Rio, whatever you are right now, be safe…"_ Ruri thought before closing her eyes, falling to a pieceful sleep. _"And please, no matter what you did, please return to us…"_

* * *

…

"So I will have to steal them? Those Pendulum Cards as they are called?"

"Yes, and I do not care how you get them, just bring them to me… Sawatari."

"Roger that." The man named Sawatari then threw the dart on his hand to the picture pinned on the wall.

The picture of Sakaki Yuya.

* * *

 **Fanfic OC Cards**

 **Dimension Synchro (Quick-Play Magic Card)**

When your LP is 1000 or less, you can target 1 tuner monster and 1 non-tuner monster in your field and graveyard, immediately after this effect resolves, Synchro Summon 1 Synchro Monster by banishing the targets. Then, you can target 1 card in your opponent's graveyard, it cannot be banished to activate an effect this turn.

Synchron Protector

WIND Machine Effect LV4 0/0

When an opponent's monster activate its effects while you control a WIND Machine monster, you can send this card from your hand to the graveyard, negate its activation, and if you do, destroy it. You can banish this card from your graveyard, draw 2 cards, then target 1 of your opponent's monster, it cannot activate its effects for this turn.

Lyrical Luscinia – Topaz Bunting

WIND Winged Beast Effect LV1 0/0

Only once per turn, you can attach this card to a Winged Beast Xyz monster you control as an Overlay Unit. That monster gains 100 ATK.

Entermate Drumbull

EARTH Beast Effect LV8 2700/2200

When this card battles an opponent's monster, that monster cannot activate its effect until the end of the Damage Step. You can tribute this card, you take no battle damage this turn. During the End Phase, if this effect was activated this turn (and was not negated): You can Special Summon this card from your Graveyard, but banish it when it leaves the field.

Lyrical Luscinia – Revolting Nightingale

WIND Winged Beast Xyz Effect R2 0/0

This card gains 200 ATK for each Overlay Units attached to it. This card can attack directly. While this card has Xyz Material, it can attack a number of times each Battle Phase, up to the number of Xyz Materials attached to it. During either player's turn, when an opponent's monster declares an attack: You can detach 1 Overlay Units from this card; "Lyrical Luscinia" monsters you control cannot be destroyed by battle or card effects, also you take no battle damage during that battle.

* * *

 **JYAN JYAN JYAN JYAN! Well, such a long chapter, the longest as of now. Please review, I took days to finish this chapter.**

 **Does anyone find any references in this chapter? If so, please also comment down below!**

 **I hope the duels are interesting to you guys, especially the final turn of Yugo vs Yusei. Did I catch you guys off guard with the Accel Synchro? Also, I had given out a detail of the betrayer at the end.**

 **This is matrixnis, out!**


	7. Scale 7

**Hello everyone, welcome back to this story!**

 **I noticed that you guys commented that I did not include Ruri or Yuzu wondering why did they have the same face. This is because, for me, if Yuzu said it then Ruri would simply ask her the same thing too, even if they wonder it in their minds it would lead to the same result: no answer yet (course not for us lol).**

 **To Frost190, a really big thank you for you for reviewing my story. About whether Yugo is the main protagonist or not, I would say no because I simply changed Yugo's personality using the first 2 chapters. About Accel Synchro, this is because I did a Rank-Up Xyz Change earlier.**

 **To jalen johnson, he will get a Stardust Dragon counterpart later, it is just because I haven't got a name for it yet.**

 **OK, let's get started!**

* * *

 **Chapter 7: Reminiscence! Shingo Sawatari, the dangerous wanker!**

" _Arrgh!" The girl fell down._

 _Girl: 100 - 0 [2]_

" _Yay! I won, papa, mama!"_

" _Yeah! Good job, Ruri, my sweet daughter!"_

" _See Shun, she's getting closer to beating you!"_

" _Huh, we'll see about that. Also, I will introduce to our family my best friend later."_

…

…

" _Yuto, this is my younger sister Kurosaki Ruri and my parents. Ruri, dad, mom, this is Yuto, my best friend!"_

" _Hello aunt, hello uncle, hi Shun, hi… Ruri!" The boy greeted her family, but slightly stopped when he saw her. Beautiful, kind, gentle, pure. Very fitting for his ideal type. Ruri had a small blush in return._

…

…

" _This deck is beautiful, just like you really are!" Yuto told Ruri, a hot blush appeared on her face. "You built this Lyrical Luscinia deck on your own?"_

" _Yeah. Flying up high in the sky and piping the beautiful sound bringing smile and happiness to others, this is what I want!" Ruri explained, smiling brightly and blushing._

" _Oh and Yuto, why did you build your deck with images of ghosts?"_

" _I like it. It's like someone watching silently from behind, smiling at other's joyness." He explained, slightly feeling embarrassed comparing to her reason of building her own deck._

" _But I'm visible right here you know!" Ruri joked._

" _Uh… uh… y… y… yeah… you are right here. But I like your smile, Ruri." Yuto told her._

" _Thank you Yuto. Do you know who I got this thinking from?"_

" _Who?"_

" _Sakaki Yusho, the principal at the Clover School."_

" _Oh, that man. An entertainer in Dueling. You wanna be one in the future?"_

" _Maybe, but he is kind and gentle, always considerate. Like you Yuto." Ruri told him, who blushed at the comment._

" _Oh… Th… Thanks Ruri." Yuto clumsily said to Ruri, who slightly chuckled at his nervousness._

…

…

" _That was a good time at the park Yuto! Thank you!"_

" _Yes, I'm glad you liked that."_

" _Yuto, I am a little tired…"_

" _Hmmm…?" And the next thing he knew, he was shocked. Ruri put her head on his shoulders and closing her eyes. He looked down in amazement and shyness before turning at her sleeping form, smiling gently._

" _Sleep well, Ruri." He used all of his inner strength to kiss her on her forehead then he slowly put his arm around her, but he froze when she stopped sleeping, held his hand and opened her eyes, looking at him._

 _They looked at each other's eyes closely, blushing, not sure of what to do. And then their face automatically got closer and closer… closer… closer… And that strange but welcoming magnetic pull made from instinct finally stopped when their lips touched, in a gentle and warm kiss._

 _They continued kissing passionately for a while before parting, grasping for air. Their heads touched, their eyes still closed in relishing the intimate moment just happened a minute ago._

" _I love you, Ruri." Yuto told her with all of his might, gently, like a knight to his princess._

" _I love you… Yuto." Ruri returned._

 _They remained closed like this for a little more time, till the sunlight has disappeared…_

…

…

" _NOOOO!"_

 _A bright, purple light shone the room, along with a scream, a female. Ruri instantly realized it was from her mother. She attempted to run in the house but her dad stopped her._

" _Noooo! Let me go, dad! I have to save mom!"_

" _It's too late, Ruri… we couldn't save them. Besides, they will kill us if they hear us out there."_

 _Despite her internal rage that told her to scream at loud at possible, Ruri knew the risks of it. So she hugged her dad closely, crying as quietly as possible, her tears wet her father's shirt._

…

…

" _This is the end, Kurosaki-san! Battle! Attack Disaster Leo!"_

" _Semmetsu no Tachyon… Spiral!"_

 _The dragon conjured a ball of purple energy on its mouth, before blasting it in a straight spiral, destroying the lion._

" _ARRRGGGHH!" The man flew backward, crashing the streetlight on his head, making him bleeding._

" _DDDAADDDDD!" Ruri screamed, trying to reach for her dad._

 _However, she never got the chance to do so as a shining purple light shone up from behind her. She desperately ran to her father, trying to grab at least his hand one last time. But the man knew she would never make it on time. He looked at his dear daughter one last time, smiling sadly, as if he could not say anything anymore._

" _Be strong, Ruri…" was the last thing he said before he disappeared in a purple light. Ruri managed to get to her father, but all she could grab is just…_

…

 _Nothing…_

 _Nothing she could grab, even a small dust of purple that used to be her father…_

" _Kurosaki-san!" Yuto screamed…_

" _DAAAADDDDDDD!" Shun did the same…_

 _The culprit then took out a card. A card with no name, but an image of a middle-aged man appeared from the initially blank card. He showed it to Yuto, Shun and Ruri before ordering the three Obelisk Force squads behind him to retreat and walked away soon, but not before throwing the card at them._

 _Ruri held up the card, the dreadful card that used to be her father. Tears dropped on the picture, more and more… along with the endless hiccups from her._

" _Dad… dad… DAAADDDDD!"_

…

…

* * *

"ARRRGGGHHH!"

Ruri woke up, screaming, sweating all over, breathing heavily. She looked up at the ceiling for a while before looking down, finally calming her breath. She put her right hand on her forehead and recalled her dream. It was the good time in her first win in Duel Monsters, the moment she met Yuto, the memories they share together, the first kiss, declaring love for each other... and the horrible moment when her and Shun's parents got carded. It seemed that her first time sleeping soundly again had failed, miserably. She remembered the harsh times, fighting waves and waves of Academia psychopaths, tons of Antique Gear Chaos Giants and running away in fear when her squad got eliminated. And now, she, Shun and Yuto were separated with her being in Standard. She began to let out tears when she thought they may be desperately looking for her in the enemy's land right now, probably dying. She stopped, cursing herself for thinking like that. Shun and Yuto are strong, they will fight and they will survive until she returns. Now she has to find a way to return to her homeland and embrace them in happiness. But first, she had to deal with the knocking from the door.

"Ruri, are you still asleep?" A man's voice. Ruri knew it was Shuzo.

"No, I'm awake Shuzo-san. I just need time to prepare myself."

"You slept pretty hard. By the way, it's almost 8 in the morning."

"WHAT?" She looked at the electric clock on the wall in front of her and realizing Shuzo was right. Well, her sleep was actually quite well…

"Oh god, I am so sorry Shuzo-san!" Ruri apologized.

"It's okay. You were just here yesterday. You must have been tired."

"Where is Yuzu-chan?"

"She is at school with Yuya. By the way, I had bought new clothes for you."

"You did that to me?" Ruri was surprised.

"Yes, Yuzu told me to."

She wiped her tears, ran to the door and opened it, not caring about her messy hair right now. She saw Shuzo there with some clothes. Her eyes widened in surprise.

"Wow… You two did too much to me… Yet I haven't even repay anything…"

"Doesn't matter Ruri. You needed help, and we lent a hand. That's all. Now, get ready."

"Yeah I will."

"By the way, you wanna take a look at this Miami City? I will show you around. You're new here after all."

"Uh…" Ruri considered it for a moment before smiling. "Yeah it would be great."

"Good. Get ready and go to the kitchen to have some breakfast. Then we will go."

"Thank you Shuzo-san." With that she closed the door and brushed her teeth. Then she tried on the new clothes. A white shirt with jeans that is at her knees. She liked this new clothes a lot, for it is very fitting for her body shape, and she is not a kind of girl who would wear shorts and reveal her sexy legs. Shuzo even got her a purple jacket as well. All in her favorite colors. Shuzo and Yuzu must be very perspective. She felt very guilty for lying to them and getting such care like this. She would have to apologize to them later.

After that, she went to the kitchen and ate breakfast with Yuzu's father. She answered questions that Shuzo asked, avoiding the specific ones about her home place, which luckily Shuzo did not pry too much. After that, Shuzo cleaned the dishes and brought Ruri around the city.

Miami City, a modern city with a large sea front, was like many others. Building, bridges, magnetic trains, rivers, parks… despite not being very colorful like Heartland, Ruri found that this city was still bright and lively. She and Shuzo went across places after places, eventually a tall building with a large stadium at its back appeared.

"What is this place, Shuzo-san?" She asked him.

"This is Leo Corporation, the biggest game company in Japan. It is well-known for the game Duel Monsters and the "Solid Vision with mass" technology associated with it."

"Solid Vision with mass…" Ruri wondered. It seemed similar to the technology used by Academia and Resistance.

"It's just like normal Solid Vision in Duel Monsters, but here the hologram has weights, which means it is real and we can interact with it."

"Oh I see…"

"Come on, it's noon now. Let's go somewhere to eat." Shuzo told her.

"Yeah, thank you."

They went to a restaurant and had lunch there. After that they went to more places before going home. Time flew so fast, and it was 3:30 PM. They were back home. Suddenly, they heard the bell ringing.

"Oh, the kids. Yuya and Yuzu are probably finished now. Stay here, I'll come with them to school."

"You can stay, Shuzo-san. I will go with them. I still need to thank her after all."

"Uh… okay. I'll make dinner, you go with them and get Yuya and Yuzu." Shuzo agreed after thinking about her proposal for a bit. With that Ruri got out and greeted the kids, then going with them to Yuya and Yuzu's school.

* * *

"The Miami Senior School is here Ruri-neechan!" Ayu told her.

Ruri and the kids stood outside the school, behind a tree to avoid misunderstanding between her and Yuzu, who had the same faces.

After a short while, Yuya and Yuzu came out. It seemed that Yuzu is annoyed. She conversed with him with a rather stern face.

"You should not have slept in school like that Yuya."

"Come on. You hit me with that fan of yours. That cleared the problem with our Math teacher. Besides, I thought of the combinations Pendulum can give me all last night."

"It's not an issue!" She told him. Suddenly, they saw the three kids waving their hands and Ruri smiling at them.

"Oh, Ruri, everyone!" Yuzu said, running towards them. "Hi everyone. Oh, why are you here Ruri? I thought my dad would pick me up."

"Well I told him to let me come here with the kids so he could cook dinner, besides I still need to say thank you to you Yuzu." Ruri told her.

"About what Ruri-neechan?" Tatsuya asked her.

Ruri smiled at him before explaining "She told her dad to by new clothes for me, and her dad brought me around the city this morning as well."

"You're welcome Ruri, we just trying to help you." Yuzu was grateful of her. "Besides, these clothes are very beautiful and fitting for you!" She complimented Ruri.

"Thanks."

"It's nice." Yuya chimmed in. "And oh, why are you four standing behind a tree like that?"

"It's because I share the same face as Yuzu. I don't want the students and people here to make a fuss about it."

"Oh." Yuya realized. "It's clever!"

Futoshi then said to Yuya with a pleading look "Yuya-niichan, have you perfected Pendulum Summon?"

"Please show us!" Tatsuya added.

"Please!" Ayu told him.

"The kids wanna see you Pendulum Summon again Yuya." Ruri said to him.

Yuya immediately answered. "Yoss! Let's go to You Show!"

"Yeah!" The kids exclaimed.

With that they began walking to the Duel School. Suddenly Yuya sensed something flying towards them. He immediately swung his left hand forward and grabbed them. Three flying darts.

"Woah! How did you do that Yuya?" Yuzu wondered in awe.

"Just good reflex gained from avoiding your fan Yuzu." Yuya joked. She was about to smack him with her fan when someone exclaimed.

"Nearly bullseye! That was good catching all of them like that Yuya-kun!"

They turned to see the source of that voice. A young boy wearing Miami School uniform with brown hair and three yellow bangs that fell down across his face. Said boy then approached Yuya.

"Are you Sakaki Yuya?" He grabbed Yuya's hand and shake it with both of his hands. Yuya and the others looked on in bewilderment. "I am Sawatari Shingo from class 1, nice to meet you." He told Yuya with a smile. "Even though I have only seen it on TV, that was awesome! Your duel with Stong Ishijima, that amazing Pendulum Summon! But uh, how to say them? The two cards that you used in that duel?"

"Pendulum Cards?"

"Right right! Those rare cards, only chosen by the worthy!" Yuya slightly blushed by that comment.

"Sawatari-kun right? Don't flatter Yuya like that!" Yuzu defended Yuya.

"No no! I really thought like that!" Yuya felt super happy at that statement, not noticing that Yuzu had whispered to him.

"Yuya, aren't you going to You Show to show Tatsuya Pendulum Summon?"

"Oh right! I remember!" Yuya woke up from his overexcitement. Yuzu and Ruri looked on in amusement.

"If you want a Pendulum Summon show, I got a perfect place for it! How about 5PM at LDS Center Court? I have booked the place already."

"What? LDS Center Court?" Yuya was surprised, and so were Yuzu, Ruri and the kids.

"Course. I am an LDS student and my father was about to be the mayor of Miami City. If I need help from them, someone will lend me a hand."

The kids was surprised that the prospect of going to LDS, the biggest company about dueling across the entire world. Ruri was keen on going there as well as she did not go into the court during her walk around the city with Shuzo. However, Yuzu was annoyed.

"Ain't coming to my school easier?"

"But Yuzu-neechan, this is LDS Center Court! Center Court!" Futoshi convinced Yuzu, who breathed out in irritation.

"Come on Yuzu, they really want to go there!" Ruri tried to talk to Yuzu. She looked at her and the kids before sighing, giving in to their demands.

"Okay I will go there, as a representative to our school You Show!" She finally relented.

The kids yelled in joy at that.

"I know you will agree. So, shall we go?" Sawatari told them.

The kids immediately went there, grabbing Yuya, Yuzu and Ruri along, despite Yuzu's demand to calm down. Behind them, Sawatari looked at them before pointing his right finger in a gun fashion. "Everything is in the plan…"

" _He really brought us there for free? It's strange…"_ Ruri thought along the way, but decided to shrug it off. She also wanted to come to LDS, the supposed biggest duel school in Standard anyway.

* * *

After 10 minutes, they came to the location. LDS Duel School, belonging to LDS Gaming Company. A tall building shaped like an hourglass appeared in front of their eyes. They stood at the automatic door. It opened, allowing the trio to see inside, and as soon as they looked on, they were completely surprised. It was a large building with tons of students inside, some were practicing sit-ups, others were buying foods from the canteen on the left while few students were buying duel-related stuffs at the duel goods store at the right.

"Welcome to Leo Duel School, or LDS, the duel school owned by Leo Corporation, a lead company in gaming in Japan and all over the world." Sawatari introduced as they walked through duel classes practicing duel ready-up.

"Is the facilities in here state-of-the-art?" Tatsuya asked.

"You know a lot, Tatsuya!" Futoshi complimented the blue-haired boy.

"Uh, my mom told me it is better to come here to learn dueling."

"Best facilities, best teachers, best programs, it's LDS's moto!" Sawatari told the kids.

"Which means this school has everything You Show does not?" Ayu wondered in awe, not knowing Yuzu was having a bothered look on her face while Ruri attempted to ease her out of it.

"Yeah, you know a lot little girl!" Sawatari told Ayu.

"Sorry but our school is just a small place!" Yuzu said in discomfort.

"Come on Yuzu, don't be angry. This place does seem to be really big!" Ruri told Yuzu, who looked at her in annoyance.

"Besides, You Show does have its perks!" Futoshi tried to calm Yuzu.

"Oi, where's Yuya?" Ruri noticed.

"Where? Where is he?" Yuzu turned around looking for him, and let out a sigh when he found out Yuya was looking at the LDS curriculum behind them.

"Yeez… that annoying jerk…" Yuzu pouted while Ruri resisted the urge to laugh.

"Wow, this place really has a lot of things we don't have." Yuya looked at the curriculum in amazement, not realizing someone was walking by. "Xyz course… Synchro course… also Fusion course too!"

Suddenly, a person looked back at him in surprise, holding the candy he was eating. A boy. He continued for a while before walking away, avoiding the bewildered Yuya who looked at him in wonder.

"Yuya!"

"Huh?" Yuya turned around to see Yuzu looking at him annoyingly, the kids smiling at him, Ruri hiding her laugh and Sawatari who pointed at his right.

"The Center Court is over there!"

"WOWWWW!" All of them besides Sawatari could not hide their surprise at the very large LDS Center Court. It was a really big stadium shaped like a rectangle with the farther front joined together. Ruri was in awe at how large the Center Court was even though she had seen how large it was during her walk around Miami City with Shuzo in the morning. She estimated it would be way larger than any known soccer stadiums back in Heartland.

"Wow… this dimension has such things like this too…" She whispered so that no one would hear it. Suddenly, she saw three young men in Miami School uniform approaching at them. They slightly bothered her a bit as they reminded her to the Obelisk Force squad who always went together in three. However she managed to stay calm enough.

"They are also your fans, Yuya! They really wanna see Pendulum Cards you have!" Sawatari told Yuya, who considered giving the three Pendulum Cards he had to him. Eventually he thought it would not be a problem, as a lot of people do want to see them. If he did not do it, they may say bad things at him, running his already damaged reputation as the son of the runaway Sakaki Yusho. With that, he gave Sawatari the two Pendulum Magicians, keeping Odd-Eyes Pendulum Dragon - the iconic signature monster of his – with him, despite the pleading of Yuzu not to and the warning Ruri gave to him.

"Here they are, boys!"

"Fantastic!"

"I wanna have them!"

"No no no no… you can't." Sawatari took the cars away from the 'fans'. "This is not yours, right?"

"Yessss…"

"Because… these cards will be in my rare card collection!"

The trio was shocked.

"Wait, what do you mean by that?" Yuzu asked him.

"I really liked rare and powerful cards, using trash ones is a disgrace to myself! So, may I take these?" He waved the two cards at them in amusement, taking pleasure of the angered looks of Yuya, Yuzu, Ruri and the kids.

"So this is why you took us here!" Yuzu realized in anger.

"Not just that! If I got those cards, I gotta use them too! You guys wanna see Pendulum Summon?"

"Yes, of course!"

"Which is why I have booked the Center Court!" Sawatari then took out a dark green duel disk and placed it on his left arm, 2 arm covering rings appeared underneath and around his arms, keeping the Duel Disk at bay.

"Damn you Sawatari!" Yuya reeled in anger.

"Come on! Everyone here wanna see Pendulum Summon right? How about we duel right here to give the people here the wish they wanted?" Sawatari continued to mock at Yuya and his friends. Suddenly, a voice came out from the Duel Disk he was wearing.

"That's enough Sawatari!"

He looked at the Duel Disk, someone was calling him. "It's OK Nakajima-san, I'm just joking them to force them to duel. I will do it right now." With that, he turned back at Yuya and told him with an unusually serious face "So, we shall duel here. If I win, I will keep the Pendulum Cards. If I lose, you will get them back, got it?"

"The hell I would do it!" Yuya countered.

"Hmmm… it seemed you do not listen, well…" He waved his hands, in an instant, the three lackeys of his ran towards them, attempting to capture the kids, Yuzu and Ruri as hostage.

"Urghhh!"

"Arghhh!"

What happened there took all of them, even Sawatari by surprise. Ruri suddenly punched and kicked the first henchman, knocking him down. She then proceeded to do the same to the other two, making them hit the ground in pain.

"What the hell is that?"

"Ruri-neechan, what did you do?"

"You know martial arts?"

"Ruri…"

" _That's not martial arts… that's street fight!"_ Yuya thought. The moves she just made relied on pure power, not some well-taught karate or taekwondo or aikido or juu-jitsu for all matters. This girl is really strong, apparently her tough background helped her with that.

"Give back the Pendulum Cards Sawatari!" She ordered him, who slightly stepped back in caution.

"No?" And then she ran at him, prepared to launch a haymaker at him but he dodged away and attempted to hit her with a taekwondo kick. She crouched down and countered. He did the same. They continued for a while, shocking everyone in the stadium and unknown to them, two individuals who were watching them through a camera.

"What the f### is that? That girl… she looked like the pink-haired girl over there… she knew how to punch people. And Sawatari knew martial arts too?" A big man in a black suit wondered in fear.

"That's why I picked him Nakajima. Despite being a rich son, he is not corrupted by money from his dad, he actually tried to be like any other kids around his age, proving himself to be useful, for the LDS." A young man with silver hair and a glass explained to Nakajima. "And the girl fighting him right now… interesting… I will find her later…" He took notice of the dark-haired girl with some malice in his eyes.

Back at the stadium, Sawatari managed to kick Ruri away. She stopped her fallback with her feet, looking at him.

"Damn you, the lookalike of that girl! You two sisters are good at bullying and seducing boys like Yuya!" Sawatari mocked Ruri, who, together with Yuzu and the rest of the trio, looked at him with huge comtempt.

"Shut up! I am not related to Yuzu, I just had the same face as her, it's not rare at all, and what right do you have to say Yuzu and me like that! Damn you!" Ruri was disgusted, but she tried to keep her anger at bay. She knew he was just mocking her, and she could not take the cards back by force. "Duel me right now! I will replace Yuya!"

"Huh! Good girl… OK let's get…"

"Wait!" Everyone turned to the source of the voice. Yuya was looking at Sawatari very seriously. "It was my fault that I led you to a dangerous situation like this! Let me deal with him."

Surprised by Yuya's resolve, Ruri smiled at him and walked away "OK, be sure to win Yuya!"

"Do your best Yuya!" Yuzu cheered.

"Beat him, Yuya-neechan!"

"Thank you everyone! I will beat him with my Entertainment Duel!" With that, he turned back to Sawatari, who was looking at him in a cautious manner, very unlike the mocking one he displayed earlier. "So? Shall we duel Sawatari?"

"Hmm, fine. But first, since you 'gave' me these two Pendulum Cards, how about repaying?" With that, he took out cards from his pocket and threw them at Yuya, who looked shocked.

"I give you all of them! Those trash, low-level cards really fitted for a scum like you!" Sawatari mocked Yuya, who picked up the dropped cards in anger. He was furious for Sawatari mocking these cards like this. Every cards had potential to be useful, it just needed a good strategy. And he was indirectly mocking Ruri's deck as well, whether he knew it or not, since she has all Level 1 monsters in her main deck. And he was right, Ruri was looking at Sawatari angrily, feeling her pride as a duelist being crushed by his harsh words.

"Don't worry Ruri, I'll make him pay!" Yuya reassured her.

"Whatever you call it, trash is still trash! Action Field On! Prison Tower of Dark Town!" With that, a bright light appeared underneath from the Solid Vision machine. After that, tons of buildings appeared. Far away, a bridge similar to the deadly curved Eshim Ohashi bridge also appeared under the Solid Vision river.

"What is the Action Field?" From the ground, Yuya saw Yuzu, Ruri and the kids down there. Ruri wondered what the Action Field is, which is natural because according to what she said, she had never been to an Action Duel before.

"You don't know?" Yuzu looked at her in amazement. "Well, Action Field is the field created by tangible Solid Vision, used for Action Duels."

"Action Duel is a duel with Action Cards, scattered around the duel field here. Also, the monsters here are real enough to let duelists interact with." Yuya added from above. The trio looked up to see him, alive and well.

"Oi Yuya!", "Yuya-niichan!" "You're okay!"

"Yeah, I will finish the job. Just stay away from here." Yuya told them, who walked away to the bank near the river. He then looked at Sawatari "And Sawatari, if you hurt them, I will pay you back equal!"

"Fine, I have no intention of hurting them anyway. It's useless now."

"Well… Duelist locked in battle!" A henchman spoke.

"What is that Yuzu?" Ruri asked her.

"The action duel opening chant!" Yuzu told Ruri.

"And the bubble at the top there, Action Cards are in that bubble?" Ruri pointed at the bubble at the top. "Yes."

"Kicking against the earth and dancing in the air alongside their Monsters!" Another henchman said.

"They storm through the field!" The last henchman chimed in.

Sawatari then continued "Behold! The ultimate evolution of Dueling!"

"ACTION…" Sawatari snapped his fingers, the bubble broke, allowing the Action Cards to scatter around.

"DUEL!" Yuya and Sawatari both yelled at the same time.

Yuya: 4000 [5]

Sawatari: 4000 [5]

"I take the first turn!" Yuya declared and ran past Sawatari, who looked back at him, seriously. He slapped Entermate Whip Viper to the blade, summoning it.

Entermate Whip Viper EARTH Reptile Effect LV4 **1700** /900

He then extended his left arm, allowing the snake to squeeze around. He then grabbed its tail, throwing it like a grappling hook into the top of a building and propelled himself to there.

Looking at him, Sawatari drew his card. He had drawn Lighting Board. He then looked at his hand. One Pendulum Magician. He then recalled the event where he re-watched Yuya's duel against Strong and realized he needed 2 of them to Pendulum Summon. So he decided to summon Lighting Board instead.

Lightning Board LIGHT Thunder Effect LV4 **1400** /1200

He then climbed on top of the monster and flew around, seeing Yuya had propelled himself onto the bridge. He slightly chuckled, as Yuya doing that was in his plan anyway.

Yuya looked around the bridge and realized one card having a letter "A" on its backings.

"Action Card!" With that he carefully ran up and eventually caught it, but he was surprised as instead of the usual green color, it was purple, signifying the trap property of the card.

"So bad so bad! Action Trap, Break Shot!" Sawatari explained. "Action Traps are activated immediately after getting them in your hand!"

Suddenly, large billiard balls appeared from the top of the bridge, rolling down, forcing Yuya to jump into one of them. Poor Whip Viper was run over, lying down like a paper.

"That Trap reduces its ATK by 900!" Sawatari told Yuya as Whip Viper managed to return its shape to normal.

Entermate Whip Viper ATK 1700 - 800

"Not every Action Cards is beneficial. Besides Yuya, you only bring more trouble to yourself!"

Yuya immediately realized what he meant and jumped down from the ball, making a parkour roll to safely land down, avoiding a face slam if he had just stood on the ball.

"Battle! Lightning Board, attack Whip Viper! Lightning Darts!" Sawatari's hoverboard fired three lightning darts at the snake.

Once regaining stance, Yuya noticed another Action Card lying down. He grabbed it and…

"Huh… Another Action Trap?"

"Action Trap, Jump Shot!" A white ball flew up from the river and slammed down at the poor snake again.

Entermate Whip Viper ATK 800 - 400

The darts hit Whip Viper, destroying it. Yuya covered himself from the blast.

Yuya: 4000 - 3000 [4]

"Oi oi, if you just stand there, you will get hurt!" Immediately, the white ball returned, ready to slam Yuya. Luckily he managed to dive away.

"Phew…" The three kids exclaimed.

"He managed to escape in time." Yuzu breathed out in relief.

"Ore no turn, draw!" Yuya drew his card.

"Entermate Amenboat summon!" Yuya summoned a water bug, who appeared on the water. Then he climbed on top of it, looking for an Action Card.

Entermate Amenboat WATER Insect Effect LV4 **500** /1600

Knowing he had ended his turn by not saying anything, Sawatari declared his turn, drawing a card from his deck.

"Oh… it's good." He chuckled.

"Magic Card, Release Trade! I can get this card after I tribute Lighting Board!" The board disappeared and Sawatari took out a card from his deck, a familiar one. He showed it to Yuya with a confident smile on his face.

"What? Stargazer Magician?"

"Uh! I know with only 1 card like this I cannot Pendulum Summon but…" He showed Timegazer Magician in his hand and showed it to Yuya "How about this?"

"You got that card in the beginning?" Yuya could not hide his surprise, and so was his friends and the younger kids.

"Uh. And here is one thing you need to know Yuya. With the right equipments everyone can do the impossible! And in this situation right now…" He grabbed the 2 Pendulum Cards between his index and middle fingers and showed them to Yuya.

"I, using the Scale 1 Stargazer Magician and the Scale 8 Timegazer Magician, Pendulum Scale setting!" He did the exact same thing Yuya did during his last two duels with Strong and Ruri.

"Swing, Pendulum of the Soul! Draw an arc of light across the ether! Pendulum Shōkan! Appear now, my monsters!" He mimicked Yuya's Pendulum Summon chant.

"First off, Power Darts Shooter! And then, Rocket Darts Shooter! Finally, Ultimate Darts Shooter!" The three dart shooters appeared from the streaks of light coming out of the Pendulum Summon portal.

Power Darts Shooter EARTH Machine Effect LV5 **1800** /700

Rocket Darts Shooter EARTH Machine Effect LV6 **1900** /100

Ultimate Darts Shooter EARTH Machine Effect LV7 **2400** /300

"So… this is Pendulum Summon… fantastic…" Sawatari commented. He already knew how to do it just from watching footage of Yuya dueling but being able to do it right here, right now made him proud of himself. Finally, he could prove to LDS that he is an excellent duelist in the school and not just some rich assholes like everybody told him.

Yuzu, Ruri, Ayu, Futoshi, Tatsuya looked at the 'phenomenon' in amazement, never thinking that someone else could Pendulum Summon. Yuya however remained calm, knowing that despite being the inventor of this kind of Special Summon, it just came down to the cards, materials used for doing that. Unknown to all of them, the man from the control room was looking at this scene with an unreadable face and so was the boy eating candy standing outside the Action Field.

"Power Darts Shooter, finish the bug!" On cue, the machine fired some darts at Yuya, who ordered Amenboat to swim away. He saw an Action Card, but he remembered the last two instances when he picked them, turned out to be Action Traps, so he decided to do something else instead. Amenboat suddenly shielded Yuya by its wings and the darts disappeared.

Entermate Amenboat ATK 500 - DEF 1600

"Hmm, so it can switch itself to Defense Position?" Sawatari asked in annoyance.

"Yes, and also it negates one attack as well!" Yuya finished.

"But not the second attack! Now, Rocket Darts Shooter!" The monster fired darts missiles from the dart launcher it wielded on its right arm, destroying the bug. Yuya flew under the water from the blast.

"And know Ultimate Darts Shooter, finish the job!" The monster repeated the process already done by its two fellows, blasting Yuya to the bridge support.

Yuya: 3000 - 600 [4]

"Yuya!" "Yuya-niichan!"

Collapsed, Yuya felt like he would just give up, it would be easier. But he then thought back to the advice Dad would always tell him _"If you wanna cry, just smile… If you are in fear, you cannot do anything… If you wanna win, you need to be brave and go forward…"_

" _Dad… When I was small, I thought I would just do that then I would be better. But after many times yet I still felt sad inside, I realized that things are not always like that. I took your advice the wrong way… I will not be that naïve anymore! I will be truly brave and go forward like a man!"_

With that, he stood up with closed eyes, breathing slowly before looking at Sawatari. "I will not lose this duel! I will win! Ore no turn! Draw!" Sparkles appeared along the way the card was drawn.

"Yes! Block Spider summon!" A spider in the form of a block appeared.

Block Spider EARTH Insect Effect LV1 **0** /0

"A level 1 monster with 0 ATK? Such a trash card!" Sawatari mocked him.

"Thanks to this card you gave me, I got a chance!" Yuya countered.

"My cards? Come on I do not remember those trash cards!"

"Magic Card, Mimiclay! By switching Block Spider to defense position, I can special summon this shape-shifting clay of the magician into the field!" The yellow clay slowly changed its form, until it matched the form of Block Spider.

"Block Spider forces your monster to attack only this Insect-type card!" Yuya explained.

"Hmmm… just two useless… Uh!" Sawatari attempted to mock Yuya once again but he realized something different.

"Yes, with 2 monsters having this same ability, you cannot attack at all!" Yuya told him as he set his two remaining cards on his hand and concluded his turn.

"Kurgh… you started getting annoying prick! Ore no turn, draw!" He drew the card. _"What? Cricket Close? But I don't have any Magic Cards on the field! Wait…"_ He looked at his field again and realized. _"Oh… That's why they have green frame on it too!"_ With that, he slid that card into the duel disk, activating it.

"Magic Card, Cricket Close! By negating 2 Magic Cards I control, which are the 2 Pendulum Cards here, I can negate Mimiclay's effect!" Two dart boards locked the Magicians, making them scream in pain. The boards then fire 2 blue blasts at Mimiclay, turning it into its original form. Then, the clay is destroyed and sent into the grave.

"What? Pendulum Cards are treated as Magic Cards?" Yuya wondered.

"Uh. After all, you are the inventor, yet you know nothing about your creations!" Sawatari mocked Yuya, and this time, he could not do anything besides gritting his teeth in anger, for what he said was actually right.

"Now, Block Spider is just a useless monster with 100 DEF again! The duel will end now pricky!"

Ignoring his mocking, Yuya quickly slapped his hand into the Duel Disk's touching screen, activating Draw Muscle. Sawatari read the lore on the card.

"So you depend on a draw to turn the tides around?" He asked Yuya in an annoyed tone of voice.

"Uh!" Yuya put his hand on the top of the deck and drew one card. He turned it around and revealed it to be Entermate Kaleido Scorpion.

Block Spider DEF 100 - 2400

"With this, Sawatari cannot attack anymore!" Futoshi yelled in joy while Yuzu looked at Yuya, smiling, proud of her close friend. Ruri took notice of this and after a quick second, realized what that gesture meant. She gave a small smile to the unnoticed Yuzu.

"Dammit! You just kept ruining my plan all over!" Sawatari exclaimed in anger, but his gritted teeth suddenly turned into a smile. "Kidding!"

"What?"

"By releasing these two level 5 and 6 dart shooters, I can do a power-up!" The two dart shooters turned into yellow dust before running to the remaining monster on Sawatari's field, equipping themselves onto it.

Ultimate Darts Shooter ATK 2400 - 3000

"It can inflict piercing damage now thanks to Power Darts Shooter!"

"600 damage?"

"Realize this? This is the perfect Zero Finish Shooter!"

"Battle! Ultimate Darts Shooter, attack Block Spider! Ultimate Full Shoot!" The dart shooter fired a large dart at the spider.

"This is the end asshole!"

The dart turned into small missiles, flying to Yuya, who stood still in anticipation. He covered himself the moment they came at him, exploding.

"Yuya!", "Yuya-niichan!"

"I've been waiting for this! Trap Card, Empty Fishing!" The trap appeared, the picture looked like a fisherman catching two cards. Sawatari became uneasy at the sight of the picture on the trap.

"I can target 2 cards whose effects are negated, halve the battle damage and add the targets into my hand!"

"What? But the only 2 cards met its condition is…" Sawatari realized.

"Right! The Pendulum Cards!" With that, the 2 magicians turned into card forms before returning themselves to Yuya's hand.

"Finally we're back! Sorry for leaving you like that!" Yuya apologized to the cards.

"Hmm. That was all of your plan?"

"No, I just believe!"

"Believe?" He could not hide his annoyance anymore and spoke more harshly. "Ultimate Darts Shooter will special summon all released "darts" monsters during the End Phase!" On cue, Ultimate Darts Shooter shone up before separating into three again.

"Now, turn the situation around, Yuya!" Yuzu encouraged him.

"Ore no turn, draw!" The card he drew grew sparkles on its arc again. Yuya looked at it and smiled.

"Let's go, Stargazer, Timegazer! The fun has just begun now!" The lights of all the buildings suddenly turned off. Sawatari could not help but wonder what the hell was going on.

"It's here, it's here!" The kids exclaimed.

"Pendulum! Pendulum! Pendulum! Pendulum!" Unknown to them, the boy holding the candy is also cheering as well.

"Ladies and Gentlemen!" The stage lights appeared out of nowhere and shone at Yuya. "Today, at this moment, I will have a very entertaining show to all of you!"

He then held the two pendulum cards and showed them "Firstly, if you talk about Pendulum, then there must be these two fellows!"

"Stargazer and Timegazer!" The kids and the girls exclaimed.

"Right! Let them help the appearance of the star of today! Please greet him when you are ready!"

"Of course!" Futoshi agreed.

"And now, I, using the Scale 1 Stargazer Magician and the Scale 8 Timegazer Magician, Pendulum Scale setting!" With that, the two magicians appeared in the familiar tubes again.

"Swing, Pendulum of the Soul! Draw an arc of light across the ether! Pendulum Shōkan! Appear now, my monsters!" Three swirls of light came down.

"Entermate Turn Toad! Entermate Kaleido Scorpion! Odd-Eyes Pendulum Dragon!"

Entermate Turn Toad WATER Aqua Pendulum Effect LV2 **0** /800

Entermate Kaleido Scorpion LIGHT Insect Pendulum Effect LV6 **1000** /2300

Odd-Eyes Pendulum Dragon DARK Dragon Pendulum Effect LV7 **2500** /2000

"Yes!"

"It's good Yuya!"

"Perfect!" Ruri exclaimed.

"Perfect? LV6 with 100 ATK! Not even worth it! And another one with 0 ATK?" Sawatari mocked the toad and the scorpion.

"Oh, is that really so? Everyone, it may be so bright but please don't close your eyes!" Yuya said. "Kaleido Scorpion's effect activate! Kaleido Search!" The scorpion fired a small light at Ultimate Darts Shooter, making it gained a blue aura.

"What the hell?"

"Since Ultimate Darts Shooter was Pendulum Summoned, I can target it and one of my Pendulum Monsters!" He turned around to Odd-Eyes and touched its claws, making it grew in yellow. At the same time, the other two dart shooters did the same, firing blasts at Odd-Eyes, making the dragon separate in three, two beautiful mirages of Odd-Eyes in red and blue appeared.

"It can attack all of your monsters this turn!" Yuya revealed.

The two mirages flew up high in the beautiful star-filled sky, making Yuzu, Ruri and the kids amazed at that beautiful scene.

"I actually wanted to watch this too, but right now I'm in a duel, this time, let's watch the Odd-Eyes brothers fight!"

"Battle! Odd-Eyes Pendulum Dragon, attack Ultimate Darts Shooter!" The red mirage dragon flew at the dart shooter. "And now, does anyone here know the effect of this dragon?" Yuya asked.

"When Odd-Eyes battles a level 5 or higher monster, the battle damage is doubled!" Tatsuya said.

"Dou… double?" The mirage destroyed Ultimate Darts Shooter. Sawatari covered himself from the blast.

Sawatari: 4000 - 3800 [1]

"And now, Odd-Eyes, attack Rocket Darts Shooter!" The blue mirage destroyed the pink dart shooter. Sawatari was blown away.

Sawatari: 3800 - 2600 [1]

"Attack Power Darts Shooter!" The real Odd-Eyes jumped up high, firing a red blast at the remaining monster on Sawatari's field. "… Of course, the battle damage is also…"

"Doubled!" All of Yuya's friends said in happiness.

"Reaction Force!"

Sawatari: 2600 - 1200 [1]

"Huh! Don't forget my LP is still 1200!"

The kids became worry as Yuya could not attack anymore, but Yuzu reassured them "Don't worry, look at Yuya!" She said. The kids looked at his happy and confident face. "Yuya-niichan will win!" Tatsuya said.

"And now, let's say hello to the two stars today!" Yuya showed Turn Toad and Block Spider. "This toad guy here is about to flip something!" On cue, the toad threw its shadow at Block Spider. "Flip… Toad!"

Block Spider ATK 0 - 1200

"It… it changes itself to attack position?" Sawatari wondered in fear.

"Yes! And its ATK became equal to half of its DEF!" Yuya finished. "Everyone, you know it right?"

"RIGHT!"

"Block Spider direct attack!" The spider flew at Sawatari, who just stood there in silence.

"The answer is…"

"ZERO!"

Sawatari: 1200 - 0 [1]

Large bright spider web like lights appeared along with fireworks, ending the spectacular duel.

"YEAHHH!"

The Action Field turned into yellow dust, disappearing, returning the stadium to its original state. Sawatari looked down in shame while his three lackeys looked at him in worry.

"Kurhh… You made me fail my mission… If it comes down like this, then I will just steal them!" Sawatari declared. "Guys, get the cards!"

"Roger!" All of them ran at Yuya. Yuya and Ruri prepared to fight them when suddenly, the three idiots were hit by something, then Sawatari suffered the same fate as well. All four were knocked down.

"What the…" Yuzu wondered.

"Till the last minute and they are still assholes!"

"Who are you?"

He turned around "But that was awesome Yuya-niichan!"

Yuya now could see them, a kid with light blue hair wearing a black T-shirt and grey pants.

"You're from LDS?" Yuya asked him.

"Nah, not now, not anymore. I want to be your apprentice!"

"Heh?" Everyone was shocked.

"Apprentice? Of mine?" Yuya asked in shock.

"Yeah! If you wanna learn something, you gotta learn it from an interesting person like you right? Since when I came here, you are the number 1!"

"You did that to them?" Yuzu asked, pointing at the unconscious assholes.

"Just to make them sleep a little, they'll be fine! My name is Shiunin Sora! Nice to meet you!" He offered a handshake, and Yuya shook it in confusion.

" _How could he do it to them while he is so young like this?"_ Ruri wondered in her mind, finding his ability to knock out 4 people strange for a kid this age, of course he might have learned marital arts as well, but she still found it to be strange…

* * *

"Let me steal the Pendulum Cards, President!" The glass-wearing man from the control room requested.

"No… no need… Nakajima." The man ordered.

"President…"

The man then continued watching Yuya from the screen.

" _Such an entertaining show… Sakaki… Yuya… interesting… and the dark haired girl there…"_

* * *

 **Wooh! No OC cards this time! I'm so happy with this! It's really hard to make a card balanced for the game. And a huge spoiler with the dragon and the betrayer!**

 **So yeah, Sora has finally come to the show, and he is much smarter this time, considering Ruri did not recognize him right away, but she'll be… And the chapter is exactly the same as the anime as well because I found it to be already good, so I simply added in Ruri's scenes.**

 **Now about Yuya and Sawatari. I changed Yuya's ideals to that while he still wants to bring smile and joy to everyone, he knows that the world is a cruel place and he is willing to resort to violence if he has to. Sawatari is more serious than anime because he will not be relevant to the story (sorry Sawatari fans).**

 **I noticed I made more mistakes in the last chapter so please tell me if I have made any in this chapter. School took away a lot of time.**

 **And here is the next chapter preview:**

 **One-way-ticket to the unknown**

Yuto, Shun and Shark went to Standard, looking for the son of Akaba Leo. Meanwhile, Sora surprised the You Show Duel School with something…

 **This is matrixnis, out!**


	8. Scale 8

**Welcome back everyone!**

 **And now the duel between Yuya and Sora will start, and with Ruri in there too things will not go out as usual. And Yuto, Shun and Shark will get in the scene!**

 **It was rather tiring for me to write this chapter as school schedule is very tight and I only got 4 reviews. Did I do something wrong? Please read and review, your appreciation will help me a lot in finding motivation to continue writing.**

 **I forgot to say one thing during the last chapter, but Action Traps will appear more in this story. This is a really nice concept that sadly was only used in two episodes.**

 **To Guest, Ruri will meet up with Yuto later, but not in the way you may have wanted though. And if you can, please create an account so I can distinguish you from other guest accounts.**

 **To Imagine97, thank you for reviewing my story. Ruri beating goons was from a logical reason: she is at war, so she must know some right? Shark will definitely affect the story a lot.**

 **Let's get started!**

* * *

 **Chapter 8: One-way-ticket to the unknown**

Three days…

Three long days, hopeless days…

Three days since Ruri disappeared and he fought another person who looked exactly like him. The event of that painful day still resided deep within him, creeping his heart, devouring his soul from life…

Three days he had to put up a strong façade in front of his friend, his mother and his comrades, avoiding the questions and the attempts to talk to him…

Three days he fought the enemy with an emotionless face, almost saying nothing during his fights, scaring the enemy and, unintentionally, his comrades somewhat…

Three days he struggled to cuddle himself on the bed, covering his entire body in a ragged blanket, hiding his eyes from any sources of light to sleep, but he could not hide his sadness. The sadness of losing Ruri, his friend, his comrade, his girlfriend. He could not sleep, he could not get rid of that feeling, he could not find even a little piece left in his mind, at all…

Luckily, or maybe worriedly, the third night, he was able to sleep for a few hours, probably because of the slowly draining emotion…

"Wake up Yuto! Eisuke called everyone for a meeting right now! We gotta hurry!"

Yuto woke up to a voice and a poke in the ribs. He stirred, wiping his eyes, trying to wake up. After letting out a yawn with his left hand covered his mouth to preserve modesty in front of someone who had woken him up, he opened his sleepy eyes and saw his mother there, looking at him in worry.

"What's up Mom? Why did you wake me up?" He asked her in a tired voice.

"Kaito's father called all of the Resistance members to a meeting, a very important one. About taking leverage in this war or something!"

"What? You sure?" Yuto asked in wonder.

"Yes. We need to go now, your friends and others are coming too!"

Yuto quickly got up, not forgetting to put on his Duel Disk and came out of the tent with his mom, going to the meeting room where something important will be held. Along the way, they saw Shun, Ryoga, Rio and Kaito among the Resistance members.

"Everyone!" Yuto told them. They turned around and greeted him and his mother.

"Hey Yuto!" Shun spoke.

"Hello Akio-san!" The Kamishiro siblings greeted the woman.

"Hi kids!" Yuto's mother told them.

"Come on, my father is waiting for all of you!" Kaito reminded them. They all walked faster and after a short while, they were at the gate of the meeting room, which used to be a theater. They walked inside and took the front row seat.

"My father wanted all of you to sit here."

"Why Kaito? What does he need from us?" Yuto wondered.

"You don't wanna know…" was Kaito's cryptic answer before he went to the backstage. Yuto looked at his mom and saw her worry over him had increased. He realized it must be something from him. However, he decided not to press his mother for information and just wait.

After a while, a man in his 50s came out. He wore a ragged black shirt, a dark blue pants and a glass on his eyes. He also had a Resistance scarf worn on his right arm. He cleared his throat before asking the audience to keep quiet.

"Hello everyone, I am Tenjo Eisuke, the lead programmer in this city. And I called all of you here because I have found out a useful information that could end this war!"

"What?" All of the people here were surprised of course, for since the war began, they had always been on the defense, trying their best to fight back Academia, but to no avail.

"Yes, I have found out a clue to our counter against the enemy. However, where to find it… is not here!"

"Where?" One man asked.

"Standard." Eisuke finished.

"A different dimension?"

"Yes." The programmer then remained silent for a while to let the information sink in. Yuto, Shark, Rio, Shun looked at him in interest while Akio was frowned.

"The information I have found out is, the headmaster behind this war, Akaba Leo, has a son in the Standard Dimension, and I want some of our members to go there and capture him, using him as leverage to force him to end this war!"

All of the people here were lit up with hope. Hope for the horrible, meaningless, disastrous war to end. Hope for a means to change tables. Hope for bringing back piece and smile to their damaged homeland. After a while, a man stood up.

"I volunteer Eisuke-san!" Everyone looked at him in admiration.

"Me too!" Another one stood up.

"Me too!" A girl did the same.

"Of course I am too! I wanna end this war quickly!" Another girl...

"I appreciate for your heroism. But my father has already chosen the volunteers!" Kaito suddenly came out to the stage and talked.

"Who, Kaito?" Yuto asked.

Kaito looked at Yuto with a serious look before eyeing the stage again.

"We took the Academia's Duel Disk and reverse-engineered their dimension transporting program. However, to make sure that the mission is successful, my father and I had chosen 3 members of us, the best, to do this! And they are the three men who are sitting at the front row right now!" Everyone turned to the front row seat to see Yuto, Shun and Shark panicked, surprised for being chosen for this mission. Rio was fearful, and so was Akio, but she managed to keep a straight face.

"Can't… can't be! Shark is not doing this! I will!" Rio defied.

"Rio, this is the final decision. It has been discussed for an entire day!" Kaito told Rio, who was panicked and near tears.

"Now, come over to the stage, our dear members!"

Reluctantly, Yuto, Shun and Shark came out of their seats and walked into the stage. They faced the audience, all nervous.

Kaito told the group "Now, remember this! You three carry on the will of the Resistance, the spirit of us! You get to Standard, you bring in the son back here, and we will win this war! There is no going back from this! My father had chosen all three of you after watching your experiences during the war! Which means you are very strong, very brave and very courageous! You finish the mission, and we will celebrate the freedom, all right?"

Moved by the speech, they froze for a while before loudly declared "YES!"

All of the Resistance members cheered at this 'death squad' with hope, while Rio and Akio could not stop their tears flowing down…

* * *

After giving their Duel Disks to Kaito so that Eisuke can install the program, Yuto, Shun and Shark returned to their tents. Despite being called brave by Kaito, Yuto knew he was just boosting the member's morale to entrust their wishes to them. Inside, Yuto was scared, very scared. Now he had to go to a completely different dimension, an unknown place, to capture the son of Akaba Leo, which he had no idea who that man was, or whether he is dangerous or not. He thought back of the times before, with his parents, his friends, and Ruri.

Ruri…

The very girl who kept his sadness, his grief, and his anger in control. The girl who taught him to keep his optimism and his smile, to keep who he is. Now, she was gone, and it was his fault. He couldn't do anything. But now, facing the chance to bring her back and end the war, Yuto was filled with hope. The hope to save her, the hope to bring back her beautiful smile, and the hope to end this war. He allowed himself to smile a little, a small one but filled with hope.

"You love her don't you?"

His face reddened by the exact thing that he did not want to tell to anyone yet. He turned to the source and saw his mom standing there, smiling at him.

"How… how do you know?" Yuto wanted to know.

"Usually when being given a serious objective like this, you would be very serious, and especially in this situation, you would be scared or a lot like a baby. But I saw you smile at this. Which means only one thing is in your mind right now… You want to bring Ruri back."

"Y…Yes…" Yuto managed after freezing for a while, staring at his mother in disbelief at her perspectiveness.

She walked to him and sat next to him. She looked at her son.

"Look. I was shocked and scared too when Eisuke told me. Every voices in my head wanted to disapprove this, they wanted to tell me to say to him that he forgot that stupid thought in his mind. But I held back, because I knew why he chose you and Shun and Shark. Your bravery made him choose you for this mission. I really wanted to cry, to beg him to not bring you in this, but I had to remain strong, for you Yuto!"

Yuto nearly cried at her struggle not to cry. He knew she did not want this just as much as him.

"You're a brave man, Yuto, just like your father. I know you are strong, you really are a man even though you do not know it. Don't be afraid of yourself. Be strong, and do your best to bring Ruri back and to end this war!" With that, Yuto couldn't stop his tears anymore. He cried and hugged his mother deeply, who hugged him gently.

"I… I… I don't wanna do this Mom! I'm not strong and I'm not brave! I'm scared Mom! I don't know if I could do this! I'm scared Mom! I'm scared…"

"Ssshhhh…" Akio calmed Yuto down. "Just believe in yourself Yuto, I know you can do this!" She encouraged him, even though she tried her best to hide her own tears…

* * *

"Here, this is your Duel Disk!" Kaito gave the purple resistance Duel Disk to Yuto, who took it and wore on his right arm.

"Press the left icon, it's the dimension transport program!" Yuto did that and the interface appeared. There were 2 locations: Heartland and Standard.

"So I just have to press the Standard word and I will be in that dimension right?" Yuto asked.

"Yes." Kaito confirmed.

"Wait, Kaito. Shark I can understand. But why Shun?"

"Because he's strong and capable. He is a really good fighter!"

"But you know his recklessness and the distrust he is having right now right! Bringing him in will cause a lot of unwanted attention, and even pulling innocents on the way!" Yuto protested.

"We have no choice, Yuto. To be honest, Kurosaki is surely on edge right now, but his skill is the reason we chose him for this mission. Maybe that recklessness and distrust will help you three get closer to finish your mission somehow." Kaito reassured Yuto.

After thinking about what he said for a while, Yuto sighed, giving in. "Fine… But I'll make sure to watch out for him."

Kaito touched Yuto's shoulders. "Hope so. Good luck buddy!"

"Yeah." Yuto told him. Kaito walked away to greet Shark and Shun.

"Me and my father entrusted you with this mission. Don't fail us." Kaito told them. He then gave them their Duel Disks back.

"Whatever you do in that dimension, please come back home safe oni-sama! We have already lost our parents in this war, and I can't stand losing you too!" Rio told Ryoga, who reassured her with "Sure, I promise that my sister!" Rio then embraced him, tightly, both not wanting to let go of the other. But then things got to happen and they knew it. They separated. She finally kissed him on the forehead and turned to Shun.

"You too Shun. And remember don't be too reckless!"

"… uh… Yeah. Thank you Rio." Shun told her after thinking what to say at her warning.

Shun and Shark then walked to the center of the camp, waiting for Yuto to do the same, who is talking to his mother.

"I promise I will be back home with Ruri and end this war! I promise Mom!" Yuto said to Akio.

"Just be safe out there!" Akio simply wished him luck. Then she once again hugged her son. A warm, loving one, lingering the feeling of a mother having to see her offspring going out for battle with each passing second.

"OK Akio-san. Yuto, come with us!" Shun told them.

"It's time… Be safe Mom." Yuto whispered.

"Same to you." Akio told him.

Yuto released himself from his mother's hug and walked to his two friends, not looking back at her even once. She internally felt proud of her son for the maturity and manliness he just showed. Though from the inside, she knew he was just as afraid as everyone else. He simply took a façade in front of everyone.

"Good luck guys!" Kaito wished the trio luck.

With that, Yuto, Shun and Shark activated their Duel Disks, choosing Standard. They slowly turned into blue digital particles, disappearing from the Resistance camp while everybody was watching in hopefulness.

"WE'LL BE BACK!" They shouted one last time to their comrades before they were completely gone, no longer in sight. Everyone returned to their usual duties, besides Akio who went back to her tent and began crying freely. Rio followed her to the tent and confronted her, for they were sharing the same despair right now…

The despair of losing their loved ones by a suicide mission…

* * *

A morning, a beautiful morning, just like any other times. The sunlight went through the windows, hitting Yuya. Feeling something warm hitting his face, he tiredly stirred, took of the blanket and woke up. After wiping his eyes, he looked at the sunrise, admiring the gift the very Earth gave to him every morning to make a warm smile appear on his face. He then took a look at his pendant, a blue one. He grabbed the strings and shook it a little, making it swing like a pendulum like one from a Physics lesson he learned. Looking at it, he thought back for the advice his father made to him, the Pendulum Summon, the meeting with Ruri and Sawatari. That boy Sawatari, despite stealing his Pendulum Magicians, he really was competent. Cornering him to 600 LP and Pendulum Summon, the summon method belonging to him only, along with his serious demeanor during the duel. Yuya noted to himself that he must be careful with him from now on.

Stretching his stiff body, he took off his grey pajamas and worn on his usual clothing, an orange T-shirt, a dark green pants with two large pockets on its sides, a goggle with a star-shaped paper on the left mirror and a Miami School jacket on his shoulders, wearing it like a cape. For unknown reasons, he always managed to wear it like that without the jacket falling off. Yuzu, Shuzo, the kids and his mom usually joked him for this but he did not mind a bit about it. Yuya then opened the door to get out, wondering why that kid Sora came out knocking Sawatari and the gang like that and more of that, he did not know why the kid want to be his apprentice. It's not that he is a bad teacher, he just found it annoying, also taking his free time away as well. He did not think much of it anymore as two cats were running at him from his right.

He greeted the cats and took the brown one named En up. He complimented that En had grown up ever since his mom Yoko took it from the streets. The cat smiled in return. He then looked down and greeted Core, the white cat who was hugging his left foot.

"I knew you were hungry kid! Eat more!" His mom's voice spoke up downstairs.

Yuya slid down from the pole, wondering whether his mom brought home another cat, only to realize that the supposed 'cat' was actually… Shiunin Sora…

"Ah! Teacher!" The kid smiled at him. Yuya became shocked and ran to him.

"Why… why are you…"

"Ah, about that…" Yoko told him. "He was just walking around our house. I found him hungry so I 'picked' him home!"

"Picking a human is not right!"

"But, is this kid your apprentice?"

"NO!" Yuya loudly objected by knocking his fists down the table, making Yoko looked at him and Sora stopped eating, making an "Ehhh?"

"No "Ehhh"! Tick… Talking nonsense, freely going to another person's house and eating my breakfast too!"

"Come on! Your sister's pancakes are really good!" Sora turned to Yuya's mother, who looked surprised.

"Uh? Sister?"

"Eh, no? I'm sorry, it just that you looked pretty young so…" He did not realize that Yoko's face was filled with pure joy.

Yoko gladly forgave Sora and called him an honest child for complimenting her youth and beauty. She allowed Sora to have more pancakes as she… took Yuya's plate of pancakes and gives it to Sora.

"Eh mom! It's mine!" Yūya protested but Sora took his words away.

"Thank you nee-san!"

Deeply frustrated by the situation, he could only sigh in annoyance while Sora asked his mom for more food.

After a horrible breakfast, he walked to school with Yuzu.

"So that kid, Sora-kun right? He's in your house now?" Yuzu asked him.

"Eh… don't know how he could find my house…"

"Teacher!"

"HEH?" Yuya looked back in surprise to see Sora running after him. The kid simply gave him a sly smile.

"What are you doing here?"

"Cuz I'm your apprentice! Teacher goes to A, apprentice gotta go to A with teacher as well!" He innocently answered.

"I told you I did not take you in as my apprentice! Told you many…"

"Come on! Make me your apprentice! Watching your duels make me enthusiastic! Pendulum Summon is awesome! I wanna do it too!"

"But you can't Pendulum Summon without Pendulum Cards!" Yuya tried to reason with him.

"Then show me again! Please, please, please!" Sora requested with a begging face. Yuya and Yuzu looked on in disinterest. He then turned to Yuzu. "Nee-chan can you ask him to show me that again?"

Feeling a little troubled at the request, Yuzu asked him "Why should I do that?"

The answer from the blue-haired kid made her, and only known to Sora, Yuya blush "Because, teacher might do it if his girlfriend asks him to!" She wondered "Gir-girlfriend?"

"Heh, did I say anything wrong?" Sora asked after seeing that Yuzu and Yuya are rather unnerved.

"Of course you did!" The two glared and yelled at him at the same time.

"We're not boyfriend girlfriend or anything Sora! We're just friends!" Yuya hugely protested in embarrass then he turned to Yuzu, not caring about her blush. "Right Yuzu? We're not a couple of anything!"

"Uh? What Yuya?"

"Don't tell me you actually believe what he said? Your face is too red!" He told her.

Blushing further at his implications, Yuzu did not know how to respond. Too many things flooding her mind right now, tons of yes and no shouting within her. So she grabbed the big fan of hers from her bag and… SMACK!

"Don't ever think about it again Yuya!" She yelled at him in her moment of losing control and walk away, a blush still on her face. Yuya looked at her from behind, wondering what he did wrong, not noticing Sora was wondering for his well-being.

Time for class, the subject: Maths. He always dreaded that subject, for he is not too good with it, along with the embarrassing situation happened yesterday. So he grabbed a book, put it up in front of his face to cover him from the teacher and grabbed a pen, pretending to write on his notebook. He suddenly remembered the duel yesterday, especially about Sawatari Pendulum Summoning. He took the two Magicians out from his bag and inspected it.

" _So… it's right. Anyone can Pendulum Summon with Pendulum Cards… It all came down to the cards…"_

" _What the hell is Sawatari planning to? I remembered there was a camera at the far corner of the stadium… and it was activated at that time. Which means someone was watching my duel… someone else wanted my Pendulum Cards too? If so, Sawatari wanted to take my cards to that person… yeah… my pendant created them anyway… no one can replicate one…"_

The frowned look that he had on his face during his loss to his own world did not escape the watchful eyes of his childhood friend, who was sitting next to him right now. She looked at him, worryingly. _"Was the event yesterday affecting him this much?"_

The two, along with the entire class, was in the view of a binocular… of Shiunin Sora… who was hanging upside-down with his legs on the tree…

"Huh… Teacher is really depressed right now…"

So he decided to cheer him up… by constantly stalking him… during his soccer match, behind the chair, hiding under Yuya's table, and during… his private moment at the toilet…

"GRRRRRAAAAAHHHHHHHH!"

…

…

…

"Heh~~" Yuya sighed in tiredness during his walk after school.

* * *

"Come on Yuya, you wanna wear that face for how long?" Yuzu tried to cheer him up.

"But…"

Yuzu suddenly touched his shoulders, causing him to jot up in surprise.

"When you go to school, remember to smile. Our school is always in bad shape. "Be enthusiastic for Entermate" is your motto, right?" She told him with a smile.

Looking at Yuzu, the main and always number one source of joy, he sighed in relievement, then the trademark smile appeared again on his face.

"Alright! Let's burn real hot today! Let's go to You Show!"

"That's Yuya!" Yuzu complimented him.

The two then ran to You Show Duel School together, smiling at each other.

Yuya and Yuzu arrived at You Show. Still excited, Yuya opened the door and ran to the meeting room.

"Hi everyone, the Entertainment Duelist Sakaki Yuya has shown… HUH?"

"Ah, teacher!"

Yuya literally slammed his face down on the ground after hearing those dreaded words. He managed to get up and went to Sora.

"You came here as well?"

"You're late Yuya-niichan!" Futoshi told him.

"Forcing the apprentice to wait!" Ayu added.

Troubled by the kid's words, he did not realize someone was walking behind him. He only did when that person yanked him off the ground, letting out a "Eh" in surprise. He turned around to see Shuzo was the one who did that. He wrapped his hand on his shoulders.

"Yuya, is your apprentice gonna enroll in this school? Nah nah nah!"

Yuya protested "I told you he's not!"

Ignoring his words, Sora begged him to duel. He really wanted to see Pendulum Summon again.

Yuya then asked him "What if I don't?"

Sora then made a cute, innocent face, making others felt pity for him. Seeing this situation, Yuya knew he could not decline this anymore, so he sighed in defeat and told him.

"Ok I will duel."

"Yeah!" Sora exclaimed.

"But! There is one condition!"

"Heh?"

"If I win, you will not follow me around anymore! No 'apprentice' or 'teacher' anymore!"

"Yeah, of course you know what will happen if I win right?"

"Uh…"

At that point, Ruri came up. Seeing the strange situation happening right now, she asked "What's wrong everybody?"

Everyone turned to her, including Sora.

"Ruri-neechan!" The kid greeted Ruri, who smiled at them in return.

"This kid Sora wanna duel with Yuya." Shuzo told her.

Ruri then looked at the blue-haired kid in black T-shirt.

"Oh, it's you from yesterday!"

"Yeah, you came here to see Yuya Pendulum Summon?"

"Nah, I just came here after a sleep to see if there is anything I can do."

"Well, you came here at the right time Ruri! Yuya will duel with Sora!" Yuzu told her.

"Oh! Well, in this case, do your best, Yuya, Sora!" Ruri encouraged them.

"Yeah!" Sora returned, while Yuya simply smiled.

Ruri felt something uneasy from this Duel, especially from Yuya, but she decided to pass it for not wanting to make others worried needlessly.

Standing at the action field were Yuya and Sora, with Yuzu, Ruri, Futoshi, Ayu, Tatsuya at the watching room and Shuzo at the Solid Vision machine.

"The last man standing in this battle, will it be you, or me?" Shuzo chanted. "Action Field On! Field Magic, Wild West Duel Town, activate!" He clicked the Enter button. On cue, the machine started working, changing the duel room into the typical Wild West town in America with the ficitional name Hell River. However, Sora started complaining.

"Eh~ eh~ eh~ how boring! I will not accept! Is there a better field?"

Both Yuya and Shuzo sighed. Eventually, he declared a new Action Field.

"Neo Action Field On! Sweets Island!" The west town turned into dust, in its place a wonderful field with a lot of candies, creams and breads appeared. Sora became elated. He complimented the field and thanked Shuzo for it. He became overjoyed, neglecting the sighed Yuya on the far side of the field.

Both Yuya and Sora activated their Duel Disks, a pink one for Yuya and a yellow one given by You Show School for Sora. Both contestants were in fighting stance.

"Duelist locked in battle!" Yuzu recited the Action Duel chant.

"Kicking against the earth and dancing in the air alongside their Monsters!" Tatsuya spoke.

"They storm through the field!" Came Futoshi. Ayu then continued "Behold!"

"The ultimate evolution of Dueling!" Ruri spoke up, having memorized the chant from Yuzu.

"ACTION…" Yuya said.

"DUEL!" Yuya and Sora both yelled at the same time.

Yuya: 4000 [5]

Sora: 4000 [5]

"I take the first turn! Entermate Discover Hippo summon!"

Entermate Discover Hippo EARTH Beast Effect LV3 **800** /800

"Turn end!"

"Boku no turn! Draw!" Sora drew his card, Toy Pot. He smiled at the sight of the Continuous Magic and activated it immediately. A large pot containing balls appeared, it is shaped like a big toy.

"By its effect, I can discard 1 card." He discard another Magic Card, Fusion Recovery. But Ruri caught a glimpse of the image of the card and she slightly felt unpleasant.

"Then I draw one card! Draw!" Sora drew a card and revealed it.

"Furnimal Bear, level 3! Yeah!" Sora smiled, then he slapped it onto the blade. The pot slammed a rod it held to the ground, making one of the balls in the pot came out. It slid on the slide then flew up, a swirl of energy came out, forming a cute pink bear with angel wings.

Furnimal Bear EARTH Angel Effect LV3 **1200** /800

Sora slapped another card, a cute lion appeared.

Furnimal Lio LIGHT Angel Effect LV4 **1600** /1200

Shuzo complimented to Sora's play, special summoning two monsters at once. Yuzu, Ruri and the kids, especially the girls, squealed at the sight of the cute animals. Yuya became slightly annoyed at their antics while riding Hippo, forgetting that he was about to hit a lake of juice. He suddenly looked at the lake and realized what might happen, but he instead jumped right into the lake, making Hippo wondered what happened to him. Yuya immediately climbed up shore and got up.

"Battle!" Sora declared. "Furnimal Lio, attack Discover Hippo!" The lio jumped at the pig, preparing to hit the latter. But Yuya smirked and sliding one card into his duel disk, then he jumped back into Hippo. The pig then made a side roll, avoiding the attack.

"What?" Sora exclaimed.

"Action Magic, Evasion!" Yuya explained.

"Eh~~ It's not fair~" Sora detested.

"Not fair? This is how "Action Duel" works!"

"So he found an Action Card in the lake and dove in to catch it?" Ruri realized.

"Wow! He's smart!" Ayu exclaimed.

"Oi Yuya watch out!" Yuzu suddenly told Yuya.

"Eh?" Yuya then looked at the front, and saw a big bread in front of him. He went right through it, making the others worried. They soon relieved when Yuya rose up from the top, along with Hippo.

"Furnimal Bear, attack Hippo!" Sora ordered the bear, who pounced at Hippo. Once again, Yuya held up an Action Card and activated it.

"Action Magic, Candy Shower!" An orange orb shot up to the sky and exploded, causing candy to rain down. Sora is in awe, but turned to find the bear eating a pile of candy in front of it.

"Oi! Why are you eating candies instead of attacking?" Sora complained.

"Because Candy Shower changed it to Defense!" Yuya explained.

"Eh? Well, I end my turn here. I should get an Action Card now!" Sora told him and ran away.

Yuya jumped down and drew his card, but he was surprised to find Sora… trying to get an Action Card by using his two animals as ladders. Sighed, Yuya jumped up. Sora was about to get an Action Card when suddenly, Yuya flew past and grabbed it. He looked at hit but…

"What the? Action Trap?"

"What? Action Trap?" Sora was blinded when the card suddenly turned red and went to the pig, making it gain a red aura.

Entermate Discover Hippo ATK 800 - 0

"Haizz… Break Shot…" Yuzu sighed. She knew what that trap was for she had seen it during Yuya's duel against Sawatari.

"It reduces ATK by 900…" Ayu chimmed in.

"So Action Cards are not always advantageous."

"Yeah…" Yuya bitterly spoke, remembering the unfortunate events happening yesterday. "But I got them in my hand anyway. You ready Sora?"

"Wait! Is that…" Sora realized.

"I, using the Scale 1 Stargazer Magician and the Scale 8 Timegazer Magician, Pendulum Scale setting!" The iconic special summon method returned in glory.

"It's here, it's here!" Futoshi shouted excitedly.

"Pendulum Summon!" Tatsuya did the same.

"Swing, Pendulum of the Soul! Draw an arc of light across the ether! Pendulum Shōkan! Appear now, my monsters!" Three mosters appeared.

"Entermate Amenboat! Entermate Sword Fish! And… Odd-Eyes Pendulum Dragon!"

Entermate Amenboat WATER Insect Effect LV4 **500** /1600

Entermate Sword Fish WATER Fish Effect LV2 **600** /600

Odd-Eyes Pendulum Dragon DARK Dragon Pendulum Effect LV7 Scale **4** **2500** /2000

Sora was definitely happy with this. He complimented Yuya with a bright smile. "Amazing amazing teacher!"

"Not done yet! The real fun starts now! Sword Fish effect's activate!"

Furnimal Lio ATK 1600 - 1000

"Battle! Odd-Eyes Pendulum Dragon, attack Furnimal Lio!" The dragon ran a little before jumping up, readying its signature red blast attack.

"Odd-Eyes, burn everything in front of you with that dual-colored eyes of yours! Rasen no Strike Burst!" The attack proceeded, destroying the lion. Sora was blown back from the top of the house to a pillow of marshmallows.

Sora: 4000 - 2500 [3]

Yuya concluded his turn but was worried to see Sora still not moving. Suddenly, he heard the boy laughed and saw him got up. Ruri was slightly nervous about this, for the smile is pretty similar to something she knew back home.

"Yes! It's like that!" Sora got up. "Such an amazing Pendulum Summon! Boku no turn, draw!" Sora drew his card. He closed his eyes.

"When I get this card, which means…" He opened his eyes. "My deck can really put on a show!"

"What? You were not playing seriously all the time?" Yuya was surprised.

" _Really shine up after seeing a single card?"_ Ruri thought. _"No… can't be…"_ Something certain that she knew might happen, but she still doubted it.

"You'll find out soon. Now I discard one card." He discarded another Magic Card with a picture of a noodle.

"What will come out, what will it be?" Sora chanted before drawing a card.

"Yoss! Edge-Imp Scissors level 3!" The ball once again came out of the pot, releasing the monster with malicious eyes and a lot of scissors joined together.

Edge-Imp Scissors DARK Demon Effect LV3 **1200** /800

"And now… Magic Card, Yugō, hatsudo!" Sora showed a card with an image of two orange swirls of energy joining together in a spiral. Then he activated it.

"What? Yugō?" Yuya was caught off-guard.

"Yu… Yugō…" Ruri was shocked.

"Claws of the demon! Fangs of the beast! Become one and reveal a new form and power!"

Sora clapped his hand together, which shocked Ruri even more. "Yugō Shōkan!"

"Eh, what is that?" Futoshi wondered.

"That's Fusion Summon! Monsters joining together to awaken a power residing in the Extra Deck!" Tatsuya told him.

The Extra Deck slot on Sora's Duel Disk opened, allowing a card to show up. Sora took it out and showed it to Yuya, a purple-framed card. "Appear, horrifying beast that shreds everything! Death-Toy Scissors Bear!" Sora slapped that card into the blade. A bear with red eyes inside its opened mouths and scissors piercing through its abdomen, the blades opened showed up, scaring Ayu, who clung into Yuzu for support, and Ruri, who was slowly beginning to breath heavily, her face horrified.

Death-Toy Scissors Bear DARK Demon Fusion Effect LV6 **2200** /1800

Sora smiled "So… teacher… from now I will show you what will happen when I duel seriously…" Those words made Yuya harden his face in anticipation, and Ruri became more horrified, her right hand clapped into a fist, trembling…

"Using Magic Card Yugō to join two monsters together and awaken the new monster!" Shuzo said.

"That is… Yugō Shōkan!" Yuzu and Shuzo finished.

"I heard LDS has only taught it recently… is he from LDS?" Shuzo wondered.

"He planned to join LDS but quit!" Yuzu explained.

Ruri managed to think despite the shock. _"So he is not from LDS! Which means…"_ She realized something between hysterical breaths.

"Battle teacher! First let's make you unable to run anymore on the hippo!" The bear swung its fist into the hippo, making him fall down to the lake again. He managed to surface and got back shore. Everyone was relieved, especially Ruri, for she feared something bad might happen to him after the attack from the dreaded Fusion Monster.

Yuya: 4000 - 2600 [0]

Suddenly, the bear slammed its fist into the lake, pulling out the hippo and devoured it, shocking the people outside the field.

Death-Toy Scissors Bear ATK 2200 - 3000

"So, teacher, where is your seriousness before?" Sora taunted Yuya, then he set two cards down.

"Ore no turn, draw!" Yuya declared his turn. "Entermate Sword Fish's effect!"

Death-Toy Scissors Bear ATK 3000 - 2400

Yuya climbed onto Odd-Eyes "Battle!" The dragon began to run to the bear.

Sora quickly countered. "Trap activate! Jack in the Box! Now you lose one monster, Odd-Eyes loses ATK and the attack is negated!" Sora told him.

"Not gonna happen! Timegazer's effect activate! Inverse Gearwidth!" The trap re-set itself.

"Yeah yeah yeah, the time control effect! But… what about the second one?" Sora asked Yuya, who was unprepared. Sora activated the second trap, which is identical to the first one.

"He prepared by using two same traps?" Tatsuya and Yuzu realized.

" _Typical…"_ Ruri thought, still breathing heavily.

"Now bye bye, Amenboat!" A big red hand joined to a large spring came out from the trap, grabbing Amenboat, turned it into energy and threw it at Odd-Eyes, making Yuya flew out from the dragon, and the dragon loses ATK.

Odd-Eyes Pendulum Dragon ATK 2500 - 900

"Come on, you look scary teacher!" Sora taunted Yuya, who simply switched Sword Fish to Defense Position and set the remaining card on his hand.

"Playing on the defense now, teacher, how boring~"

Death-Toy Scissors Bear ATK 2400 - 3000

Yuzu became worried for his friend. It was then that she realized heavy breathing sounds from behind. She turned around and was shocked to find who did that, Ruri. She was eyeing Sora (unknown to Yuzu), looking pale, only horror on her face, very near to losing sanity. Concerned, Yuzu nugged Ruri's shoulders. Ruri turned towards Yuzu, nearly screaming in surprise, luckily she only grasped low enough.

"You're ok, Ruri?" Yuzu asked.

Ruri managed to breathe in and out and regain her composure. "I'm fine Yuzu." She said with a smile. But a fake one, which Yuzu quickly realized. She shook her head in disapproval. Ruri frowned, she simply told her pink-haired friend.

"I'll tell you later. We got a duel to watch." With that Ruri returned to watch the duel again. Yuzu knew she could not press Ruri for information right now, so she did the same.

"Boku no turn, draw!" Sora drew his card. Another Magic Card, a card that will end the duel with his win.

"Let's finish this teacher! Magic Card, Toy Parade!" A card with the image of a parade consisted of toy soldiers appeared.

"It let my bear here attack for a number of times equal to the number of Equip Cards it has!" Sora explained.

"What?" Yuya shocked at this.

"Wait… which means…" Yuzu realized.

"It can attack three times!" Ruri finished with a stern face.

"Wait! How?" Futoshi wondered.

"Scissors Bears turns the destroyed monster it battles into its Equip Card!" Tatsuya told him.

"If it destroys Yuya's monsters now it can attack 2 more times!" Shuzo continued.

"Yuya…" Both Yuzu and Ruri became concerned for Yuya, albeit each with a slightly different reason.

Regaining composure, Yuya ran to the candy cane, where an Action Card is stuck at.

"I don't think so!" Sora jumped on the hand of Scissors Bear and it threw Sora to the Action Card, surprising everyone and making Ruri become tenser. He grabbed it before Yuya did and jumped down to the ground in a fluid motion, using the big candies to slow down his fall.

"Amazing!" Both Yuzu and Ayu said.

"Such perfect moves! Where did he learn it from?" Shuzo wondered.

" _You may never know…"_ Ruri thought.

"It's good that I got rid of Discover Hippo! You cannot get Action Card that fast without it right?" Sora told Yuya, who noted the kid's cunning anticipation.

"Scissors Bear, attack Odd-Eyes Pendulum Dragon!"

"Not a chance! Trap activate! Entermate Flash! I can change your monster to Defense!" A bright light emitted from Sword Fish, blinding Sora. But he used the Action Card that he snatched earlier.

"Action Magic, Candy Coat!" A big glass appeared, putting itself into the bear.

"Death-Toy Scissors Bear is unaffected by your Magic and Trap effects and cannot be destroyed by battle this turn!" Sora explained with a smile. "So sad, teacher!" Sora taunted Yuya, who gritted his teeth.

The bear punched the dragon, sending Yuya flying and Odd-Eyes to the pool.

Yuya: 2600 - 500 [0]

Yuya slowly got up, looking at Sora like telling him to attack him.

"And now, Scissors Bear, equip Odd-Eyes Pendulum Dragon!"

Yuya did not say or do anything while Scissors Bear used its scissors to grab Odd-Eyes from the lake.

But it did not catch it.

The bear continued…

… in vain.

"Eh? What happened?" Sora wondered.

"What is happening here?" Shuzo also asked the same thing, and so did others.

"You cannot catch it…" Yuya finally spoke. "Because Odd-Eyes is not in the grave!"

"WHATTT?" Sora was shocked.

"Odd-Eyes is not in the grave?" Yuzu wondered.

"How?" Ruri did the same thing.

Yuya answered by showing the Duel Disk. The trio was shocked to find Odd-Eyes… in the Extra Deck!

"Why? Why is Odd-Eyes in the Extra Deck?" Sora asked him.

"Because Pendulum Monsters will go to the Extra Deck when they the field, allowing me to Pendulum Summon it back again if I want!" Yuya revealed.

"What? So this is why you overslept two days ago!" Yuzu realized.

"Uh!" Yuya told her. "To find the possibilities Pendulum Monsters can do! And this is it! Pendulum Monsters unique trait!"

Not being able to hide his excitement any longer, Sora yelled in joy "Interesting teacher! Pendulum Monsters when destroyed will go to the Extra Deck! Such a beast! If so, then I end my turn here! Teacher, it will be very interesting now right?"

"Uh, ore no turn, draw!" Yuya drew his card, another Pendulum Monster. "Good! The cast is all here now!" Yuya did a front flip.

"Everyone, please watch carefully!" Yuya told them. "Swing now, Pendulum of the soul! Draw an arc across the ether!" The big pendulum pendant identical to Yuya's drew past the magicians.

"Pendulum Shōkan! Firstly, I will show all of you a new Pendulum Monster! Entermate Cheer Mole!" A mole with two ring poms appeared. It look around frantically in shy before diving underground.

Entermate Cheer Mole EARTH Beast Pendulum Effect LV2 **600** /1000

"And now another monster!" A bright light shone up from the Extra Deck. Yuya took a card out.

"Be reborn with striking radiance! Odd-Eyes Pendulum Dragon!" The iconic red dragon appeared on the stage again.

"And now, I will show all of you the emotional support friends… to create the success of the show!"

"Everyone, I have a simple math question! If I use the effect of Sword Fish, 3000 minus 600 equals?"

"2400!" The kid shouted.

"Odd-Eyes Pendulum Dragon can now finish Death-Toy Scissors Bear!" Ruri realized.

"Yoss!" Yuya confirmed.

"But if that happens, I only lose 100 ATK, you cannot beat me with that!" Sora told him with a straight face.

"Really?" Yuya told him. "Now is the turn for the new cast! Entermate Cheer Mole! Everyone, watch this beautiful cheering!" The mole cheered at Sword Fish, making Ayu squealed.

"The change in ATK will be increased further by 1000!"

"Which means… 1600?" Sora realized.

Death-Toy Scissors Bear 3000 - 1400

"Shiveru!" Futoshi uncomfortably hugged Tatsuya.

"Furthermore, Bear is level 6, higher than 5!" Ruri told from the sidelines, smiling at the spectacular show Yuya was doing.

"What?" Sora asked.

"The battle damage between Odd-Eyes and Scissors Bear will be doubled!" Yuya told him.

"What? So…" Sora realized he will lose. He even forgot an Action Card was literally above him, just a 2-meter jump would do the job.

"Everybody! Cheer up!" Yuya asked the audience, who all said the same thing "Battle!"

"Odd-Eyes, burn everything in front of you with that dual-colored eyes of yours!" The dragon jumped up high.

"Rasen no Strike Burst!" It fired a red energy blast at the bear, destroying it. Sora covered himself from the blast.

Sora: 2500 - 300 [0]

"Now, Cheer Mole!" The mole digged under the ground before rising up at Sora, hitting him with the blade's sides, knocking him to the dollop of whipped cream. Sora rose up with cream on his head, sighed in defeat.

Sora: 300 - 0 [0]

A hologram projection showed up with an image of Yuya.

 **WIN**

"He did it!" Futoshi yelled in joy.

"Yuya-niichan won!" Tatsuya continued.

"Fantastic!" Ayu finished.

Yuzu breathed out in relief that her friend had won. Ruri also had a bright smile on her face, seeing Yuya in a fun, entertaining duel. She once again thanked Yuya internally for making her relive this exciting moment that she thought she had lost forever to the raging war back home.

The action field disappeared. Yuya found Sora sitting down with his face looking down. Feeling pity, he came to him.

"Remember the promise? Cuz I won, you can't be my apprentice…"

Sora suddenly laughed at faced Yuya.

"Interesting! Such excitement I've felt! My duel with you!"

"Huh? But why do you call me by name?"

"Well I can't be your apprentice, now I can be your friend! And friends call each other by name right?"

"Eh? Who gave you-"

"Yo! You two become friends now?" Shuzo suddenly interrupted. He then held Sora's shoulders. "So? You wanna enroll in You Show Duel School?"

Sora immediately agreed "Course I will!"

"Good! I'll get the paper work!" Shuzo ran away to his room.

Yuya took the chance to ask Sora "But hey, if you're not LDS then where did you learn Fusion Summon?"

"Fusion? Where I live, is common!"

"So where? Overseas?"

"Doesn't matter!" Sora immediately answered "We're friends anyway!"

These words confirmed Ruri's suspicion.

" _So he is not from Standard! He must be from Fusion then…"_

"What do you mean? I did not say we're gonna be-"

Sora interrupted him by putting his hand on his shoulders.

"Nice to meet you, Yuya!" He said.

With these words, Yuya completely lost patience. He turned to Sora with an angry look and chased him all over the action field, with his friends and kids laughing…

Expect Ruri…

Yuzu turned around to the unusual silent space and found Ruri, face very tense, looking at Sora with a hint of rage. She immediately became concerned for her new friend. Not wanting to break the laughter, she decided to ask her later at home…

* * *

After eating dinner, Yuzu dragged Ruri to her room. This is the opportunity to ask her about what she did back there.

"So what happened back there Ruri?"

Ruri looked troubled, not knowing what to say. She eventually came up with something, something she knew she will definitely regret.

"It… it just seeing Sora Fusion Summon reminded me of some people who bullied me before. Which is why I also learned some self-defense moves that I showed to all of you yesterday."

Yuzu looked at her confused and more concerned, thinking something was wrong with that explaination. It doesn't make sense at all. "Did they use Fusion Summon a lot?"

"Y-Yeah! A lot actually. They beat me in duels using them and proceed to harass me. No big deal."

Just from hearing her tone, Yuzu knew Ruri hid something, but knowing she could not pry anymore lest ruining their newly formed friendship, she gave her a quick reply "OK… if you say so…"

"Well, nothing to say more Yuzu?" Ruri asked.

"No. If you do not feel good today, just rest. We'll talk tomorrow."

Ruri nearly got out when

"Ruri?"

"Yeah?" She turned to face her.

"We're friends right? We need to be there for each other when we need to…"

Ruri looked at Yuzu sadly before going back to the guest room.

" _Ruri… Whatever you're hiding, please let us know one day…"_ Yuzu thought before getting ready to sleep.

Ruri went back to her guest room, looking very frowned and saddened.

" _Yuzu, Yuya… I'm sorry… But I can't put any of you and others in danger… It would crush me… beyond repair…"_

She then thought about Sora _"So Sora is obviously an Academia soldier. He befriended them very quickly. What does he want? What does Academia want from them, from Standard? At least I'm in the clear for now, but if he does find out where I really come from, what will I do? What will I do to protect my friends?"_

" _I really don't want to hurt them… like my brother does… It's not right for some reason… even though I really want to… And please… Yuto… don't fall into your own darkness…"_ She tried her best to hold back her tears.

For now, she will not say anything and see what will happen, as she cannot do anything for now…

* * *

The night crept everything all the time. A poor old yellow leaf left a tree, slowly falling down to the ground, swept by the flowing wind. It eventually touched the ground, outside of an alleyway, before being pulled up briefly again and finally rested peacefully on the dirty ground. The yellow suddenly turned bright blue, not from some blue chemical water falling down from above, but from a shining light suddenly shone up at the alleyway. The bright light continued to illuminate the usually dark town before dimming, revealing three young males. One tall, blue coat, long bangs across his face; one just as tall, purple hair in weird shape, spiking up at its tails; and one slightly shorter, purple and black spiked hair, black cape. All in goggles and masks.

"So… this is the Standard Dimension." The man in blue coat muttered.

"So lively… just like Heartland…" The man in purple shirt commented.

"OK, Shun, Shark, we're new here. Let's find a hiding place first, then we'll proceed with the mission!" The last man reminded the other two. "And Shun, don't even think about assaulting people in here. We need to be careful!"

"But Yuto-"

"No but! You wanna get us all in trouble and go to jail, or even worse, die?" Yuto warned Shun with a stern look on his face.

"Fine… Yuto…" Shun growled. Despite wanting to capture the son of Akaba Leo immediately, he knew Yuto would never let him do it under his watch, besides, this place is completely strange to all of them after all.

After about 30 minutes evading people and cameras, they managed to find an abandoned building in the slums quite far from their original place. A room used to be a motel, with evidence from two used condoms at the far corner used by young couples eating out of each other. Slightly disgusted, Yuto grabbed them and threw them away with more force than required.

"What's wrong Yuto?" Shun asked him.

"Uh… Nothing. These things are just annoying!" Yuto told him. He did not want to imagine how he and Ruri would do the thing, these images distracted him from the mission. Luckily for him, Shark knew of that too.

"Yeah, those two condoms are pretty suggestive Shun. I guess you cannot control yourself for long!" Shark made a joke, which Shun and Yuto cracked a little smile at it. At least it helped ease the tension right now.

They finally got a chance to take off their goggles and masks, which to be honest, was slowly making them sweat all over their face.

"It's night anyway, we need to sleep first before finding the son. Objections?" Yuto asked Shark and Shun.

"No!" They both said at the same time, but Yuto could hear the slight annoyance on Shun's answer.

"Deal with it Shun, we still need to take care of ourselves first!" Yuto told him. "Now get some rest!"

With that, the three got ragged pillows and blankets for themselves and slept next to each other, with Yuto staying awake to make sure Shun was asleep before he did. Shun struggled for a while before finally giving in to the sleepiness. Yuto sighed.

" _Don't be so reckless, Shun… I'm just as lost as you are now…_ " With that, he sat down, covered himself by the blanket and went to sleep as well.

" _Ruri… please wait for me… I promise I will bring you back…"_

* * *

 **Phew! A setup for the interesting part.**

 **Am I making Yuto rather controlling? I wish I did not.**

 **Please like or review~**

 **And now the usual Next chapter preview**

 **Fang of Rebellion and the unexpected enrollment.**

Yuto found Yuzu, who he thought was Ruri, in danger. Meanwhile, Shark got a pretty interesting idea…

 **This is matrixnis, out!**


	9. Scale 9

**Hola, I'm back with a new chapter!**

 **From all the reviews and PMs that I have got, I can now confirm that: Yes, Ruri and Shun's father is Thomas Arclight from ZEXAL (but he will not play a role in here sorry) and YES! The dragon that attacked Disaster Leo is… Numbers 107: Galaxy-Eyes Tachyon Dragon! The iconic monster of Mizael!**

 **One reason I included the Numbers is because since I really liked the concept of Numbers Monsters, besides I want to try to bring back the unique trait of each Yu-Gi-Oh series in this story, Numbers Monsters for example. But the origin of Numbers will be different in this story. I am sorry if you are offended by this.**

 **To jalen johnson, Sora probably will. And about age, Sora is still 13. Yuri will not be killed off though, I had a plan for him too, which will be explored in future chapters, along with Yuto and Yugo.**

 **To Gentyman, since Yuto is still hiding in the dark, Shun is recklessly charging forward in his quest, Shark will be the infiltrator, like being in the middle of the other two.**

 **Let's get started!**

* * *

 **Chapter 9: Fang of Rebellion and the unexpected enrollment**

" _Good luck Yuto! I know you can win! We'll catch up later son!"_

" _Thanks dad, mom! I will try my best!" Yuto then ran out from his house to school, ready for the duel competition between the duel schools. Despite being slightly nervous for his first opponent, he was determined to win him._

…

" _Neo Galaxy-Eyes Tachyon Dragon, attack Dark Rebellion Xyz Dragon! Ultimate Tachyon… Spiral!" The yellow, machine-like dragon fired a yellow blast at the black dragon, destroying it. Yuto screamed in pain as he was blown back to the ground._

 _ **Yuto:**_ _10 - 0 [1]_

 _The winner then walked towards Yuto, who looked at him. Male, age 15 like him, long yellow hair with blue eyes._

" _Dammit! I lost again! Right in the first ground, against you! It's not fair!"_

 _The boy then smiled at him "Don't think too hard Yuto! You really have improved a lot for the last two weeks! In fact you actually managed to push me this far, forcing me to use Neo Tachyon to beat you! Better luck next time! I will be waiting for that day when you turn the tables!"_

 _Yuto then got up. "OK, hope you can win against Shun in the next round, Mizael!"_

" _Uh!"_

 _The two shook hand in respect of each other's skills. Then Mizael went to the backstage. Yuto went back to his seat next to his dad._

" _Dad, Mom, I lost!"_

" _Don't worry son! You did really good back there!" Yuto's dad then patted him gently._

" _Time will help you improve, Yuto!" Akio told her son. "Now, let's watch the duel shall we?"_

" _Yeah! Ruri will duel next!" Yuto said excitedly, not caring that his parents were looking at him. After that, he wandered off, looking for a friend of his, but he was nowhere to be found._

" _Where are you… ####?" He became worried, but Ruri appearing in the field shut him out of his thoughts…_

…

…

" _Dammit! Dad! Where are you Dad!" Yuto frantically yelled, searching for his dad who was lost in the ruined streets. He finally found him, sweating, breathing heavily._

" _DAD!" Yuto was happy to find him._

" _Yuto! Stay back! Now!"_

" _What-"_

" _Semmetsu no Tachyon Spiral!"_

" _What? Tachyon Dragon?" And the next thing Yuto knew, the purple spiral blast hit his dad, sending the man flying._

" _DAADDDD! NOOOOO!" He quickly ran at him, but he could not grab him, as a purple light suddenly shone up, enveloping his father in a purple light before he disappeared. The enemy then showed a card to Yuto. He looked at it, in shock. His father, or rather, his father's panicking face was in the center of the card. Yuto could not keep his running tears from stopping anymore._

" _NOOOOOOOO!" He screamed very loudly, then he looked at his father's killer, but instead of Mizael, he saw a boy wearing a sleeveless hoodie looking at him emotionlessly._

" _You! ####! Why did you do this? Why did you betray us? Why did you card my father?" Yuto demanded an answer from him, completely losing his temper._

" _If you wanna know, then duel me!" The boy then activated his Duel Disk, but instead of the usual one of Resistance, but an Academia one._

" _Damn you! Fine! I'll beat you for killing my father!" Yuto then activated his Duel Disk as well._

" _Yuto!"_

 _Yuto looked back and was surprised to see Kaito and Chris running at him._

" _What happened Yuto?" Chris asked._

 _Yuto did not know what to say. He looked down before looking up._

" _#### betrayed us! And he carded my father. He also had probably carded Mizael after taking his Duel Disk!" He said solemnly while gripping the card of his father very tightly._

" _What!?" Both Kaito and Chris exclaimed in shock before looking at the boy. It was right. That very person, their friend. He then took out a card from his pocket, revealing a carded Mizael._

" _####!" Kaito screamed._

" _####, why did you do this?" Chris asked him._

" _Not your business…" The boy replied in a creepy monologue._

" _Damn you ####! You allied with our enemy! What the hell is wrong with you?" Kaito yelled at him before activating his Duel Disk. "I will force you to ask why!"_

" _Uh!" Chris followed suit. "We will punish you for this, ####! You cannot beat the three of us at once!"_

" _3 vs 1… we'll see…"_

…

…

 _All three Resistance members were sweating heavily, both at very low LP._

" _Dammit… he's too strong!"_

" _He's… way stronger than before…"_

" _This is the end! Galaxy-Eyes Tachyon Dragon, attack Chaos Dyson Sphere! Semmetsu no Tachyon Spiral!" Tachyon Dragon fired a blast at the big Dyson Sphere, destroying it. Chris was knocked back, but before he dropped to the ground, #### carded him._

" _Chris!" Yuto yelled._

" _CHRIS!" Kaito screamed, then he eyed the betrayer with hateful eyes. "Damn you ####!"_

 _Suddenly, two squads of Obelisk Force appeared behind the betrayer. He turned to them, saying something before looking at his two former friends again._

" _Gotta go. Leave these guys to you two, although I wanted to take down your Photon Dragon and Dark Rebellion anyway…" With that, he walked off. The squad then activated their Duel Disks, smiling at Yuto and Kaito creepily…_

* * *

Yuto jotted up, sweating profusely, trying to calm down his breath. He had relived the good times before the war, the carding of his father and his friend Mizael by the betrayer that was none other than him, one of his closet friends. He then looked at his watch and realized it was 2 PM. Damn, probably not sleeping yesterday took a massive toll on all three of them. He then looked at the sun, remembering the good times. The times when the clear sky of Heartland paved the way to the bright and beautiful sunlight to shine the land. The sunlight shone up the armored wings of Assembly Nightingale, along with the stunning and bright face of Kurosaki Ruri. The very girl of his life. Looking at the orange light, he promised to himself that he would find her and bring her back home, ending the war and if possible, he would bring his friend from the bindings of Academia back as well.

That promising thought disappeared in Yuto's mind, when the clear sky he was seeing right now turned slowly into the black sky of his destroyed hometown. He swore he had heard something cracking in his heart the moment that imaginary image came to his mind. It once again opened the already unhealable wound within him. Shaking his head to take the images off, he took a deep breath before looking down at Shun and Shark, who were still asleep.

It was, to be honest, good, to see his friends sleeping so soundly like that. The war had taken their goodness away, replacing it with hatred in Shark, and anger, rage, recklessness in Shun. Yuto cursed the Academia and everyone in it, and the Fusion Dimension, for causing this meaningless war, destroying their innocence forever. But at least for now, seeing them like normal, vulnerable kids again during their sleep, Yuto allowed himself a little smile.

He then took out a card from his Extra Deck slot and inspected it. A black card. A black dragon with sharp fangs like Dark Rebellion Xyz Dragon but with more white on its legs, along with artistic glasses on its wings like those from Christian citadels. Five black stars aligned on the left, 3000 ATK and 2500 DEF.

Dark Requiem Xyz Dragon.

He swore he did not know how this card got into his Extra Deck. He remembered that day…

" _Antique Gear Chaos Giant, attack Galaxy-Eyes Photon Dragon!"_

" _Crush of Darkness!" The large mechanical abomination grabbed the photon dragon by its large, pliers-like hand and crush it down mercilessly, causing a large explosion. Both Kaito and Yuto were knocked back. The Obelisk Force watched the scene, feeling amused._

 _ **Tenjo Kaito**_ _: 1600 - 100 [2]_

…

" _ARRRGHHHH!"_

" _Yuto, what's wrong?" Kaito watched his friend growling in anger. Yuto then stepped forward, opening his eyes, his now flickering eyes, blue and white alternating…_

…

" _Appear! Rank 5! Dark Requiem Xyz Dragon!"_

 _ **Dark Requiem Xyz Dragon**_ _DARK Xyz Dragon Xyz Effect R5_ _ **3000/**_ _2500_

" _What… what the…" The Obelisk Force managed to say in shock after seeing this dragon._

" _You Rank-Up your dragon?" Kaito was wondered as well, but Yuto did not listen to him._

…

" _Requiem… Disaster Disobey!"_

…

…

" _Yuto! Yuto!"_

" _Kai… Kaito?" He looked up to see Kaito shaking his shoulders._

" _Phew…" Kaito breathed out in relief. "You beat those guys over there but you just stood still, not saying anything. You crept me out for a while."_

" _What?" Yuto wondered, not knowing what he meant. He then looked at his Duel Disk. He was shocked at the sight of a card._

 _Dark Requiem Xyz Dragon._

" _What? I did not have this card! Why and how did I get this?" But he had no time to think about it because Shun, Ruri, Ryoga, Rio came to them and told them to go back to the Resistance camp. He looked at the card one last time, wondering what had happened, before putting it back in the Extra Deck slot and ran with them…_

…

He did not know what he did to the Obelisk Force member and how that Rank 5 card got there. Thinking back, he found it was pretty similar to the fight before Ruri disappeared. He did not remember about it either, only some words from Ruri that he was not himself and his eyes were glowing blue. Yuto became fearful. He feared he would lose control of himself again…

" _What the hell is wrong with me…"_

Suddenly Shun and Shark stirred and got up. Yuto slightly gasped before putting the card back.

"Hey!" Yuto said to them.

"Hey…" They wiped their eyes and grossly looked at them.

"Fullly awake?"

"Uh…"

"So what are we going to do now Yuto?" Shark asked him.

Yuto thought for a while before looking at his friends.

"For now, we scout the city. We need to find information about the son of Akaba Leo and his possible acquaintances. Shark, you go to the city and find as much information as possible. We will stay here."

"Yuto! Why can't I go with him?" Shun protested.

Yuto simply glared at him. Shun immediately understood. He backed down and said nothing.

"OK I will do the scouting and probably buy some foods and clothes."

"Good!"

With that Shark ran out and do the mission.

"It's good that Eisuke gave us money." Yuto thanked the man for that. He had said that despite the universe is split into four, they still have the same currency and money. He had planned one step ahead and gave them enough money scavenged from the destroyed Heartland Bank.

"When will I do the finding Yuto?" Shun growled.

"As long as you stop being reckless!" Yuto answered.

"Reckless? I'm just trying to find him the quickest way!"

"And your quickest way is?" Although Yuto already knew the answer.

"Go straight to his house and capture him, also beat anyone standing in my way!"

"Never think about it! We are not killers!"

"But Academia killed us! Besides, being the son of Akaba Leo, that guy sure has protection. We cannot get to him without kicking them out of the way!"

"I say again: do not make a carnage like you did back home!"

"I do not care about it anymore! I will do anything to get my sister back and free my parents from the prison named cards! Ain't that what you want Yuto?" He asked his friend.

Yuto froze for a while. It was true that he wanted to do that very thing too. But he could not do it, not by killing people like Academia did, although his very spirit told him to do so.

"Yes. I want that too. But I don't want to get my hands dirty with people's blood! I don't wanna fight anymore!"

"If you do not fight, you cannot reach your goal!"

"There are other ways to do this without causing innocent people to be involved!"

"I don't care! All the people in here work for the guy, which means they are as bad as Academia!"

"You're too short-sighted Shun! You let your vengeance consume you!" Yuto shouted at Shun, who froze.

"As long as I am here, you will not do anything that may cause collateral damage. Now sit back at the wall and wait for Shark!"

With that, Shun and Yuto sat down opposite to each other, looking away, neither saying anything.

Yuto looked outside and thought about Shun

" _You have changed too much Shun… I don't know if we can be friends anymore… and what will Ruri say when she sees you again?"_

* * *

On the way from school to You Show, Yuzu turned to her best friend Yuya.

"Yuya!"

"What Yuzu?" He turned around to see her.

"There is one thing I want you to do." She looked at him.

"What is that Yuzu?" He did not know what she wanted.

"It's important. Remember your duel with Sora yesterday?"

"Yeah, then what?"

"It's when Sora Fusion Summon Scissors Bear, Ruri started to act strange. She seemed to hate Fusion for some reason!"

"What?" Yuya was surprised. He never thought about it. And what does Fusion Summon mean to Ruri that she was angry about?

"You asked her why?"

"Yeah. I did last night. She said some people used to bully her. According to her, they use Fusion Summon."

"I see…" Yuya let the words sink in. "But if it is simply bullying, why does she still hates it? It does not make sense at all."

"Yeah. She seemed to have freaked out and breathed heavily as well. No one would act like that because of a simple reason. And Yuya, what I want you to do is to go out with her this afternoon and try to talk to her. Try to make her say what really made her hate Fusion so much. She is our friend and she needs help right now."

Yuya looked at Yuzu thoughtfully, thinking about her request. If Ruri was really bothered by that simple reason, she may have an honest reason to be hypocritical like that. He needed to help her.

Yuya told her with a smile "OK, I will."

"Thanks Yuya!" Yuzu return a smile.

"Just don't be jealous okay?" Yuya joked.

"What? Jealous?"Yuzu blushed. "You're dirty Yuya!" She took out her fan and attempted to hit Yuya but he ran away, smiling sheepishly at her. She continued to chase him.

* * *

"So Ruri, I want you to do something."

"What do you ask me for Shuzo-san?" Ruri asked Shuzo.

"From what Yuya told me, you use an Xyz deck right?"

"Yes."

"How do you know that summon method? Only LDS would teach students that."

Ruri panicked for a while, not knowing what to say. Eventually, she told him, swallowing the guilt of lying to him and Yuzu.

"My parents used to work for LDS. They got this deck as a birthday present to me and they taught me about Xyz Summon. They told me about other methods as well but I only knew them by name, not by mechanics." An obvious lie, but only to her. She had known about the four dimensions and their respective summon methods from Eisuke.

"I see… so tomorrow, I want you to teach the students here about Xyz Summon. Agree?"

Ruri thought for a bit before agreeing with a gentle smile "I agree Shuzo-san!"

"But wait! About Xyz Summon, it needs Xyz Monsters. How can you get them?"

"Uh… Maybe I'll ask LDS. They created cards for this game." Shuzo told her.

"Oh and about LDS, you know who is in charge right now? I'm just curious." She honestly was.

"The president of LDS? Uhm… Akaba Reiji."

" _What? Akaba?"_ Ruri became shocked at the name Akaba, the family name of the madman who started the war. Which means this Akaba Reiji is connected to Leo.

"What's wrong Ruri? You seemed freak out!"

Ruri snapped out of the thought "Uhhh… It's just I never ask my parents about the president of LDS, that's all." With that she got out of the room to get washing equipment.

" _So the relative of Akaba Leo is here! Right in Standard! I'm gonna meet him later and ask him about the war!"_ Ruri thought excitedly.

Meanwhile, Shuzo became perplexed at Ruri's actions, but decided to shrug it off.

* * *

"Hey you're late! Hurry!"

"Yeah! I'm trying!"

"We need to be at LDS before 4 PM or else the stadium will be booked! Run!"

Two students from the LDS hurried ran to school. Unknowingly, they were photographed by Ryoga who was hiding at a dark alleyway using a holographic camera function on his Duel Disk. He then hid away and inspected the picture.

"Hmm… same uniform… must be from the same duel school… And they said LDS?" Ryoga thought. His suspicion was confirmed when he saw a badge on the picture. A yellow badge with the leters L, D, S appeared.

" _L, D, S… Duel School… Leo… Leo Duel School… The letter L can be from Leo. This is it! A lead to Akaba Leo and his son!"_

Needing to confirm this suspicion, he ran outside where the two students went, carefully avoiding pedestrians during the way. When he stopped at where they headed, he was shocked to find out where. A big building in hourglass shape with a large LDS letter on it.

"So it's real!" Ryoga thought out loud.

"You don't know LDS?" A young voice can be heard from his left.

Ryoga turned around to see an LDS student with yellow bangs running across his face, pretty similar to Shun.

"Yeah, I don't know. Can you tell me something about LDS?"

"LDS is a duel school owned by Leo Corporation."

"Leo Corporation?" Ryoga was shocked. "Leo in Akaba Leo?"

"Uh. The original president of LDS, Akaba Leo ran this company." Sawatari explained. Ryoga became even more shocked at the name. "He disappeared three years ago for some unknown reason."

"Three years ago…" Ryoga thought, still froze.

"Then his son, Akaba Reiji took the chair and ran this company since then. He expanded the school to all over the world using the company's influence and his business skills."

"The son? And LDS is now all over the world?" Ryoga said very loudly.

"Yes. You don't know about LDS, even a single bit?" The boy asked him after seeing his freaked out expression.

"Uh… yeah." Ryoga managed to calm down. "I may join in this school someday."

"If so, you can get me for help. I am Shingo Sawatari by the way." He expanded his hand.

"You can call me Shark, I don't like my real name very much!" He told him, then the two shook hands.

"See you later Shark!"

"You too Sawatari!" With that, the two parted ways.

Ryoga ran back to the corner he hid earlier and made a call from his Duel Disk to Shun and Yuto. The two inspected the hologram appeared on their Duel Disks and realized it was from Ryoga.

"What Shark?" Yuto asked him.

"Got a lead?" Shun did the same.

"Yeah! Take a look at the picture!"

On cue, the two saw a picture of two teenagers wearing white coat and red long pants. However, what caught them in their eyes were the badge.

LDS.

"LDS?" Shun wondered.

"DS is Duel School, but L, you can guess…" Ryoga told them.

"L… L… Leo!" Yuto realized.

"So Akaba Leo got a duel school in Standard! And his son inherited it!" Shun continued. He immediately wanted to see him.

"Not in my watch Shun! We gotta wait!" Yuto warned Shun, who returned with a growl.

"Also, his son's name is Akaba Reiji. He took over three years ago when Leo disappeared! Probably to Fusion to prepare the war."

"Alright, now get some food and return. We'll think about the next step later!" Yuto told Ryoga.

"Yeah!" With that, Ryoga turned off the phone call.

"We're getting closer! So quickly!" Shun smiled at this information. A smile that Yuto knew it wasn't pleasant.

"We will find Akaba Reiji together, and not by force Shun!"

Shun glared at his best friend before relenting.

"Fine… 'friend'…"

* * *

"Möbius the Ice Monarch, attack Power Darts Shooter! Ice Lance!" A big light blue monster wearing a cape materialized an ice lance and charged past Power Darts Shooter, destroying it. The henchman covered himself from the ensuring blast.

The two henchmen looked on in awe.

"Such a strong deck, Sawatari-san!"

"Your new deck is awesome!"

"Yeah… And this deck will help me get my revenge on that bastard… Sakaki Yuya…" He grinned at his dark intention.

* * *

"It's beautiful Yuya!"

"Yeah!" Yuya slightly blushed after hearing Ruri's compliment.

"So why did you take me around the city?" Ruri asked him.

"I don't know… strengthening our friendship I guess?" Yuya told her. "Besides, you're still new to this city, what is better than taking you around the town with a friend and enjoying the view?"

Ruri chuckled at his reason "Nice choice of words Yuya! You are really nice and understanding!"

"Heh heh, you're welcome!" Yuya thanked her. "Now, how about going to the restaurant over there and have some foods?"

"Good idea Yuya!" With that, they went to the restaurant and ordered some foods.

Yuya smiled at Ruri, who was eating shushi slowly and gently like a sweet kind of girl. Not many girls these days can keep that female mannerisms like that all the time. He thought her parents must be pretty strict of her. He could not understand why they broke up and left her daughter alone like this. It deeply reminded him of his father, who unknowingly left him and his wife three years ago, during his important match with Strong. It marked his awful life from there. Always being bullied and talked at. Luckily, since he was slightly older that time, along with his mother's caring, he managed to get over it and live like a normal teenager. Having similar situations, he knew he could talk to Ruri and know what made her re-act to Fusion Summon like that.

"Ruri!"

"What?" Ruri looked up at him.

"There's something I wanna talk to you?"

"Something?" But Ruri knew he was probably talking about her freaking out to Fusion Summon, girl instinct.

"Yes. Yesterday, during my duel with Sora, at the time when Sora Fusion Summon, you freaked out. What happened to you that made you hate it so much Ruri?" He gently asked her.

"Uh… Some people bully me with Fusion Summon back then Yuya. That's why." Ruri managed. _"You really don't wanna know about it Yuya…"_

Yuya knew this was not the real reason. Hating something just because it was used to hurt me before? Not really. But he knew he could not pry her for more, lest he will jeopardize their friendship. So he simply told her.

"Look, Ruri. You are not alone. You got me, Yuzu and Shuzo. If you are bothered by something, just tell it to us. We will help you, and we will help you with all of our heart, OK?"

Touched by his words, Ruri managed a sad smile "Yeah…"

Noticing her sad face, Yuya quickly changed subjects "OK! It's nearly dark out there, wanna go somewhere?"

"Where Yuya?" She asked.

"Motel!" He joked at her.

Blushing at his innuendo, Ruri threatened Yuya with a fist rising up.

"Don't even think about it Yuya! Yuzu will kill both of us!"

"Hahahaha! Just joking!" Yuya immediately responded. Seeing Ruri like this, he could not keep his laughter. "Come on, let's go back! I'll pay the bill."

"Yeah!"

With that, they began to walk back to You Show.

* * *

Ayu and Yuzu walked into a store, buying ice creams.

"Yuzu-neechan, I need to go to the toilet!" The girl told Yuzu.

"OK, be quick!" Ayu then ran to the toilet.

Yuzu looked Ayu going to the toilet, thinking back to Ruri freaking out and her request to Yuya.

" _Hope you can handle this Yuya…"_

Yuzu then thought about the current situation with her dad's school. Very few students with only Yuya, her, the three kids and Sora. Too few, nothing compared to the large, worldwide LDS. She feared that her dad's school, the school named after Yuya's father, the famous Entertainment Duelist Sakaki Yusho, may become bankrupt.

"How can I recruit more students?" She said bitterly, looking down, frowning.

She then turned around… to see a male teenager with strange 'tentacles' purple hair looking at her with a freaked out expression.

"Eh… something's wrong with me?" She nervously asked him.

The boy managed to regain composure "Uh… uh… nothing! Just forgot to buy clothes for my sister! I'm sorry!" He apologized to Yuzu.

"It's OK." Yuzu reassured him.

"And uh… about your school, is that a Duel School?"

"Yeah."

"The name?"

"You Show Duel School."

" _You Show? Yusho… teacher Sakaki Yusho!"_ The boy realized that Sakaki Yusho was from this dimension. He had heard some rumors about him disappearing since the invasion started. Information from Eisuke confirmed that Yusho may not originally be a resident of Heartland. And now her words confirmed it. Sakaki Yusho was from Standard. An idea suddenly formed in his head.

"How about… I enrolling to your school?" He requested nervously.

"For real?" Yuzu said, widening her eyes, wanting to confirm his request.

"Y-Yes! For real!"

Hearing this, Yuzu was happy. It was like a small light at the end of a tunnel. "Well if you want to, come back tomorrow to this address! This is where the school is!" She gave a business card of You Show Duel School to him.

"OK! Thanks a lot! Oh, what is your name?"

"Hiragi, Hiragi Yuzu."

"Kamishiro, Kamishiro Ryoga!"

The boy then hastily ran out of the store, forgetting to pay the bill and shake her hand. Yuzu looked on with wonder, noticing that he did not even give her a chance to say see you later or, supposedly, buy clothes for his sister.

"What's wrong Yuzu-neechan?" Ayu came out and asked her. Yuzu turned around.

"Uh… nothing Ayu." Yuzu lied to the young girl. "Come on, we gotta buy ice creams for the boys!"

* * *

"How long are you going to keep me prisoner like this?" Shun asked Yuto, trying to break the awkward silence that had happened for the last two hours.

"As long as-" Yuto was interrupted by Ryoga running back, bringing some foods and water with him.

"Here guys!" Ryoga told them.

"Yay!" Shun exclaimed.

"Good job, Shark!" Yuto complimented him.

"I have not eaten so much before!" Shun immediately grabbed a bread and began to eat like crazy.

"Slow down Shun!" Yuto advised, although he himself could not keep his droll from running out of his mouth. He then grabbed one as well.

Ryoga looked at Yuto and Shun, amused by their actions. Lucky that he managed to keep his hunger in control. Then he turned to Yuto "There's something important I wanna tell you." He whispered and made a sign for Yuto to come outside. Yuto understood and went out.

"So what is important?" Yuto asked him.

"I found a girl today!"

"And?"

"She had the exact same face as Ruri!"

"What? You sure?"

"Sure!" Ryoga confirmed.

"Well… I'm going out to confirm. Tell Shun I'm scouting and don't let him go after me."

"OK."

Yuto then ran out, not forgetting to put on his disguide. Ryoga then returned and grabbed another slice of bread, beginning to eat as well.

* * *

Ayu and Yuzu walked back to the school, complaining the boys for asking them to buy ice creams for them. Suddenly, they saw two of Sawatari's henchmen buying food for him. Yuzu told Ayu to keep quiet and watched them from behind.

"Sawatari-san really wanna beat Yuya huh?"

"Uh, "I will crush him utterly by a duel", he said."

The two girls got shocked.

"He may even force him to duel as well."

"Come on, we need to bring these back to him!" The two lackeys ran off. Yuzu and Ayu followed them. Unknown to the girls, Yuto was stalking from behind. He briefly became shocked at the sight of the older girl.

" _Ru… Ruri?"_

Yuto managed to run past the girls without them noticing and went to where the two boys ran to, a pier. He used his athletic ability to climb to the top of a warehouse, numbered 53. He then took notice at the tall building in front of him.

" _LDS… So you are here… Akaba… Reiji…"_

He then looked down to see 'Ruri' standing outside of the house number 52 with a stern face. He was truly shocked by her face, the exact same as Ruri.

" _Ruri… why are you here?"_

He saw her going inside and confront someone. He heard her and someone talking to each other.

"You wanna hurt Yuya, why?"

"Just wanna settle with him, I don't care about you, get out!"

"As if I do! He helped me last time. This time I will not let you harm him again! Third-rate duelist!"

"What? What did you say?"

"Third-rate! Third-rate duelist! No, even worse! Fourth-rate, fifth-rate, hundredth-rate duelist!"

" _How can Ruri be so angry like this?"_ Yuto thought.

"Krughh… you have guts!"

"Yes, I have! And I will not let you hurt Yuya again! Now duel me!"

"Duel? Duel a bitch, nagging girl like you? Hell no…"

"What do you mean-"

UGMM!

"What the? They closed the door! What will they do to her?" Yuto panicked in his mind.

"I really did not want to do this, but a bitch like you, there is no choice! Consider this a lesson!"

Yuzu immediately realized what he meant and began to panic.

" _Shit! I cannot wait anymore!"_ Yuto immediately jumped down and opened the door by force, then he kicked the henchman at the door, sending him flying, shocking the people inside. Yuto then slowly walked inside.

"What do you want?" Yuzu asked him.

Ignoring her question, he looked at the LDS badge on his collar. His eyes hardened.

"Suddenly coming in like this, wanna be the knight rescuing the princess?"

Yuto swung his cape and crossed his right hand in front of him, activating his purple duel disk.

"Such a strange Duel Disk… and you're left-handed?" Sawatari commented.

" _He's left-handed?"_ Yuzu thought "Wait! What do you want?" Yuzu protested and prepared to put in her duel disk but Yuto put his left hand to her arm, stopping her. Yuzu looked at him in surprise. He then looked at her.

"'I'… don't want 'you'… to get hurt…"

Shocked by his word, Yuzu could not say anything.

"How cool! But enough now Knight-kun… " Sawatari then activated his duel disk as well.

 **DUEL!**

 **Yuto** : 4000 [5]

 **Sawatari** : 4000 [5]

"I take the first turn!" Yuto told him. He then looked at his current hand, envisioning his usual strategy.

"I set all cards in my hand down." He set down his entire hand, shocking everyone inside. "Turn end."

The lackeys could not stop laughing at Yuto.

"Stop!" Sawatari ordered. The henchmen immiediately stopped on his command.

" _Setting his entire hand down… very strange… LDS does not teach this…"_ Sawatari thought before touching his deck.

"Ore no turn, draw!"

* * *

"Yuya-niichan!" Ayu tripped on the way, letting the ice creams flying. Yuya managed to catch her while Futoshi grabbed the ice creams. The boys and Ruri sadly looked at the ruined goods.

"What happened?" Ruri asked the girl.

"Yuzu-neechan is in trouble!"

"WHAT?" Everyone yelled at the same time.

"What happened?" Yuya asked Ayu.

"She chased Sawatari to the pier. She is in there right now."

"Alright, Ruri and I will look for her. You kids all stay here and do not go anywhere till I return, got it? I will tell Shuzo-san to stay with you!"

"Yes!" They all said at the same time.

With that, Ruri and Yuya ran outside.

"Yusho-san!" Ruri told Shuzo, who was fixing his bike.

"What?"

"We're gonna need to use your bike for a little bit!" With that, Yuya took the bike. He and Ruri then jumped on.

"Get inside and stay with the kids! They will explain Shuzo-san!" Ruri hastily told Shuzo. The teenagers then rode off to the pier, where Yuzu was.

* * *

Sawatari looked at his drawn card, then Yuto's field.

"Allow me to use your set cards!"

" _What does he mean by that?"_ Yuto thought.

"Since you control more than 2 set cards, I can special summon Escher the Vassal of the Ice Monarch!" A blue vassal in a meditation stance appeared.

 **Escher the Vassal of the Ice Monarch** WATER Aqua Effect LV4 **800** /1000

"Magic Card, Double Summon! Now I can normal summon two times this turn!"

" _What? A normal summon deck? Shun may be in trouble with this…"_ Yuto thought. Normal Summon and Normal Summon-centric deck actually got perks in a lot of situations.

"Then I'll release it!" The vassal disappeared, replacing with a larger looking monster, similar to the vassal. "Möbius the Ice Monarch Advance Summon!"

 **Möbius the Ice Monarch** WATER Aqua Effect LV6 **2400** /1000

"Good!" A henchman spoke.

"Now your two set cards on the left will be gone! Freeze Burst!" The monarch charged a blue energy on its hand before releasing it into frost winds. The two cards revealed themselves to be Phantom Death Spear and a magic card with an image of a creature riding a black horse before being destroyed. Yuzu was shocked at the effect, but Yuto remained calm, as if nothing had happened.

" _Just what I wanted…"_

"Remember Double Summon?" Sawatari reminded Yuto. He then slapped another monster to the blade, the monarch disappeared, on its place, an even bigger and more powerful looking emperor showed up.

 **Möbius the Frigid Ice Monarch** WATER Aqua Effect LV8 **2800** /1000

"What? It's level 8 but only needs one release?" Yuzu wondered.

"Uh, but it only needs one released monster to Advance Summon this card!" Sawatari explained. "And your last three set cards will be destroyed as well!"

"COOLLLL!" The lackeys chimed in with incorrect English.

The emperor readied its hands, forming small tornados. Then it flew towards Yuto and Yuzu.

"Blizzard Destruction!"

A card named Drain Barrier and 2 same magic cards as the normal Magic Card before showed up before being destroyed. Yuto and Yuzu covered themselves from the strong frost wind. After the blast, Yuzu suddenly realized something. She held up her hand.

"EH? There is no Action Field, but why I can feel the wind?" She wondered.

Yuzu then looked at Yuto's field. She grasped at the condition. 0 card on either hand or field.

"Hey, play seriously! If I had known this, I would have not allowed you to replace-"

Yuto suddenly looked at Yuzu again, making her froze.

"Done talking?" Sawatari mocked. "Finally, Shisha Sosei, activate! Come back, Möbius the Ice Monarch!" The monarch returned to the field, roaring.

"Ready for an OTK? Battle! Möbius the Frigid Ice Monarch, direct attack!" The emperor charged up energy on its spikes and created a blizzard. As Yuzu gasped, Yuto simply pointed his left index finger forward.

"From the grave, Magic Card, Phantom Knights Shadow Veil activate!"

"Huh?"

"From the grave?"

"Magic Card?"

" _As I predicted…"_ Sawatari knew it may happen after briefly glancing the lore of the destroyed cards.

The three Magic Cards came out from Yuto's Duel Disk's graveyard slot. He grabbed them and slid them to the blade, special summon three ghostly knights in horses.

3x **Phantom Knights Shadow Veil** DARK Warrior LV4 0/ **300**

Sawatari however quickly slid his last card onto the disk. "Quick-Play Magic, Barrier Maneuvering, activate! Now this monster can make a direct attack!"

"What?" Yuzu became shocked, Yuto was also, but the mask and his goggles hid his face from Sawatari while the lackeys cheered on. The frost wind pushed back Yuto near the gate. He managed to stop the push and got back on his feet.

 **Yuto** : 4000 - 1200 [0]

"Hurt, isn't it?" He mocked, although he was wondering how the wind was real and Yuto was pushed back without being in an Action Field. But he shrug it off. "Now Möbius the Ice Monarch attack his Shadow Veil! Thanks to Maneuvering, it can inflict piercing damage!"

"Really?" Yuzu thought out loud.

" _Dammit… he was actually a big challenge…"_ Yuto thought. He clearly had underestimated him, but he will not lose, for his 'girl' standing next to him. Suddenly a white barrier formed around Yuto, shielding him and Yuzu from the resulting blast of his monster being destroyed.

 **Yuto** : 1200 - 2400 [0]

"What the hell happened?"

"I banish Drain Barrier to negate battle damage this battle and increase my LP equal to half of your monarch's ATK!" Yuto explained.

"Krugh… I end my turn…" Sawatari looked away in shame.

"Sawatari-san…" The henchmen looked at him in worry.

"Ore no turn…" He put his hand on his deck "DRAW!" He drew with a lot of force.

"To be honest, you actually managed to push me this far, I can feel the sharpness of a blade or the power of a bullet from your duel."

"What the hell are you talking about Knight-kun?" Sawatari asked annoyingly.

"… but it ends now! The conditions have been met! When there are more monsters with the same levels, the evolution of my deck will show up!" Yuzu gasped in surprise.

"I, using the two level 4 Shadow Veils, to construct the Overlay Network!" The two monsters turned purple before flying into the vortex appeared on the ground, shocking everyone.

" _Is this…?"_ Sawatari thought.

"From the pitch-black darkness. Rise up against the foolish oppression, Fang of Rebellion! Descend now! XYZ Shōkan!"

A large blue pillar of light shone up, blinding everyone besides Yuto who had his goggles on.

"Rank 4! Dark Rebellion Xyz Dragon!" Yuto's dragon came out of the portal. Yuzu and others looked at the dragon in awe.

 **Dark Rebellion Xyz Dragon** DARK Dragon Xyz Effect R4 **2500** /2000

" _Dark Rebellion… Xyz Dragon… similar naming scheme…"_ Sawatari has a thought, a rather scary one.

"Wow! Xyz Summon!"

"He is an Xyz user!"

"Impossible! Xyz Summon is only learnt by Top-Class Elite of LDS!" Were what the three lackey said.

Ignoring their words, Sawatari hardened his face. He knew Xyz Monsters generally have more powerful effects than Synchro of Fusion Monsters because of the limited number of times it can activate its effects due to its specialty: Overlay Units.

"I activate Dark Rebellion Xyz Dragon's effect! By detaching one overlay unit, this turn it can halve the attack power of a level 5 or higher monster and increase its own by the lost amount, then it gain one additional attack!" The two Overlay Units snapped into Dark Rebellion's outer scissors-like ornaments on each side, opening them and charging purple energy on them and the entire wings, before blasting them at the two monsters on Sawatari's field, draining them of their power.

"Treason Discharge!"

 **Möbius the Ice Monarch** ATK 2400 - 1200

 **Möbius the Frigid Ice Monarch** ATK 2800 - 1400

 **Dark Rebellion Xyz Dragon** 2500 - 5100

"Shit!" Sawatari cursed.

"It now has… 5100 ATK!" Yuzu exclaimed the unnecessary.

"Battle!" Yuto declared. "Dark Rebellion Xyz Dragon, attack his two monsters!" The dragon charged forward, raising its fang.

"Hangyaku no… Lightning Disobey!" The dragon destroyed the emperors using its fang, creating a large blast, causing Sawatari and the gang to hit the wall behind them. Yuto ran to 'Ruri' and covered her with his own body, shielding her from a small rock hitting his goggles, causing the left glass to break. The lights was also destroyed, causing small fire around the warehouse.

 **Sawatari** : 4000 - 0 [0]

Weakly getting up, Sawatari saw Yuto taking off his broken glasses and walked to him, clicking something on his Duel Disk. When he got near, Sawatari was shocked to see his face.

"Yu… Yuya?" Everyone was shocked.

A holographic picture appeared above Yuto's Duel Disk, showing Sawatari the image of two male LDS students running.

"I'm going to ask one question only. See the badge?"

Sawatari took a look at the picture and held his own badge.

"What is the connection between LDS and Academia?"

"A… Academia… I don't know…" Sawatari weakly told him.

"Don't be kidding me!" Yuto raised his voice.

"I'm not! Anyone joining LDS will have that same badge! I do not know what the hell Academia is!" He managed to say before passing out, unconscious from the blast.

"Sawatari-san!" All three of his lackeys screamed. They held him up and ran outside, neglecting Yuya and Ruri who were wondering what had happened.

Yuto was slightly shocked at Sawatari passing out. "Dammit… was it necessary…I should not do this again…" He then turned to the girl.

"Yuya, why are you wearing these? What did you-"

"Oi Yuzu, Yuzu!" Two voices, one male and one female could be heard outside.

Yuzu turned around "Yuya! Ruri!"

" _What? Ruri?"_ Yuto took notice of the name. The name of the one and only girl of his. He attempted to run outside but suddenly, Yuzu's bracelet shone up in purple.

"What the- ahhhh!" The next thing Yuzu knew, Yuto was gone.

"What the… Yuya! Yuya!"

"Yuzu!"

She turned around to see Yuya and Ruri running at the gate.

"Ruri? Yuya?"

"You're OK?" Yuya asked her, running to her.

"Yeah… And uh Yuya-"

"Thank god you're okay!" She was shocked at his next action: hugging her. She did not know what do to, what to say. Yuzu could not take out her fan either. Ruri looked on with a shocked expression.

"We thought Sawatari would do something bad to you! Thank god!" Yuya said to her with sincerity, still hugging her tight. Yuzu melted in the hug, Yuya's first close action with her ever.

"OK Yuya, I'm fine." She told him.

"Hope you two are finished!" They turned to see Ruri looking away, slightly embarrassed. They immediately realized they were still hugging and pushed each other out.

"I'm… I'm sorry Yuzu! Please don't think anything bad about me! And please don't hit me!" Yuya hastily told Yuzu, who simply shook her head, smiling at him. Ruri had to keep herself from laughing at Yuya's antics.

"And by the way, why is the warehouse burning? Was there a fire in here? Sawatari did it? Or someone else?" Yuya asked Yuzu, who looked at the empty field with a perplexed expression.

"Come on Yuya, she was in danger. You shouldn't bombard her with questions like that!" Ruri told him, who realized what he was doing. He said sorry to Yuzu and the three walked off. Yuzu did not talk during the way, as she was still very confused in her mind.

" _Yuya… and that guy… they have the same face… just like me and Ruri… what the hell is going on…"_

Yuya noticed Yuzu was bothered by something but decided not to say anything, he respected her privacy. Ruri had the same answer with him too.

* * *

" _What the hell happened?"_ Yuto thought, after appearing near the hideout.

"Oi Yuto! Yuto!" He heard Shun yelling for him. He turned around to see Shark and Shun looking at him worried.

"Why are you late like this? What did you do?" Shun asked him.

"Just… scouting, that's all!"

"But your glass broke! You were in a duel right?" Shark became worried for his friend. Seeing this, Yuto sighed.

"Yeah… but not dangerous."

"Who? LDS?"

"… Yeah. But LDS is not involved with Academia. The duelist told me that."

"He could be lying!" Shun's suspicion escalated.

"I beat him in a duel. He did not know we could cause real damage! He was panicked. He told me the truth, I know it." He decided to leave the part of Sawatari passing out.

"But LDS may be involved!" Shun protested.

"Enough! I got enough shit for today with you Shun! We'll talk tomorrow!" With that, Yuto stormed off. Ryoga looked at Shun, slightly disappointed, before going off with Yuto. Shun looked at Yuto, shocked for a moment, before going back, looking at the dark wall before angrily throwing a bottle of water he was holding to the wall, destroying it.

Ryoga walked to Yuto, who was looking at the river.

"You should not have been loud like that Yuto!" Ryoga scolded him.

"I know, I will apologize to him later. But I did that for one reason."

"And that is?"

"There's something I must tell to you only. Promise not to tell Shun." He then looked at his friend.

"OK."

"I found the girl you talked about."

"What?" Shark was shocked.

"Yes. She has the exact same face as Ruri. And after I dueled the LDS student, she said something like… Ruri!"

"What? Ruri is here?" Ryoga managed to keep his voice low enough.

"Uh. She may be in Standard." The warmth in his voice told Ryoga that what Yuto said was real, and filled with hope.

Ryoga smiled at this. "This is good!"

"Yes." Both boys smiled.

"So this is why you don't want to tell Shun about it!" Ryoga realized.

"Yes, he will make an even bigger carnage to find her if we tell him. I know he truly wants to find his sister, but seeing his personality right now, I cannot allow it! It already ruined my friendship with him, and I don't want their relationship to be destroyed as well!"

"I see… well, I will not tell him. And one thing. Remember Sakaki Yusho?"

"The runaway?"

"Yeah. Turned out he was originally from here!"

"What? How do you know Shark?"

"Yuzu, the pink-haired girl I talked to you, remember? She said her father run a duel school named You Show Duel School."

"You Show… Yusho." Yuto muttered.

"Yes! And she gave me the business card here!" Ryoga took the card out and showed it to Yuto.

"Hmm… Wait!" Yuto realized something. "Are you going to join that school?"

"Yes!" Ryoga confirmed with a confident smile.

"It would only waste our time! Quit it!" Yuto protested.

"It would give us a closer way to find Akaba Reiji, I guess. Anyway, we all have not been in a duel school for a while. Agree?"

"… Maybe…"

"Well, the plan's set! I will go there tomorrow. I will say to Shun about this."

"Fine… I accept. Come on, let's go back."

With that, the two friends came back to the formerly motel room, eyes filled with renewed hope. Yuto's face however quickly became frowned again, thinking about his close friend who betrayed everyone in the Resistance and worked with their sworn enemy.

" _So… there is hope after all… but… why did you do this… what the hell is wrong with you…"_

* * *

 **Fanfic OC Cards**

 **Barrier Maneuvering (Quick-Play Magic Card)**

If your opponent control three or more monsters and you control fewer monsters than your opponent, target one of your monsters, this turn, it can attack directly. Also, you can inflict piercing battle damage this turn.

 **Drain Barrier (Trap Card)**

Target one monster your opponent controls, gain LP equal to half of its original ATK. When your opponent's monster declares a direct attack while this card is in your graveyard, you can banish this card, then target the attacking monster, gain LP equal to half of the target's original ATK.

* * *

 **Finished! I hope you guys liked the duel. I changed it so that Sawatari is actually a competent duelist in his own right, nearly winning the duel against the main character!**

 **So yes! Mizael is not the betrayer, it is someone else. His name will be secret for now. Feel free to guess who he is. Time will reveal him to all of you readers (lol).**

 **Next chapter preview**

 **Trouble creeping in!**

Being accused of wounding Sawatari, LDS challenged You Show to a three vs three match to settle the argument. Meanwhile, Kamishiro Ryoga joined the school and did something pretty sinister…

 **This is matrixnis, out!**


	10. Scale 10

**Welcome back people!**

 **I got a few things to say to all of you guys. Firstly, this is chapter 10! With 13 favorites, 12 follows and 37 reviews! Thanks all of you, especially Gentyman, jalen johnson, And then the sky, Guest, Playerhood18, Imagine97, Frost190 and Romadrox8975, for reading, reviewing, liking and following my story and me. I never expected to receive much attention like this, they really helped me find motivation to write this story. I hope I could write more interesting and detailed chapters in return. Secondly, after this chapter, I will go hiatus for about a week because of the examination coming up. This is really bad for me as I really loved this story, I hope the exam will end soon. Finally, the next two chapters of this story will be nearly the same as anime ep 9 - 13, sorry for that. But since this is my first story, I want to write as much as possible. And I promise after that, we will have a very interesting plot coming up, along with chapters centering Yugo, Yuri, Selena and the betrayer I have mentioned earlier.**

 **Once again, thanks a lot to all of you readers. I will be back as soon as I can.**

 **One question to all of you that I would like to get replies quickly: a Numbers will make its debut this chapter. In anime and OCG, it is called 'Numbers', not 'Number' like TCG. Do you want to use the TCG term or the OCG term? Also, feel free to guess about the name of the betrayer of this story.**

 **And now, get your favorite deck involving Shark and read this chapter!**

* * *

 **Chapter 10: Trouble Creeping In!**

Up high in the blue sky, above the usual white clouds, flew through some eagles. They were on a daily hunt, preying any unfortunate victims down below. But the moment they were about to fly down, they had to hastily fly sideways, to avoid a thruster-engine of an airplane from crushing them to pieces. Except the pilots who were sighing in relief, the rest of the passengers in the plane did not know, or rather, only one. A woman, still beautiful despite being in her 40s, who wore a pink skirt and blouse with long earrings and necklace, pink colored high heeled shoes with golden strips, along with pink nail polish, red lipstick and had pink hair and blue eyes. She was reading the latest news on her Leo Corporation-issued Ipad, about the company successfully bought and integrate with the biggest Duel School in the USA. She touched the picture of her with the head of that Duel School, looking the enlarged digitalized photo with a smile.

"The plane is about to land down on Miami International Airport."

Receiving the notification, she looked on the window besides her, watching the beautiful Miami City, and especially, the LDS building.

The plane finally landed down gracefully. She stepped out and got on a black limousine, going back to LDS.

"Congratulations chairwoman for the successful business deal!"

"Thank you. So the grand plan has been one step further. To envelop LDS all over the world and train Duelists with the best skill and power, that's the plan of mine and Reiji-san all along."

"You must be very happy after this successful deal… however…"

She hardened her face "What?"

Nakajima then informed her "To be honest, for fear of interfering with the deal, we have not informed you this. While you were away, a number of events have happened."

"Events?"

…

* * *

"Welcome back, kasan!"

"Reiji-san, about the new Summon method, what is that?"

"Please sit down over there mom!"

The woman sat down on the chair. Reiji opened the holographic screen, showing the duel between Yuya and Strong, the new summon method called Pendulum appeared.

"Pendulum?" She wondered.

"By using 2 special cards called Pendulum Cards, many high-leveled monsters can be special summoned without release! This happened just four days ago!"

"Is that… that kid?"

"Yes, but the problem is…" Reiji then clicked a button, showing the data of Sakaki Yuya.

"The first person to use this is Sakaki Yuya, from You Show Duel School, male, age 16, from Senior Youth Duel Class. This year he had dueled 46 times, 26 win, 20 loss."

"The win ratio is 60%... no wonder he is only at that level. But you tell me that the kid from Senior Youth Class had invented a new summon method?"

"He's the son of Sakaki Yusho."

"What? Sakaki Yusho?" She thought out loud.

"Yes mom."

"Sakaki Yusho, who disappeared three years ago, has worked with the enemy and gave his son…"

"Or maybe the opposite." Reiji interrupted.

"What?"

Reiji clicked another button, showing the woman the images of a boy.

"Things is, last night, the son of Sawatari-sensei has been attacked." The woman hardened her eyes.

"And the enemy uses Xyz…"

* * *

At Miami Hospital, an aged man was looking at the person lying in the bed, trying his best to hide away his sadness in front of his three friends.

"I'm sorry, Mayor."

"I could not do anything to Sawatari-san…"

"No need to say sorry." The man spoke, nearly in tears. "I will find the man who caused my son to be like this, and beat him down to a PULP!" He roared, scaring the three boys.

"You don't have to be so hurry like that, Mayor!"

All the people in the room looked at the opening door, seeing the woman in pink skirt and blouse carrying flowers."

"Chairwoman Akaba? How long had you been back?"

She approached him, saying "I have only heard about Shingo-kun when I got back."

The Mayor then stood up "Thank you so much Mrs. Chairwoman!" He tried to smile.

"No need to." She gave him the flowers. "Sawatari Shingo will handle this city in the future. When I heard about what happened to him, I got here as soon as I can."

"Yes. I will call the police now-"

"Don't do it." The chairwoman interrupted "If we call them now, things will escalate. You don't want this to ruin your reputation don't you?" She let the word sink in.

"Leave them to us." She promised.

"Really?"

"Yes, I will find a way. Now I gotta go back. Hope your son could recover soon."

"Thanks Mrs. Chairwoman." He took the flowers. The woman then got out of the room, smiling scarily, unknown to the kids. The Mayor then held Sawatari's hand.

"Please son… Wake up…"

A single tear dropped. The three boys understood the situation, they went out of the room, not forgetting to close the door…

* * *

"Uggghh…"

Ruri woke up to the alarm electric clock on table next to her bed. She got out, re-arranged the bed and went to the bathroom. Relishing the warm and pleasant feeling from the hot water, she thought back about the events happening five days ago. The duel with the Obelisk Force, Yuto went crazy. Her being chased by the man whose face is similar to Yuto, losing the duel. The bracelet suddenly lit up, banishing both him and afterwards, herself. Finding and befriending Yuya and Yuzu, whose faces are similar to Yuto and her respectively. Knowing a boy named Sora, who used Fusion Summon and realizing he was from Academia, she did not know what to do with him. And Yuzu being in a destroyed warehouse at the piers, looking worried by something. She could not ask her anything, she would not talk. Ruri respected her privacy and left that topic for a while. After a few minutes, she put on her new clothes. Shuzo was kind enough to buy to her another set of clothes, consisting of a dark purple shirt and blue long pants. She once again felt guilty. She did not know how to say sorry to him and Yuzu for lying to them.

Looking at the sun outside for a while, she sighed. Things happened too fast. For now, she would just rest and relive the once forgotten peaceful then got out, going to the kitchen and having breakfast with Shuzo and Yuzu. She avoided asking Yuzu about the events yesterday of course. Yuzu still seemed to be bothered by that. Her father also kept quiet, making a very awkward breakfast. After that, they went to You Show Duel School, where Yuya and the kids were waiting for the lesson Shuzo and Ruri would give to them. Stopping there, she told them.

"Shuzo-san, Yuzu! I will go out for a little while, just to ease my mind a bit. Can you two go inside and wait for me?"

"Hm… OK, just be quick Ruri!" Yuzu told her.

"Yes!" With that, Ruri went forward while Shuzo and Yuzu went inside.

"Whatever happened to you, please tell to us as soon as possible, ok daughter?" Shuzo said to his daughter.

"Uh… Yeah dad, I just need time…"

* * *

"Just do not hang in that school for too long Shark!"

"I got it Shun! Just do not be reckless!" Ryoga told him.

He got out, walking to the address Yuzu gave to him. It was good that he did not have to buy new clothes to cover his secret identity. His sister Rio bought her new clothes which were identical to the usual purple jacket and pants he wore before departing, saying that that was the best thing she could do to say her brother goodbye. He mentally thanked her for this, although she obviously did not know about it anyway. After a while, he was near there. He slowly ran to the school when a certain someone forced him to stop, in shock.

Dark purple shirt with blue long pants, but what truly shocked him was the face. The very face of one of his friends that he knew. Said person was also shocked at his sight as well.

"Ruri!"

"Ryoga!"

They immediately ran towards each other and hugged tightly, crying in happiness.

"Ryoga! It's really you Ryoga!"

"Yes! You too Ruri!"

They released, looking at each other now. Ruri then bombarded Ryoga with questions.

"How are you here? How are others? Where is everybody? Is Shun okay? Is Yuto okay-"

"OK Ruri, calm down, I will explain everything. Just go somewhere else and we'll talk!"

Ruri breathed out, relaxing herself. They then went to the bushes near the place they had met. Ryoga then proceed to tell her everything.

"Oh god… Yuto, Shun, Rio. I made everyone worried. I'm so sorry…"

"OK Ruri, at least I have found you! Now, let's go to our hideout and meet th-"

"Ruri!"

They both turned around to see Yuzu, looking worried. Yuzu then looked at Ryoga, shock began to appear in her face.

"Ryoga! What are you doing here? What are you doing with Ru-"

"Oi oi oi oi oi! Please don't make a fuss, I will explain." Ryoga quickly said.

Ruri then looked at Ryoga, sending a look that said "Don't tell everything about us". Ryoga understood and lied to Yuzu. "We are best friends. After Ruri was gone, I began looking for her and found her here."

Yuzu widened her eyes in surprise "Wow… you really care about Ruri…"

However, Ryoga was stunned by the look on her face " _She… she has the exact same face as Ruri…"_

"Ryoga, why are you looking at me like that?" Yuzu wondered.

"Eh!" Ryoga realized what he was doing and explained. "It's just… now I can see you here, you have the exact same face as Ruri!"

"Yeah, I don't know how, but people with same faces is not a rare thing!"

"Probably." He chuckled. "And about what you said, yes, we are friends, and friends help each other. So yeah, I was going to enroll in You Show because I wanted to find Ruri. I thought I would find a lead there." He lied. Ruri looked up at him secretly. "And fortunately I have found her!" He looked at Ruri, smiling. She smiled in return.

"Oh, so that's how it happened!" Yuzu exclaimed.

"Yes. And Ryoga, you don't have to worry about me. I currently live in Yuzu's house now."

"That's nice! Thank you Yuzu!" Ryoga thanked Yuzu, who nodded in return.

"So, Ruri is also currently in You Show Duel School. You wanna join in and give her some company?" Yuzu asked.

"Really Ruri? You're in You Show too?" Ryoga was honestly surprised.

Ruri simply said "Yes!"

"Hell yeah! I'm in too!"

With that, the three bursted into laughter at Ryoga's actions. After a while, they stopped.

"Ok. You Show Duel School is this way!"

* * *

"I'll go inside and inform my dad. Wait here!" Yuzu stepped inside, leaving Ruri and Ryoga behind.

"So you're living in her house and enrolling in this Duel School of Sakaki Yusho?"

"Yes… wait! You said Yusho-sensei?"

"Uh. Try to speak You Show in Japanese!"

After thinking for a while, Ruri realized "Oh! Yusho! Is Yusho-sensei in this dimension?"

"I think he originally came from here. Maybe for some reason he went to our homeland. Probably he disappeared in the same fashion too…"

"I see… And Ryoga, for now please don't blow our cover okay? I had to lie to them to get such care like this when I disappeared from you guys… and I'm not ready to say sorry to them yet…"

Hearing her pleading, Ryoga understood what she had to do. "Okay Ruri, I will not compromise any of us. Anyway, after the day, can you go to where we are hiding? We are looking for Akaba Reiji, the Professor's son."

"Looking for him? You may not get him Ryoga…" She trailed off, looking at the door to avoid someone in there hearing what they said.

"Why Ruri?" He wondered.

"Because he is the CEO of LDS."

"We've already known that Ruri." Ryoga explained. Ruri widened her eyes before continuing.

"That's good. And one more thing, one student in here is actually an agent from Academia!"

"What?" Ryoga was shocked. "Who?"

"A kid with blue hair, his name is Shiunin Sora. He did not know me yet, so don't do anything stupid okay. Also, since we both use Xyz, you must say to them that you are formerly from LDS and you dropped out."

At that moment, the door opened.

"Come on, get inside." Yuzu told them.

"Okay!" Ruri and Ryoga walked into the school.

To Ryoga, the school was small compared to the Clover Branch back in Heartland. He wondered how a school with the name of a famous entertainer is so embarrassing like this. Moments later, seven individuals came out. One adult, two teens, three kids and one tween, the one that made both Ruri and Ryoga uncomfortable, the spy of Academia.

"Hello. You must be Kamishiro Ryoga."

"Yes. And are you the principal of this duel school?"

"Yes I am. Let me introduce you to the members here. First off, I am Hiragi Shuzo, the head of this school."

" _Hiragi Shuzo… well, not Yusho-san… fine…"_ Ryoga thought.

"This is my daughter Hiragi Yuzu." He said with pride, which made Yuzu blush slightly.

"The girl is Ayukawa Ayu!" He continued, looking at the youngest girl in the group.

"Uh… Hi!" She greeted him with a nervous voice.

"This is Yamashiro Tatsuya!" The boy gave Ryoga a smile.

"This is Haradi Futoshi." The boy said his "shiveru" line again, which made Ryoga slightly annoyed.

"The boy here is Shiunin Sora!" Sora looked at Ryoga, who gave a cold stare in return. Sora immediately noticed and gave him an equal one back. Silence formed in the room.

The male teenager with red and green hair cleared his throat and introduced himself. "And my name is Sakaki Yuya."

"Sakaki?" Ryoga said out loud. "The son of Sakaki Yusho?"

"Uh… Yeah! How do you know?"

"Eh… Ruri told me!"

"Yes, I told him Yuya." Ruri explained.

"Wow…" Ryoga was shocked to finally see him, the very son of the famous Sakaki Yusho, besides he had the exact same face as Yuto. _"He has the same face as Yuto too…"_

"Hm?" Yuya wondered after seeing Ryoga surprised.

"Nothing, just… it's a pleasure to meet you, Yuya!" He told him quickly and shook his hand. Ryoga knew as a son of a famous person, he should not address him as the son of Sakaki Yusho, the famous entertainer. A lesson he learned from Kaito.

Yuya smiled at him and shook back. He then asked him. "So you join in?"

Ryoga thought for a while, looking at Ruri who had a pleading look. He then answered.

"Probably… after I test the student's capabilities first."

"What do you mean by that?" Shuzo wondered.

"It's harsh to say this, but your school is really small. I'm not sure if I could join in or not, for I may be a burden to this school!" He explained to Yusho, who frowned at this grim reality.

"Ryoga! Don't say that!" Ruri slapped his hand.

"Well… I'm sorry. But yeah, I need to be sure."

"And by doing what?" Yuzu asked him.

"I want to duel the best student here! Then I will consider." Ryoga told them.

"The best student? Well, you will have to duel Sakaki Yuya!" Shuzo pointed at Yuya, who looked slightly nervous but managed to keep calm.

"Why not me?" Sora chimed in. "I am also good too!"

"Cause Yuya beat you earlier remember!" Tatsuya said to Sora, who pouted.

"So Yuya-niichan, will you accept the challenge?" Ayu asked Yuya.

Yuya looked at her for a while, before looking at everyone, then Yuzu, who gave him a warm smile. Finally, he looked straight at Ryoga, smiling confidently.

"Okay, I accept the challenge!"

"Let's see if you are worth my expectations…" He mumbled.

"Come on, let's get to the Duel Field over there and have an Action Duel!" Yuya said.

"Action… Duel? What the hell is that?" A question that Ruri obviously had to answer…

"Action Duel is a duel with Action Cards, scattered around the duel field here. Also, the monsters here are real enough to let duelists interact with." Ruri told the exact same thing Yuya had said.

"What do you mean by real?" Ryoga lied, knowing how real monsters can be with Real Solid Vision already.

"Using Real Solid Vision, the monsters have mass, causing them to be realistic enough for duelists to interact with!"

" _Real Solid Vision… pretty similar to Academia and Resistance…"_

"What's wrong Ryoga?" Yuya noticed his frowned expression.

"Uh… nothing!" Ryoga hastily explained. That answer did not fail to escape the ears of Shuzo.

" _Pretty similar to what Ruri did yesterday…"_

"Anyway, let's get to the duel room Ryoga!"

"Fine!" With that, they headed to the room while everyone watched outside.

"In case you do not know Ryoga!" Ruri told him. "In Action Duel, we have an Action Field and an opening chant!"

"Opening chant?"

"Uh!" Yuya said. "Ruri!"'

"What?" She wondered.

"Which Action Field will fit Ryoga?"

"Well… his nickname is Shark, so I guess something with water?"

"Okay. Shuzo-san, your turn!"

Shuzo, who was already at the Solid Vision machine, touched the Enter button.

"Action Field on! Field Magic, The Legendary Ocean activate!" On cue, the scenery changed to an ocean. The duelists were literally under the water. Ryoga panicked, trying to swim up for air. Yuya and the rest bursted into laughter.

"Don't worry Ryoga! You won't die! Because…" On cue, the water level lowered to their knee level.

"See!"

"Don't scare me like that again!" Ryoga growled. The rest had to keep themselves from laughing.

"Anyway, duelists locked in battle!"

Ryoga looked on in bewilderment, which caused Ruri to chuckle. It was similar to her situation two days ago.

"Kicking against the earth and dancing in the air alongside their Monsters!" Yuzu added.

"They storm through the field!" The kids and Sora continued.

"Behold! The ultimate evolution of Dueling!" Ruri added in, which slightly shocked Ryoga. _"Wow, she really adapted fast… How flexible…"_

"ACTION…" Yuya said.

" _Get ready…"_ Ryoga thought.

"DUEL!" Yuya and Ryoga both yelled at the same time.

 **Sakaki Yuya** : 4000 [5]

 **Kamishiro Ryoga** : 4000 [5]

* * *

The sphere above them broke, releasing cards inside. They are covered in bubbles to make them float in water.

"The challenger goes first!" Yuya invited.

"Fine by me. Ore no turn! Come out, Big Jaws and Shark Sucker!" A shark with, true to its name, big jaws appeared, scaring the kids but oddly, not to Sora.

 **Big Jaws** WATER Fish Effect LV3 **1800** /300

 **Shark Sucker** WATER Fish Effect LV3 200/ **1000**

"It's scary Yuzu-neechan!" Ayu whispered, hugging Yuzu.

"Don't worry Ayu! His nickname is Shark, so he got a lot of sharks in his deck!" Ruri tried to confront the small girl.

"Two level 3 monsters… don't tell me…" Yuya thought. Unknown to him, Sora eyed at Ryoga with interest.

"I, using these 2 monsters, overlay!" The two sea hunters turned blue before going to the overlay network appeared on the field, a bright light shone up after that.

"What?"

"He's an Xyz user like Ruri?" Shuzo wondered.

"Huh… An Xyz scum…" Sora said in a small voice so that nobody could hear. Unfortunately, it did not escape the ears of Kurosaki Ruri, who secretly looked at him with sharp and angry eyes.

"Xyz Shōkan! Rank 3! Underwater Mothership Aero Shark!" An orange monster consisting of two sharks linked together appeared from the water below.

 **Underwater Mothership Aero Shark** WATER Fish Xyz Effect R3 1900/ **1000**

"An Xyz Summon…" Yuzu said.

" _Like Ruri…"_ Yuya thought. He would need to ask him about this later.

" _Mediocre…"_ Sora thought in his mind.

"An Xyz user! I got to duel another Xyz duelist! Interesting!" Yuya complimented Ryoga, who said nothing, his stern face remained.

"And now by detaching one Overlay Unit…" The Overlay Unit disintegrated.

"You take 1200 damage for 3 cards in my hand!" Aero Shark opened its mouths, firing torpedoes at Yuya.

"What? Effect Damage from the start?"

"Air Torpedo!"

" _Right off the bat!"_ Ruri thought, recalling Yuto always had to endure this daily punishment.

Yuya suddenly ran.

"What?" Ryoga wondered.

Yuya found an Action Card inside a bubble and grabbed it, sliding it into his Duel Disk. A barrier formed around him, hitting the torpedoes.

"Action Magic, Acceleration!"

"The hell… Those cards scattered in the beginning, they are Action Cards right?"

"Yes, and despite only being able to hold 1 at a time, you can get them anytime!"

"Well… Bullshit. These things may only be used to lengthen duels…" Ryoga said, feeling annoyed. He kept an angry face as he set down two cards.

"You're not enjoying this duel?" Yuya noticed his anger.

"Cut it off! Proceed! I set two cards and end my turn!"

"Geez… You're too harsh… Ore no turn, draw!" Yuya drew his card. He smiled. "It's here!"

"What?"

"The preparations for an entertaining show has been met!"

"It's here, it's here!" Tatsuya said.

"Pendulum!" Ayu said.

"Shiveru!" Futoshi did his iconic butt shake, which annoyed both Ruri and Ryoga.

Smiling at Ryoga, Yuya held up two cards and show them to him. "I, using the Scale 1 Stargazer Magician and the Scale 8 Timegazer Magician, Pendulum Scale setting!" The word 'Pendulum' returned on Yuya's Duel Disk.

"What the hell is that?" Ryoga wondered.

"You'll see!" Yuya said. "Swing, Pendulum of the Soul! Draw an arc of light across the ether! Pendulum Shōkan! Appear now, my monsters!" Three mosters appeared.

"Entermate Whip Viper! Entermate Discover Hippo! And the dragon with beautiful dual-colored eyes! Odd-Eyes Pendulum Dragon!"

 **Entermate Whip Viper** EARTH Reptile Effect LV4 **1700** /900

 **Entermate Discover Hippo** EARTH Beast Effect LV3 **800** /800

 **Odd Eyes Pendulum Dragon** DARK Dragon Pendulum Effect Scale 4 **2500** /2000

"P… Pendulum Summon? And that dragon is level 7… no need for tribute?" Ryoga was shocked by this.

"Yes! This is the grand Pendulum Summon!" He explained to the perplexed Ryoga.

"Get it on Yuya!"

"Do it Yuya-niichan!"

" _Do your best… Ryoga…"_ Ruri thought.

"Battle! Odd-Eyes Pendulum Dragon, attack Aero Shark!"

"Rasen no Strike Burst!" The dragon fired its signature red blast at the fortress shark, destroying it.

"And now-"

"Trap activate! Ghost Fleet Salvage!" Ryoga activated one of his reverse cards.

"What?" On cue, Aero Shark, Big Jaws and Shark Sucker returned from a purple hole opening on the ground.

"That Trap can recall those monsters back!" Yuya said.

"Uh, but their effects are negated, but it does not matter…" Ryoga then clicked another button on his Duel Disk, activating Full Armored Xyz.

"With this card…" The two level 3 monsters once again rose down to the overlay network.

"I can Xyz Summon Rank 3 Black Ray Lancer!" On cue, a monster similar to a stinglay with black and purple body and white wings appeared from the large beam of light.

"Xyz Summon during my turn? Interesting Shark!" Yuya exclaimed. Ryoga was slightly touched by those words, the words he had not heard for a long time. It started to resonate in him, but he had no time to think about it, at least for now.

"And equip Aero Shark to it!" Aero Shark turned to energy before going to Black Ray Lancer, turning it into an orange lance wielder.

 **Black Ray Lancer** DARK Beast-Warrior Xyz Effect R3 **2100** /600 - **4000**

Yuya ticked his teeth. He then set his only card left in his hand and concluded his turn.

"Such weak fighting… I did not see the sharpness of a blade or the power of a bullet from your dueling!" Ryoga narrowed his eyes at Yuya angrily, briefly shocking him.

" _Ryoga, don't be angry like that!"_ Ruri thought, worried.

"What do you mean by that?" Yuya did not know why obviously.

"It means that you are not worthy enough to be my opponent! Ore no turn, DRAW!" He drew a card with such strong force, a small wave of water splashed across Yuya making the teenager harden his face in slight fear.

"Battle! Black Ray Lancer, attack Discover Hippo! Black Bright Spear!" The black monster fired a purple blast from its lance at the hippo. Yuya immediately dove to the closet Action Card and activated it.

"Action Magic, Miracle!" Yuya declared _"Not Action Trap… lucky…"_ A bubble formed around the hippo, shielding it from destruction, the blast forced Yuya to cover himself.

 **Sakaki Yuya** : 4000 - 2400 [0]

"Phew…" Yuya exclaimed.

"1600 damage! He is surely strong!" Yuzu exclaimed.

"Yes. He is." Ruri told her.

"So that Action Card prevent battle destruction and halve battle damage?" Ryoga mocked. "But not second time! Action Magic, Wonder Chance!"

"What? How did you get it?"

"I got it when you dove for one earlier. You did not notice that!"

"Shit!" Yuya cursed.

"How boring you are…" Ryoga criticized Yuya for his neglect, causing Yuzu to slightly feel uncomfortable. Ruri noticed this but decided not doing anything. She internally berated Ryoga for this, but it can't be helped. Considering his already harsh personality, combining with the war, making him even more hateful.

"Now Black Ray Lancer, attack that hippo again!" The lancer threw its spear at the hippo, scaring it and the kids, especially Ayu.

"Take 3200 damage and lose!" Ryoga yelled from his lungs.

"Hell no!" Yuya grabbed an Action Card. "Damage Vanish activate!" The hippo was destroyed. "Battle Damage is 0!" The smoke disappeared, revealing a soaked but smiling Yuya.

"What the…" Ryoga ticked his teeth in anger. "2 cards set, turn end!"

"He… he is really strong…" Ayu commented.

"Yuya nearly lost…" Futoshi chimed in, too shocked to even do his usual butt shaking.

"Ore no turn, draw!" Yuya drew his next card.

"Trap Card, Call of the Living Dead!" On cue, Whip Viper returned. Ruri realized what he would do. Black Ray Lancer only had 600 DEF. "And now it will switch that monster's ATK with its DEF!"

"What?" Ryoga exclaimed while the lancer got weakened, dropping itself to the ground painfully.

 **Black Ray Lancer** ATK 4000 - 600

"Battle! Discover Hippo, attack Black Ray Lancer!" The hippo ran at the lancer before jumping up, attempting a ram using its hard head.

Ryoga quickly acted. "By detaching Aero Shark, battle destruction is negated!" The parts of Aero Shark detached from Black Ray Lancer, taking the impact from the hippo instead.

"But damage is still taken!" Yuya reminded him. Ryoga shielded his eyes from the ensuring blast.

 **Kamishiro Ryoga** : 4000 - 3800 [0]

"Now, Odd-Eyes! Rasen no Strike Burst!" Yuya immediately attacked, not giving Ryoga a chance to grab an Action Card. The dragon simply gather enough energy and fired at the lancer, destroying it. The purple-haired duelist was thrown back slightly to the water.

 **Kamishiro Ryoga** : 3800 - 1900 [0]

"Ryoga!" Ruri exclaimed in worry.

Yuya ran to grab another Action Card. "Action Magic, Tide Rise!" On cue, the water level got higher. Water began to envelop Whip Viper and disappeared shortly. The purple viper got a blue aura.

 **Entermate Whip Viper** : 1700 - 2700

"It has 2700 ATK!" Yuzu exclaimed.

"With this, Yuya will win!" The kids yelled with hope.

"Battle! Whip Viper-"

"Huh…" Ryoga smirked.

"What?" Yuya wondered.

"Don't you think I would let you do that?" Ryoga said confidently. "Trap Card, Hunter Resurfacing!"

"What the…"

" _Playing for real now Ryoga?"_ Ruri thought, thinking back to his usual combo.

"This Trap let me summon Black Ray Lancer's Overlay Units back into the field and increase their levels by 1!" Once again, the two Xyz Materials returned to the field in Defense Position.

"Also they cannot be destroyed by battle this turn!"

"Kurgh…" Yuya gritted his teeth. He then set one card and ended his turn.

"Ore no turn, draw!" Ryoga did his Draw Phase. He looked at it and smiled. A level 4 monster.

"Killer Rabca summon!" A frilled shark surfaced from the water, eyeing Yuya with malicious intent.

 **Killer Rabca** WATER Fish Effect LV3 **700** /1500

"By banishing Hunter Resurfacing, I can increase this card's level by 1!"

 **Killer Rabca** LV3 - 4

"3 level 4 monsters…" Yuya realized. "Xyz again?"

"…Uh!" Ryoga said. Yuya noticed a slight change in his voice tone, much less hatred than before. "Yuya, to be honest, you actually gave me a very entertaining duel… I have not been in a duel that is like this for a long time… Thank you." He said with sincerity.

"You're welcome! For me it's good to see someone smiling by my dueling! That's what I've always wanted! Making people smile and understand them through dueling!"

" _He is really Yusho's son… He has very similar goals to him…"_ He inwardly smiled. "And now let me return your favor with my real strength! Ready Yuya!"

"Uh! Bring it on!" Yuya became excited.

"I, using these three level 4 monsters, overlay!" The three sharks turned blue before flying up to the opened Overlay Network.

"With these three monsters, overlay network constructing! Xyz Shōkan!" A large beam of light emitted, blinding everyone.

"The most powerful ruler of the deep sea! Exterminate everything with your sharp fangs!" The light shone brighter, giving way to a red dragon-shark hybrid with a number '32' on the left side of its chest. It roared in pride.

"Numbers 32: Marine Biting Dragon, Shark Drake!"

 **Numbers 32: Marine Biting Dragon – Shark Drake** WATER Sea-Serpent Xyz Effect R4 **2800** /2100

"What the? Number?" Yuya was shocked at the monster and its name. Everyone, even Sora could not hide their bewilderment. Ruri was the only person in the room who was not surprised at all, knowing that her friend has summoned this card so many times.

" _So Ryoga is really an Xyz scum! And he is a Numbers Duelist?"_ Sora thought. _"Academia only got one duelist like this… and he was from Xyz… numbers 107… numbers 39… numbers 11… and now numbers 32… these dangerous guys… Academia managed to remove their battle destruction specialty permanently… but… how many more of these?"_

He then turned to Ruri _"She wasn't surprised? Wait… she did use an Xyz-centric deck but she said she got it from her parents! But this right here… it can only mean one thing… she is like Ryoga, a Resistance member!"_ His eyes widen in surprise at this realization. _"How can the Resistance know about me being here? No way! Which means…"_ Sora thought about possible members that have escaped from Academia. _"Asuka… Ryo… No! Can't be! Yuri had carded him, and Asuka did not know much! Then who can be…"_ Sora stopped thinking and instead watched the duel for the sake of not making himself suspicious, especially from the two Resistance members.

"What does that mean?" Ayu wondered at the word 'Numbers' that the purple-haired duelist had just said.

"LDS did not produce these cards!" Shuzo said, shocking Ruri, who did not know what to say to others.

"Ruri, do you know about this?" Yuzu asked Ruri. Sora looked on.

"Uh… I don't know! I do not know what 'numbers' is!" Ruri managed to lie to them.

" _She's lying! But… I can't make a fuss right now! Gotta interrogate her and him later!"_

"A Numbers monster! How cool Ryoga!" Yuya was honestly surprised.

"Uh huh. Let's go! Shark Drake, attack Discover Hippo!" The shark flew at the scared hippo.

"Depth Bite!" It bit the poor hippo, scattering it to pieces.

 **Sakaki Yuya** : 2400 - 400 [1]

"And now its effect will bring it back!" One of its Overlay Units flew down to the water, opening a purple portal. From there, Whip Viper rose up, but it looked weakened.

 **Entermate Whip Viper** ATK 1700 - 700

"What? It returns the destroyed monster and makes it lose 1000 ATK?"

Ryoga confirmed. "Uh. And it can battle once more!"

"Shit!" Yuya immediately looked for an Action Card, running in the water.

"I won't let you!" Ryoga also immediately ran. "Shark Drake! Attack Hippo once again!"

"Action Magic, Evasion! I can negate the attack!" Yuya activated an Action Card.

Ryoga countered. "Action Magic, No Action!"

"What?" Evasion was destroyed.

"This fight will end now Yuya!" Ryoga yelled once again, but with some happiness in his voice.

"Ryoga…", "Yuya…" was Ruri's and Yuzu's thoughts respectively.

Yuya suddenly smiled at Ryoga. "Not gonna be like that!"

"Why?" He wondered.

"Trap Card, Defense Draw! Battle damage becomes 0 and I can draw 1 card." The usual trap that Yuya, and unknown to him, Yuto, usually used appeared, creating a white barrier, blocking Yuya from the ensuring blast of the battle. Both Ruri and Ryoga inwardly thought about this trap, a card they daily see during their duels with Yuto.

"Huh…" Ryoga finally smiled, slowly getting the bumping feeling before the war back. "Turn end! Let's see what you can do Yuya!"

"I will. Ore no turn, draw!" Sparkles appeared in the arc that Yuya drew his card.

"This is it!" Yuya yelled in joy.

"Here he comes!" The kids exclaimed.

"I activate the Field Magic, Level Sanctuary!" He slid the card to the Duel Disk, activating it.

"What? Field Magic?" Everyone was astonished at this unexpected move, as Yuya never used one before.

"When did you get it Yuya?" Yuzu wondered the very thing that everyone also did.

"Just got it now!" Answered Yuya, confusing others but they decided not to press on. A small silence occurred.

"Field Magic can be activated while an Action Field is on?" Ruri finally broke the silence.

"Yes!" Shuzo confirmed. Ruri widened her eyes in surprise, and unknown to her, Sora.

"With this Field Magic, all of Xyz monsters will be treated as having a Level equal to its Rank!"

"What?" Ryoga widened his eyes in shock.

"Treating Rank as Level?" Ruri, and unknown to her, Sora, was also in the same situation as Ryoga, of course everyone else.

"Uh!"

 **Numbers 32: Marine Biting Dragon – Shark Drake** R4 - LV4

"Once per turn, it can increase the level of all monsters on the hand, field and graveyard by 1!"

 **Numbers 32: Marine Biting Dragon – Shark Drake** LV4 - 5

 **Entermate Whip Viper** LV3 - 4

 **Entermate Discover Hippo** LV3 - 4

 **Odd-Eyes Pendulum Dragon** LV7 - 8

"What are you going to do with that?" Ryoga wondered.

" _You will know soon, Ryoga."_ Ruri thought, knowing what the dragon can do.

"You'll see! And now I will Pendulum Summon again! Appear, Sword Fish!"

 **Entermate Sword Fish** WATER Fish Effect LV2 **600** /600

"Yes! Pendulum Summon!" The kid exclaimed with smile on their faces.

"Sword Fish will make Shark Drake loses 600 ATK and DEF!"

"The hell?" Ryoga could not do anything as a red aura enveloped Shark Drake.

 **Numbers 32: Marine Biting Dragon – Shark Drake 2800** /2100 – **2200** /1500

"And now Whip Viper!"

"Shit!"

 **Numbers 32: Marine Biting Dragon – Shark Drake 2200** /1500 – **1500** /2200

"This is the end everyone! Odd-Eyes, attack Shark Drake!" The dragon leaped, opening it mouth to gather energy.

"Rasen no Strike Burst!" The dragon fired a red blast at the sea creature.

"When Odd-Eyes battles a level 5 or higher monster, double the battle damage!"

"What?"

"Reaction Force!"

"Not gonna happen!" Ryoga excitedly yelled. "By banishing Killer Rabca, I can negate this attack, and your Odd-Eyes loses 500 ATK!"

"Trap Card, Odd-Eyes Protection!" Yuya immediately acted. "This turn, Odd-Eyes Pendulum Dragon cannot be targeted by monster effects! And the battle continues!"

"I have prepared for that Yuya, just I like always had!" Ryoga said to Yuya. "Trap Card, Zeus' Breath! Your attack is negated and you take 800 damage!"

"If so, Timegazer Magician will finish the show!"

"What?" Ryoga was surprised. He nearly forgot the two Pendulum Cards floating besides Yuya during the entire duel. Everyone was shocked by this long chain.

"It can negate that trap's activation and set it down again!" The magician fired an energy blast at the trap, negating its activation and set it down again.

"Now, Odd-Eyes, finish this entertaining duel!"

Yuya, Yuzu, Ruri, Shuzo, Sora, Ayu, Futoshi and Tatsuya all yelled with joy, with Futoshi shaking his butt once again.

"Rasen no Strike… Burrrrstt!"

Ryoga looked up at the flame, smiling happily, finally managed to regain some of the fun that he thought it was buried away by the wind of despair back…

" _Thanks, Yuya…"_ He accepted the blast, smiling.

 **Kamishiro Ryoga** : 1900 - 0 [0]

Yuya's monsters vanished, then the Action Field slowly disappeared until the usual view of the duel room was returned. Everyone was looking at Yuya and Ryoga in awe, feeling happy for this intense but exciting match, probably the best one they had ever seen.

"Yuya-niichan won once again!" Ayu finally broke the silence.

"Yes! Yuya-niichan won!" Tatsuya added.

"Shiveru!" Futoshi did that creepy stuff again.

Yuzu smiled at Yuya for his fantastic duel. She then turned to Ruri.

"Don't feel hard for your friend's loss, Ruri."

"I know, but I have to admit… these two are really strong!" Yuzu smiled brightly at that.

"All right!" Shuzo yelled, running to the duel field. "So, Kamishiro Ryoga, thank you for this entertaining duel!"

"Thanks Shuzo-san. I haven't dueled like this for a while!" Ryoga smiled at the man.

"So… do you wanna join in?"

Ryoga looked down, thinking about the proposal for a while before smiling, looking at Shuzo and Yuya.

"Uh!"

"Yes!" Everyone yelled, including Sora, who faked.

"OK, I will get the paper-"

"Ambush? Yuya would never do that!" Someone was talking very loudly and angrily outside the school. Yuya instantly knew who he was.

"Gongenzaka?"

* * *

"What the hell happened?" Shuzo asked, running out of the school with Yuya.

"Oh principal!" The boy looked at them. Big stature, black hair with the front like a pompadosur with a red bandana holding it in place.

"When the man Gongenzaka was jogging, I noticed three suspicious male figures peeking at You Show. When I asked, they said that Yuya ambushed someone last night!"

"Ambush?"

"Me?" Both Shuzo and Yuya were shocked at this accusation.

"Yes! Don't forget that!"

"We were there too!"

"There were 4 witnesses… no, 5!"

"5?" Shuzo wondered.

"Sawatari-san, us three and…" The green-hair henchman pointed at the person who was standing behind.

"Her!"

Everyone looked back to see Yuzu, perplexed.

The three henchmen then made a creepy face, grinning at Yuzu "Ain't it right? Hiragi Yuzu-chan?"

"Were they right, Yuzu? You saw too?" Gongenzaka inquired.

"What did you see?" Shuzo asked his daughter.

"The face of the culprit!" Yuzu could only look down, not knowing what to say. That man definitely look like Yuya, but his behavior told the otherwise. Yuya would never harm people like that.

"Sakaki Yuya!" The henchmen said at the same time.

"Eh? I did that?" Yuya was shocked. "No! I would never do that!"

"Don't even think about it!" Futoshi told the three.

"Yuya-niichan would never do that!" Tatsuya added.

"It was Sawatari who wanted to ambush Yuya-niichan! Yuzu-neechan did not want it to happen so she dueled her." Ayu finished.

"What? Yuzu dueled Sawatari?" Shuzo exclaimed.

"No! I did not!" Yuzu detested. Ruri looked on worriedly. She then looked at Ryoga.

"Ryoga, was it Yuto?" Ruri whispered.

"… Uh…" Ryoga answered. He then decided to defend Yuya.

"Hey! I did not know what happened, but I can tell Yuya is very kind! He does not want anyone to get hurt, and he will surely never attempted to hurt people!"

"Yes! Yuya will never hurt people like that!" Ruri also yelled at the henchmen.

Touched by their kindness, Yuya could only mutter a single "Thank you…"

"No problem, Yuya!" Ryoga said back.

"A friend in need is a friend indeed!" Ruri said.

"Besides, Sawatari-san was injured and had to go to the hospital!" One henchman said.

Yuya widened his eyes in surprise, as did everyone. "Hospital!?"

"No way!" Yuzu denied.

"He was wounded badly! His life is at risk right now!" And indeed, Sawatari did not wake up yet.

" _Dammit Yuto… what did you do…"_ Ryoga realized he will have to interrogate Yuto later. Ruri frowned at the word 'hospital'. Yuto would go so far like this to find her? Has he changed during the days she was absent?

Yuya then ran to Yuzu "Oi! Say something Yuzu! You saw everything right?"

"I did see but…" She trailed off as she looked away from her friend.

"Don't tell me you doubt me too Yuzu?" He raised his voice, fearing that his best friend did not even trust him.

"That's…" Yuto's face suddenly flooded her mind again. She looked away, not knowing what to say. It was not Yuya… but it was Yuya's face… she frowned, keeping silent.

"Don't force her to say Yuya!" Ruri told him.

"Yuzu! Please tell us everything from the beginning!" Shuzo asked his daughter.

"Let me do the explain stuff!" A woman's voice was heard, accompanied by a sound of a door opening. Everyone looked at the source of the voice, seeing a woman stepping out of a limousine.

"Are… are you LDS?" Yuya asked.

"Yes. And I am the current chairwoman. I am… Akaba Himika."

" _Akaba!?"_ Both Ruri and Ryoga thought the same thing.

"So Leo has a wife too? And she is the chairwoman so…" Ryoga looked at Himika thoughtfully, not knowing what to do to her. Finding Reiji was hard, now knowing that he has a mother was even harder.

" _So this madman abandoned his family? How cruel…"_ was Ruri's thought.

Everyone, beside Nakajima and the three henchmen of Sawatari then went into the school, readying for the tense conversation ahead.

Nakajima then gave the three lackeys the award for framing Yuya: new cards. They opened the envelope, smiling at the sight of the cards. After Nakajima left, they grouped.

"This is still not enough!"

"They will pay for humiliating us and Sawatari-san!"

"I got an idea!"

"What?"

"Remember the girl who looked like Yuzu and the purple-haired asshole?"

"The two who defended Yuya?"

"Uh!"

They then continued for a while, a malicious plan forming…

* * *

"Those boys outside had told the truth about the incident last night." Himika told Shuzo, who closed his eyes, thinking for a bit before turning to Yuya on his right.

"So what happened Yuya? Did you-"

"No! I would never do that!"

"The man Gongenzaka over here trusts in his friend Yuya too!" Gongenzaka defened Yuya, who smiled in return. "And does everyone think the same?"

Everyone spoke in unison "Yes!"

" _This guy spoke himself in third-person…"_ Ryoga thought.

" _Is he taught to be like this?"_ Ruri also thought about Gongenzaka's manners as well. Even though she had met him in the afternoon two days ago after meeting Yuya and his friends, she still found his way of referring himself to be strange.

"How about you? Yuzu?" He then turned to Yuzu, who gasped before looking down. She then looked at Yuya.

"Yuya… That wasn't you right?"

Yuya looked at his friend in disbelief before shaking his head, denying. "I don't know what you saw last night but… I did not attack Sawatari!"

" _That was Yuto…"_ Ryoga thought. He then tried to speak up but Ruri held his hand. She eyed at him.

"Don't! Even if you say the truth, we cannot put the blame of Yuya for now!" She whispered. Ryoga understood and backed down.

"Such companionship… but we cannot back down from this!" Himika calmly said.

"What?" Shuzo gasped.

"If this incident: a student from the number one Duel School in the entire world LDS got defeated got widespread, it will damage our reputation!"

"I said Yuya-" Shuzo attempted.

"It is not relevant!" Himika yelled, Shuzo gasped as the chairwoman got up. "The problem is that the symbol of LDS has been dragged through the mud! The only way to wash it away is through a match between students!"

"What! So you wanna colonize You Show!?" Yuya angrily retorted, knowing the intention behind her words. "This is the duel school bearing the name of Sakaki Yusho, the great entertainer, and also my father! I cannot let you do whatever you want to do! Besides, I know your school has Xyz, Synchro and Fusion, and you definitely want my Pendulum to conquer the dueling world! Dueling is not a tool for fighting! So yeah, back off! And for the last time! I did not hurt Sawatari in any way!" Yuya yelled very loudly, shocking everyone, even Himika.

"Yes! Yuya is very kind!" Ryoga agreed, hiding his shock that this Standard Dimension has all Extra Deck summon methods by saying loudly.

"He would never hurt people!" Ruri added, even though she was sad inside at the opposite reality in her home.

"I, the man Gongenzaka also completely support Yuya. You cannot take over You Show Duel School!" Gongenzaka declared.

"Get out of You Show!" All the kids said at the same time.

"All my friend ever wanted is to make people smile and feel happy inside!" Yuzu decided to speak up, putting the fact that the attacker and Yuya had the same face for now.

Himika did not know what to say, realizing that her intention was busted by a 16-year-old boy. And that was the son of Sakaki Yusho, the famous entertainer that Reiji had a huge respect for. She decided to do the harsher way. She took out her phone and called someone.

"Who's that?" The man from the other line asked.

"Mr. Mayor, I am Akaba Himika, the chairwoman of LDS."

"Mayor…" Yuya thought. He became shocked. "Can't be!"

"I am here with the attacker of your son! You wanna confirm?"

"YES!" He yelled. Himika then showed Yuya to him through her phone.

"Yes! Sakaki Yuya! He attacked my son! My son told me himself that he was before sleeping again!"

"Thank you Mayor-san!" She then turned off the phone and looked at everyone's angry expression, smiling at the success of her tactic.

"Damn you chairwoman!" Shuzo could not keep calm anymore.

"Such underhand tactic!" Ryoga gritted his teeth in anger.

"So… what are you going to do?" Himika smiled evilly.

Yuya was in near rage for this bullshit accusation. He eyed at the cunning woman with hatred, but the pleading look from Yuzu managed to calm him down. He closed his eyes for a moment before looking at Himika.

"Fine! We will settle this down in a match! But I will say again: I was not involved in Sawatari's attack whatsoever!"

"Fair enough…" Himika said. "Well, we have three best students for each Extra Deck summon methods here, who will duel with each of your You Show Duel School students! 3 vs 3, and which side wins two duels will win, got it?"

"Whatever! I will duel first!" Yuya declared.

"And your opponent is…" She then looked outside the room. Three teenagers, one female, two males looking at the You Show students. One of them with purple hair stepped forward. "Xyz course of LDS, Shiima Hokuto!"

"Xyz?" Yuzu exclaimed.

" _Xyz? Interesting…"_ Both Ruri and Ryoga thought, excited at how Xyz of Standard is going to be.

"OK! We will duel in a few minutes. Now would you please go outside so that we can prepare?" Shuzo requested.

Himika agreed and went out of the room.

Shuzo then gathered everyone and whispered something. They all smiled after that.

* * *

A few minutes later, everyone besides Shuzo, who were at the Solid Vision machine, gathered at the watching room, seeing Yuya and Hokuto facing each other.

"I will win this duel! I will win for You Show!" Yuya declared his resolve.

"Huh… just to let you know, since I learned Xyz Summon, I have won 40 times in a row!"

"This guy is not exaggerating!" Everyone turned to see Tatsuya searching something on his Duel Disk.

Gongenzaka spoke up. "Shiima Hokuto… 58 duels… 5 losses…"

"90% winning rate!" Ayu said.

"And he really won 40 times in a row!" Futoshi noted.

"Even though he seems exaggerating, he is surely very skilled!" Ruri commented.

" _Interesting… let's see Xyz Summon from LDS…"_ Ryoga thought. Sora was eyeing him and Ruri suspiciously, but did not say anything.

"OK! Everyone listen up!" Shuzo said from the machine room. "This is a 3 vs 3 match, one each! Which side win two times will win the entire match! However! Since LDS challenged You Show, we have a right to have a home advantage!"

"Oh?" Hokuto mocked. "And what is that?"

Shuzo smiled. "No Action Field!"

Everyone from LDS was shocked. "No Action Field!?"

"Uh! You thought we did not duel without it? We actually did, in order for situations that there is no Action Field available." Yuya answered, watching the angry face of Hokuto with amusement. "Never duel normally before?" He mocked.

"Krugh… whatever! As a representative of the Xyz course, I will not lose! I will win the 41st time!"

"Anyway, Shuzo-san will still give you three an Action Field setting without the scenery of Action Field and Action Cards. It is a good practice in case some bad guys abuse Real Solid Vision. Surprised that apparently LDS do not use this!"

"Shut up already!" Hokuto told Yuya annoyingly, who held up his hands in defense, chuckling.

"Fine fine! Now…" The two knew what they had to do, the very first duel of the match that would decide the fate of You Show Duel School, the duel school with the name of Sakaki Yusho, the proud father of Yuya.

 **DUEL!**

 **Yuya** : 4000 [5]

 **Hokuto** : 4000 [5]

* * *

 **Fanfic OC cards**

 **Hunter Resurfacing (Trap Card)**

When a WATER Xyz monster is destroyed by battle and sent to the graveyard, target that monster's Xyz Materials used to summon it, special summon them in Defense Position, and if you do, increase their levels by 1. Those targets cannot be destroyed by battle this turn. You can banish this card from your graveyard, then target one monsters you control that has a level, increase its level by 1.

 **Level Sanctuary (Field Magic Card)**

All Xyz monsters on the field are treated as having a level equal to its rank. Once per turn, the turn player can increase or decrease their levels of the monsters in the field and in either player's hand or graveyard by 1 until the end of this turn.

 **Odd-Eyes Protection (Trap Card)**

Target 1 "Odd-Eyes" monster you control. This turn, it cannot be targeted by monster effects. During the End Phase, gain LP equal to the target's ATK (even if it leaves the field) and draw 1 card.

 **Action Magic: Tide Rise**

Target one monster, it gains 1000 ATK until the end of the turn this card's effect is activated.

* * *

 **Phew! Finished! I hope Numbers will not disappoint you guys! The cliffhanger is definitely not one for everyone!**

 **The opening moves of Shark was inspired by a ZEXAL episode. Can you guys guess which one?**

 **As I said earlier, I will not upload for about a week or so. Sorry for that again. But, a story is not without ups and downs! Hope you guys could read and review this story so that I can find motivation to write when I return!**

 **Next Chapter Preview**

 **Extra Deck's Humiliation**

The 3 vs 3 match goes on with raging spirit from the teenagers, non-Extra vs Extra! Meanwhile, Yuto and Shun cannot keep their differences any longer and decide to duke it out…

 **Till next time, this is matrixnis, out!**


	11. Scale 11

**Welcome back!**

 **The exam is not over yet but I actually finished this chapter before taking it and today I got free time so I could not wait to release it ASAP! Thank you all for the reviews that I have received during my break. Just to warn you guys, get ready for this very long chapter.**

 **To Gentyman, thanks for your compliment. About the back-stabber, you gotta wait.**

 **To jalen johnson, I still wonder if my way of seperating the three boys will work but I will try. Otherwise thanks for your encouragement.**

 **To Romadrox8975, the Numbers are actually developed enough that I think it is possible to implement them in this story. The girls will duel more. And if you think Rin would not duel much, she probably would but she will still have more duels than anime of course lol.**

 **To Guest, thanks but I do not know if you reviewed chapter 10 or 9.**

 **To Playerhood18, Shark's savagery will shine more during future chapters and in a good way.**

 **One thing: I will confirm the changes of age of all main characters appeared in this story for now:**

 **Dragon Boys and Bracelet Girls: 16**

 **Akaba Reiji: 21 (still unrealistic)**

 **Yusei: 18**

 **Aki: 17**

 **Betrayer, Dennis, Ryoga, Rio, Sawatari, Allen: 16 (sorry for not including him in chap 3, 4 and 8)**

 **Let's go! And of course, I do not own ARC-V.**

* * *

 **Chapter 11: Extra Deck's Humiliation**

" _So this is the place… travelling around the world… yet I have not been to your school… Yusho-san…"_

That was what Akaba Reiji thought when he stood outside of the You Show Duel School. A small one, a very small one, compared to even a minor school branch of LDS. It could not be helped though, his company created its own school network, starting from the main school in Japan built by Akaba Leo, his father, or simply a madman that he considered not to be deserved to be his dad. He was never this way before to him and his mother. He was kind, gentle, caring, always smile at him whether he accomplished something like creating cards for Duel Monsters, winning a duel against his father or even simpler, watching him grow up. He never knew why he abandoned his family for some research and eventually disappeared from his family. Three years ago, he decided to find and punish him, which led to his discovery of a teleportation device in his dad's secret laboratory in his secret room. leading him to a strange place. There, he met his father and realized he was planning to enact a genocide to the Xyz Dimension. After that, he was forcibly brought back here forever. That was why he became the president of LDS: to find a way to stop his father's crazy plan. He entered Pro Duelist and became the president of LDS at the age of 18, a very young age which, due to Akaba Leo being the former president of LDS, helped him to be one legally without much backlash.

"President, Sakaki Yuya is here with the You Show members and two new students! I guess those two are what you want to be here for right?" The update from his assistant Nakajima brought him out of his thoughts. He turned to him.

"Yeah… but only half… the other half is Sakaki Yuya himself. I wanna see how much he had improved…"

"To be useful for the war ahead."

"But are you just going straight to there?" He wondered.

"No. Better to watch the fun in there first. Also, about the strong summon signals, I think I may find the roots from here too."

"The three strong Xyz Summon signals and a Fusion one President? According to the data, they are way stronger than usual. The Fusion one and an Xyz one was found in here." Nakajima informed.

"I know… which means there is only one thing…"

They all knew, 99%.

After that Reiji put on the hood of his jacket up and silently went inside, secretly watching the duel from the corner.

* * *

"You Show Duel School… I will never give it to you!" Yuya told Hokuto, who simply smirked. Meanwhile, Akaba Reiji hid at the corner, watching the duel between the Xyz representative of his school and Sakaki Yusho's son.

"I take the first turn!" Hokuto declared, then he took out a card and slapped it to the blade. "Come out, Sacred Gredi!" A warrior in white armor wielding a lance appeared. "And it will special summon Sacred Kaust!" Gredi pointed its lance at the ground, making it shone bright, before a minotaur in white armor wielding a yellow bow appeared.

 **Sacred Gredi** LIGHT Warrior Effect LV4 **1600** /1400

 **Sacred Kaust** LIGHT Warrior Effect LV4 **1800** /1700

" _Warrior…"_ Yuya thought, slightly uneasy about the type of those two monsters, as he did not want to use duel to fight, but he had no choice right now other than to shrug it off.

"Kaust will increase my monsters levels by 1!" Kaust created two energy arrows before firing them at the sky, making them explode in a bright light like fireworks and rain down at the warriors, making them gain a yellow aura.

 **Sacred Gredi** LV4 - 5

 **Sacred Kaust** LV4 - 5

"Here it comes!" Yuya said, hardening his face in anticipation while the rest thought.

"I, using the level 5 Sacred Gredi and Kaust, overlay!" The two monsters turned into two swirls of yellow energy before flying down to the overlay network appeared on the ground. A large pillar shone up.

"Light of the stars, descend and shake this very earth!"

The Extra Deck slot on Hokuto's Duel Disk opened, a card got pulled out partially. He took it out and pointed it to the sky.

"Xyz Shōkan!" He then slapped it down into the blade with a slasher, arrogant smile.

"Rank 5! Sacred Pleiades!" A large white-armored warrior appeared, two overlay units flying around it.

 **Sacred Pleiades** LIGHT Warrior Xyz Effect R5 **2500** /1500

"Wow… This is Xyz of LDS… and Standard…" Ruri and Ryoga thought while everyone looked at it in awe.

"Wait! Just like Ryoga, Xyz monsters do not have level!" Ayu noted after hearing 'Rank' instead of 'Level'.

Sora complimented her. "You catch on fast! Xyz monsters do not have level, instead they have rank equal to the level of the monsters used to summon it."

"I end my turn here!"

" _If Sakaki Yuya is really the culprit then… how will he react to Xyz Summon?"_ Himika thought.

"Ore no turn, draw!" Yuya drew his card with a serious face, unlike other times. After putting it into his hand, he took out two cards.

"I, using the scale 1 Stargazer Magician and the scale 8 Timegazer Magician, Pendulum Scale setting!" Yuya did his usual but always powerful combo again, the two magicians flew up from their tubes.

"With this, I can summon multiple monsters with levels between 2 and 7!" Hokuto prepared while Reiji eyed at the scene happening right now.

"Swing, Pendulum of the Soul! Draw an arc of light across the ether! Pendulum Shōkan! Appear now, my monsters!" From the portal, two monsters appeared, flying down as energy.

"Entermate Sword Fish! Odd-Eyes Pendulum Dragon!"

 **Entermate Sword Fish** WATER Fish Effect LV2 **600** /600

 **Odd-Eyes Pendulum Dragon DARK Dragon** Pendulum Effect LV7 Scale **4** **2500** /2000

"Here it is!" Ayu commented, while Futoshi did his annoying move again "Shiveru!" which made Ryoga looking away in disgust without the kids knowing.

"So… this is Pendulum Summon…" Himika said.

Hokuto noticed that Yuya did not use Xyz. "You're not gonna use Xyz?" This question got attention from Yuzu, Ruri and Ryoga.

"I did not attack Sawatari, and I do not know how to Xyz Summon!" Yuya countered, cleverly avoiding Ruri and Ryoga being unnecessarily involved due to being Xyz users.

" _Yes… Yuya did say that… how can I not believe it…"_ Yuzu thought in her mind.

"Doesn't matter… let me get this straight…" Hokuto arrogantly told Yuya. "I will surely win."

" _Not gonna happen… I will definitely WIN!"_ Yuya thought while gritting his teeth. "Sword Fish's effect activate!" Sword Fish multiplied itself before flying at Pleiades and hitting the ground around it, weakening the warrior.

 **Sacred Pleiades** ATK 2500 - 1900

"Good!" Gongenzaka complimented Yuya's move. "Odd-Eyes has higher ATK now!"

"You think it's going to be easy like that?" Ruri said, getting attention from everyone in the watching room, including Reiji.

Ryoga then continued. "He let a 2500 ATK monster without a back row and no Action Cards available… Which means it has a powerful effect."

" _Whatever it is, I must attack to find out!"_ Yuya thought before declaring attack. "Odd-Eyes, attack Pleiades!" The dragon charged at Pleiades, preparing to ram it, but Hokuto has anticipated that.

"Hmm! I have prepared for that! Pleiades!" On cue, the warrior grabbed one Overlay Unit orbiting around it and crushed it, the light escaping from the lighting satellite then ran at Odd-Eyes, turning it to energy before running back to Yuya's card on the blade of his Duel Disk. Everyone from You Show and Gongenzaka was shocked.

"What the hell happened?" Yuya wondered.

"Boun… bouncing?" Ryoga realized, as did Ruri who had watched Ryoga using a similar kind of tactic.

"Yes!" Hokuto confirmed. "By detaching one Overlay Unit, Pleiades can return 1 card from the field to the owner's hand!"

"What? Not destroying it!?" Yuzu exclaimed.

"Uh…" Ruri said. "This monster removal tactic is cheap, but effective…"

" _It's similar to ARK Knight…"_ Ryoga thought.

"So sad to you! What you wanted to do is in my expectations!" Hokuto mocked Yuya.

"So are you?" Sora whispered while licking his candy.

Having nothing else to do, Yuya held up a card before sliding it to the Duel Disk. "I set 1 card down and end my turn!" Yuya concluded his turn.

"Boku no turn! Draw!" Hokuto declared his turn. "Attack that fish!" Pleiades swung its sword at Sword Fish, destroying it. However, Yuya simply stood still due to a white barrier shielding him from the smoke with two cards on his right hand and a card on his left hand.

 **Yuya** : 4000 [3]

"Eh? Why didn't your LP decrease!?" Hokuto wondered, before looking at Yuya's field to find a shining trap. "Shit! Defense Draw?"

"Uh!" Yuya confirmed his suspicion.

"That's the card he used against me!" Ruri realized.

"He's really similar to Yuto…" Ryoga remembered the times when he dueled Yuto, he would use this card during difficult situations.

"Such resistance…" Hokuto became annoyed. "And you said you did not attack Sawatari?"

"I say again: I did not!" Yuya nearly lost his temper at this obviously wrong accusation.

"Whatever. You guys will lose badly anyway and this school will be taken over by LDS soon!"

"As if I would do! I will not allow it!"

"Then come hit me!" Hokuto challenged Yuya before setting one card down.

Yuya inspected the field. _"Pleiades will remove my monster without destroying… And he must have another in his Extra Deck…"_

"Ore no turn, draw!" Yuya drew his next card. Sora found Yuya to be boring.

"Oi~~ Yuya! Make it more fun! It's boring!" Sora 'ordered' his 'teacher'.

"No time for entertaining now!" Yuya fiercely countered, making Sora pouted while Futoshi looked on, as if this antic of Sora is more 'funny' than his butt shaking.

"I will not lose!" Yuya declared loudly, swallowing his nervousness. "One more time! Pendulum Shōkan!" Yuya slapped two cards into the Duel Disk and raised his hand up. Two monsters came out of the portal.

"Entermate Discover Hippo! And once again, Odd-Eyes Pendulum Dragon!" This time, Odd-Eyes returned with a new companion, his iconic pink hippo.

 **Entermate Discover Hippo** EARTH Beast Effect LV3 800/ **800**

"And I will release it to Advance Summon!"

"What? Advance Summon!" Hokuto was shocked at this old-school tactic.

"Come out! Entermate Drumbull!" The highest ATK Entermate monster that Yuya had appeared from the ground, eyeing Pleiades.

Entermate Drumbull EARTH Beast Effect LV8 **2700** /2200

"That monster!" Ruri exclaimed.

"What Ruri?" Yuzu wondered.

"It's powerful. Watch it Yuzu." Ruri simply smiled at her new female friend before looking back at the field again.

"Hm… Pleiades will return it to your hand soon!" The purple shirt boy neglected Ruri's warning.

"Battle!" Yuya did not give Hokuto a chance to activate Pleiades' effect. "By the way, it disallows the monster it attacks from activating its effects!" Yuya explained with a confident smile, shocking everyone.

"What?" Hokuto was dumbfounded, just like Himika and the other two representatives. Drumbull ran towards the warrior, intent on saying goodbye. Hokuto quickly countered.

"Trap Card, Sacred Meteor! It will return Drumbull to your deck after this attack!" Hokuto said while making an angry face.

"What?"

"Return to the deck!?" Everyone from You Show, including Gongenzaka and Sora were shocked.

"Besides, I send Sacred Orion to the grave to negate battle destruction this turn!" The bull ram at Pleiades, who knocked it away using its sword, neither was destroyed.

 **Hokuto** : 4000 - 3800 [2]

"Keep dreaming! Trap Card, High Speed Aria!" Yuya quickly sent one card from his hand to the grave, making Drumbull disappear and he drew 2 cards.

"What?" Hokuto wondered.

"I sent Advance Draw to do that!"

"Krugh…" Hokuto cursed. "Damn you… after using Xyz… this is the first time I've lost LP…but Meteor will last for this turn, so you cannot attack without the risk of losing your dragon!"

"What the… Fine… I end my turn with one face down card…" Yuya breathed out of relief after the difficult turn.

"Which means it's my turn, draw!" Hokuto drew his card with a tense face.

"Cannot predict that, right?" Sora once again mocked Hokuto, which did not escape the ears polished by war of Ruri and Ryoga. They glanced at him and then looked at each other in understanding.

Hokuto looked at his drawn card. Sacred Sombres. He smirked and then slapped it to the blade. A female warrior with energy wings appeared.

 **Sacred Sombres** LIGHT Warrior Effect LV4 **1550** /1600

"And now by banishing Gredi, I can add Kaust back to my hand!" A graveyard portal appeared. Gredi disappeared and Kaust came out. At the same time the card got pulled out from the graveyard slot of Hokuto's Duel Disk. He took it back and then slapped it again to the blade, summoning it back.

"What? Two normal summons?" Yuya wondered.

"Uh! Sombres allows me to do that!" Hokuto explained. "You know what will happen right?" A grim look from Yuya is all Hokuto needed to confirm. Kaust fired two energy arrows up to the sky, making them explode in a rain of light. After that, Sombres and Kaust went to the overlay network again.

"Xyz Shōkan! Rank 5! Sacred Pleiades!" The warrior with a powerful effect returned.

"As I predicted… You have another Pleiades!" Yuya said.

"There is more!" Hokuto said before clicking something on his Duel Disk. A card got pulled out from the Extra Deck slot and he took it, raising it to the sky.

"This card can use a Sacred Xyz Monster as an Xyz Material! Also any Overlay Units that Xyz Monster has will be transferred to this card!"

"What? Another Xyz?" Yuya was shocked at this technique.

" _Just like Ryoga…"_ Ruri thought the same thing as Ryoga.

"Rain down your dazzling light! Xyz Shōkan! Appear! Rank 6! Sacred Ptolemys Messier 7!" A dragon cladded in armor appeared, roaring.

 **Sacred Plotemys Messier 7** LIGHT Machine Xyz Effect R6 **2700** /2000

" _Well… it's not called Chaos Xyz Change here…"_ Ryoga thought, finding the similarities despite different names.

"The sacred Pendulum Summon belonging to this school… such a waste…" Himika mocked at Yuya's supposed defeat. "Integrating this school to LDS is surely the best idea for everyone!" The You Show group looked on with anger. Reiji simply heard, not doing anything.

"Now I can use the effect of Messier 7 to return Odd-Eyes to your hand!" Odd-Eyes turned to yellow energy before disappearing. Yuya reluctantly took the card back to his hand.

"Pleiades! Direct attack!" The sword slashed at the unprepared Yuya, sending him flying and screaming before hitting the glass. Yuya gasped painfully, unable to get up.

 **Yuya** : 4000 - 1200 [2]

"Yuya! Yuya!" Everyone from You Show was worried.

"Yuya, are you okay? Please, get up!" Yuzu pleaded Yuya. "For You Show and for everyone's sake, please, get up! Yuya!"

Hearing those words, Yuya suddenly felt alive again. Energy running through his body at frightening speed. He got up slowly and eventually getting back again, much to the delight of everyone.

"Yuya!"

"Yuya-niichan is back!"

Yuya then turned to them. "Thank you everyone! And you too, Yuzu!" He made a thumbs-up, which made Yuzu smiled and slightly embarrassed at the same time. Ruri and Ryoga looked on proudly.

"So they like each other!" Ryoga whispered to Ruri.

"Uh! They even hugged yesterday!"

"Really?" Ryoga could not keep his eyes from widening.

"Yes. Unlike me and Yuto, they did not realize it yet."

"Then we will do it later!" Ryoga said while having a mischievous smile on his face.

Yuya then got up, facing Hokuto. "Thanks to everyone supporting me, I will win against you, Shiima Hokuto! I definitely will!" He declared with a smile.

"Huh! You only have 1200 LP left with no monsters on your field. How can you defend yourself?"

"Just get on, we will see!" Yuya challenged.

"Well said. Battle-"

"Hold on! Trap Card, Clever Scheme activate!"

"What?" Once again, Yuya cut him off.

"By sending Odd-Eyes Pendulum Dragon to the grave…" After doing that, Messier 7 suddenly gained a red aura, weakening it.

 **Sacred Plotemys Messier 7** ATK 2700 - 200

"It reduces 2500 ATK!" Yuya finished.

"Damn you!" Hokuto loudly cursed. "I will just attack anyway!" The dragon blasted energy at Yuya from its wings, pushing Yuya back slightly.

 **Yuya** : 1200 - 1000 [0]

Unable to keep his temper in check anymore, Hokuto slapped Sacred Tempest to the blade with an angry look while explaining its effect in rage, clearly forgetting that he could use his monsters Overlay Units for effects later. The two Xyz Monsters lost their Overlay Units and suddenly, a lot of comets crashing down, forcing Yuya to dive away.

 **Yuya** : 1000 - 500 [0]

"Turn end! I will end you during my next turn, no matter the methods-"

"Wrong!" Yuya detested. He slowly got up and firecely looked at the arrogant Hokuto.

"I… I do not want anyone to get hurt!"

Yuzu gasped at his word, thinking back to Yuto's words the last night. She then imagined the faces Yuya and Yuto joining together.

"Ore no turn, draw!" Yuya drew his card, sparkles appeared along the arc. Yuya looked at the card and smiled. "The fun begins now everyone!" Yuya told the group.

"Watch now!"

"Yuya-niichan will make a comeback!"

"Quick-Play Magic, Pendulum Charging! By paying half of my LP and destroying two pendulum cards on my field, I can special summon a Pendulum Monster from my graveyard and draw two cards!" A bright light began to shine on Yuya's graveyard slot. After that, a card flew out and automatically placed itself on the blade, still shining for a while before finally revealing itself, along with the longer lore. The iconic dragon returned in pride. Yuya then drew two cards.

 **Yuya** : 500 - 250 [0]

"Odd-Eyes has returned!" The kids cheered with Futoshi shaking his butt.

"Way to go Yuya!" Gongenzaka complimented.

"Now I will activate Odd-Eyes Pendulum Dragon's effect!"

"What? Odd-Eyes has another effect?" Everyone was shocked, especially Yuzu, Ruri and Ryoga.

"By banishing two Pendulum Cards from the Extra Deck or graveyard, it will reduce your monsters ATK equal to the two cards Pendulum Scales x 100!" On cue, the two Magicians appeared, turning to yellow dust before being gathered around the energy Odd-Eyes created from its mouth. It fired a red blast at Hokuto's field, weakening his monsters.

 **Sacred Pleiades** ATK 2500 - 1600

 **Sacred Plotemys Messier 7** ATK 200 - 0

"Shit shit shit shit shit!" Hokuto swore.

"Oi oi! Swearing is not good for your reputation!" Yuya mocked Hokuto, who gritted his teeth in anger. The LDS squad became disappointed.

"And then! Magic Card, Magical Star Illusion activate!"

 **Odd-Eyes Pendulum Dragon** ATK 2500 - 3200

"What? IT INCREASES ATK?" Hokuto roared.

"By the combined levels of the monsters on the field by 100!" Yuya explained. Ruri and Ryoga complimented his smart move. "Nice move Yuya, you know how to use it to your advantage!"

"Wait, Hokuto's monster level should have been counted as well!" Futoshi wondered.

"I~told~you~" Sora mocked. "Remember what I said before?"

"Ah! Xyz Monsters do not have level!" Ayu remembered Xyz Monster's specialty. Even more awesome, this time Yuya used that to his advantage.

"Which means only Odd-Eyes gains ATK!" Gongenzaka realized.

"Finally! Field Magic, Level Sanctuary!" The field magic that Yuya used during his earlier duel got a chance to shine.

"Ah! That card he used against me!" Ryoga yelled. Yuzu smiled.

"Yoss! Battle!" Yuya climbed onto the dragon. It began to run. "Odd-Eyes, attack Messier 7! Everyone say it!"

All of You Show members yelled happily. "Rasen no Strike Burst!" The dragon fired a red blast at the machine dragon, hitting it.

"When Odd-Eyes battles a level 5 or higher monster, battle damage is doubled! Reaction Force!" Odd-Eyes added in orange spiral energy to the blast, increasing the damage.

"WAIT! Xyz Monsters do not have Rank!" Hokuto protested.

"But Level Sanctuary treats it as having a level of 6!" Yuya countered, which made Hokuto panicked. The blast finally destroyed Messier 7, sending Hokuto flying backwards, hitting the wall in shame.

 **Hokuto** : 3800 - 0 [1]

The Solid Vision Field disappeared, leaving a downed Hokuto and a smiling Yuya.

"Yes! I did it everyone! First win for You Show!"

"Fantastic Yuya-niichan!" The three kids excitedly ran to the room, crush-hugging Yuya. Shuzo, Ryoga, Ruri and Yuzu all looked on the scene with pride. The pride that their friend had won the first duel of the match, creating a huge advantage for them. Meanwhile, Reiji still stood there, not showing anything on his stoic face.

Yuzu however became lost in her thought, about her dear friend Yuya, and the stranger who had the same face as him.

"I do not want anyone to get hurt!" Yuya's words echoed.

"'I', do not want 'you', to get hurt." Yuto's voice also echoed in her mind.

"…Yuya…"

* * *

Yuto was standing outside of the hideout, looking at the sky above. With Ryoga entering You Show where a look alike of Ruri was there, there was really nothing for him to do now, besides keeping the falcon Kurosaki Shun, his now reckless and ruthless friend, from doing anything stupid, ranging from going out to find Ruri, dueling LDS or worse, innocent people and even worse than that, carding them. They had had enough of that kind of murder at home, and he was now very tired of fighting. As a quiet, introvert, cautious kind of person, he would not expose himself too much to Standard. He would quietly sneak around the place, finding the most pacific way possible to find Akaba Reiji - the key to the freedom of his people - and convince him to make Akaba Reiji stop the plan of his father, to return the peaceful Heartland to the way it was before. He would find the most peaceful way possible to preserve his humanity and his kindness for his mother, his father and the other half of his pure soul, Kurosaki Ruri. Now though, he had to snap himself out of his thoughts when Shun said something.

"That's enough! Ryoga had not come back yet! I will find Reiji myself!" Shun attempted to run off, but Yuto stood at the door. Shun looked at him intensely.

"Get out of my way Yuto!" He hissed. Of course Yuto did not do that.

"Get out of my way!" Harsher this time.

"Get back to the wall Shun!" Yuto ordered the seemingly unreasonable falcon, which did not work.

"Get out! Or I will force my way out!"

"Never!"

Shun immediately attempted to push Yuto out, but he grabbed him and threw him back. He then slowly eyed his predator eyes at Yuto, a clear sign that he would use violence this time. Shun charged at Yuto, throwing a punch, which Yuto managed to dodge away. He returned with a punch to the chest, knocking Shun back slightly. He quickly returned a quick kick, hitting Yuto's face. He got knocked down, grabbing his face in pain. Taking the chance, Shun ran away, but Yuto quickly tripped him down using his legs. Shun painfully got up to see Yuto standing in front of him.

"Sounds like we gotta do his the hard way…" Shun talked.

"You forced me to do it…" Yuto answered.

Both duelists activated their purple, military-grade duel disks.

 **DUEL!**

 **Yuto** : 4000 [5]

 **Kurosaki Shun** : 4000 [5]

* * *

"OK kids! I gotta get out!" Yuya groaned, the three kids finally released him. As soon as he got out however, Gongenzaka let out 'manly' tears and once again… crush-hugged Yuya.

"Yuya! You did it! You are really deserved to be the man Gongenzaka's friend!"

"Th- thank you!" Yuya managed to whisper in his friend's hug.

"This big guy is really dangerous…" Ryoga remarked. Ruri could not say anything besides trying to keep herself from laughing.

Yuzu looked at Yuya, face hardened, at the incoming pressure of being the next duelist to face LDS. She was so deep in thought that when Yuya looked up to her, she saw Yuto first before realizing it was an illusion.

"Wh- what?"

"You are next! Do your best for You Show!" Yuya encouraged her. Yuzu closed her eyes, breathing, before looking at her friend again. "Uh! I will do my best! Believe me!"

Her voice became more clear and louder. "You Show Duel School of ours counts on this! I will definitely not lose!"

Hokuto, the sore loser, was kneeling down in front of the chairwoman in shame. Himika bitterly scolded him. "Can't believe that you lost! Now the fame of the Xyz course is at risk!"

" _However… Pendulum Summon… I now really want it!"_ She thought. She then called for someone sitting at the dark corner. "It's your turn next!"

"Yes, Mrs. Chairwoman!" That person, revealed to be a dark-skinned girl with black hair stood up. She then got out, facing You Show squad. Everyone turned to her.

"I come from the LDS Fusion corse, Kotsu Matsumi!"

"Eh? She uses Fusion?" Sora wondered while Ryoga and Ruri slightly jotted up at that dreaded word, trying to conceal their rising anger.

Matsumi then took out a blue Duel Disk from her right pocket and placed it on her left hand, activating it.

"Now, who will be my opponent?" At her word, Ryoga's temper boiled with hatred. He was ready to challenge her at beat her to a pulp for using that bullshit, sinful summon method but Ruri held his hand, shaking her head in disapproval. He relented, knowing that LDS was not involved with Academia anyway.

"I will!" Everyone turned to see Yuzu facing Matsumi. "I will be your opponent!"

" _You Show Duel School depends on this duel, and to protect Yuya's dignity, I must WIN! But…"_ Yuzu thought back to Yuto, but she was snapped out of it when Matsumi flicked her hair in an attempt to provoke her. Yuzu quickly regained composure.

"Well, let's duel!"

A short while later, the two girls came to the duel room.

"Remember, no Action Field for this duel as well!"

"Fine by me… but… your eyes lack luster…"

"What do you mean?" Yuzu did not know what she meant.

"My father works as a jeweler, I've seen plenty of real gems since young age. That's why I know well, that you have not shone to me, a clear proof that there is hesitation in your heart."

Yuzu flinched, remembering the Mysterious Duelist again, but she snapped out of it.

"Quit whimpering! Whatever there is hesitation in my heart or not, I will prove it through this duel!"

"Way to go Yuzu!" Ruri supported, knowing how deceiving a girl can be, as she is one herself. "Don't let her words bother you!"

"Uh Ruri! I will win for You Show and for everyone!"

"So now the game is set!" Matsumi declared.

DUEL!

 **Hiragi Yuzu** : 4000 [5]

 **Kotsu Matsumi** : 4000 [5]

"I will take the first turn!" Matsumi told Yuzu. "I activate a magic card from my hand, Gem-Knight Fusion!" Ruri and Ryoga slightly froze at the artwork of the card, feeling uncomfortable, the raging anger deep inside them began to rise. Yuzu remembered this so she looked at Ruri and gave her a warm look that told her to calm down. Ruri managed to do that, and Ryoga did too for the sake of keeping secret.

"Wait! So Fusion Materials can be from the hand as well?" Yuya wondered.

"Yes! That is the specialty of Fusion Summon! The materials can be from the hand too!" Sora explained while the Xyz remnants looked at him in disgust.

Matsumi then took out two cards and showed to her before sending them to the grave. "The fusion materials are Gem-Knight Emerald and Gem-Knight Tourmaline!"

"Gem tinged with lightning. Briliant emerald of good fortune. In a whirlpool of light combine to bring forth a new dazzling radiance!"

A card appeared from the Extra Deck slot. Matsumi grabbed it and slapped it to the blade. "Yugō Shōkan! Appear! The one who pursues victory, Gem-Knight Paz!" A large swordman in yellow gem armor wielding a big blade appeared.

Ruri and Ryoga did not feel any malicious intent from the Fusion Summon of Matsumi but they still felt uncomfortable, worrying for their new friend.

 **Gem-Knight Topaz** EARTH Thunder Fusion Effect LV6 **1800** /1800

"Can''t believe that she could Fusion Summon on her first turn… But… it only has 1800 ATK! Not too hard to beat!" Yuzu was astonished.

"Don't underestimate it! The way you handle this monster will determine your fate in this duel!" Matsumi said to Yuzu before setting down one card from her hand, finishing her turn.

"Atashi no turn, draw!" Yuzu drew her card. She looked at it, smiling, for she had drawn her ace monster.

"I activate 1st Movement Solo!" Yuzu slid the card to her Duel Disk. "I can special summon Aria the Melodious Diva from my hand!" She slapped another card to the blade and from it, a purple-haired singer in singing costume appeared.

 **Aria the Melodious Diva** LIGHT Angel Effect LV4 **1600** /1200

Yuzu then shook her head in a graceful, feminine manner before holding up a monster card depicting a singer in blue dress, before slapping it to the blade.

"I can special summon this card when there is a Melodious monster on the field! Come out! Sonata the Melodious Diva!"

 **Sonata the Melodious Diva** LIGHT Angel Effect LV3 **1200** /1000

"Well, let's start the concert!" The two feminine monsters sang, as if there were a concert with Matsumi listening.

"Advance Summon!" Aria and Sonata flew upwards, joining hands together, turning to green dust. A bright light appeared, paving the way for the new monster.

"Enchanting melody echoing in the heaven. Awaken the sleeping virtuoso. Come forth! Level 8! Melodious Maestra - Prodigy Mozart!" A beautiful singer bearing the name of the renowned composer Mozart appeared in long red dress.

 **Melodious Maestra - Prodigy Mozart** LIGHT Angel Effect LV8 **2600** /2000

The kids cheered on Yuzu's ace monster.

"So this is your ace monster…" Ruri commented. "Bring it on Yuzu!" She cheered. Yuzu returned with a nod and a smile before summoning another card. Prodigy Mozart shot a green blast.

"Prodigy Mozart can special summon one Melodious monster from my hand! Opera the Melodious Diva, come to the stage!"

 **Opera the Melodious Diva** LIGHT Angel LV4 **2300** /1500

"Battle! Prodigy Mozart, attack Gem-Knight Topaz! Graceful Wave!" The monster waved its baton before blasting a wind at the swordman, destroying it. Matsumi covered herself from the blast.

 **Matsumi** : 4000 - 3200 [1]

"So how was it? That was my strategy against your monster!" Yuzu mocked Matsumi back, who simply smiled confidently in return. Yuzu stood still for a while before ordering Opera to make a direct attack. The singer breathed in before singing, releasing a gust of wind at Matsumi, pushing her back quite a bit.

 **Matsumi** : 3200 - 1100 [1]

"Yossa!" Yuya cheered.

"Good!" Ayu said.

"Shiveru!" Luckily for the tentacles-haired boy, Futoshi did not shake his butt this time.

"That's 2900 damage on her first turn! Keep this up my daughter!" Shuzo complimented his sweet daughter on her move, taking out a large amount of Matsumi's LP.

"Don't be sure like that Shuzo-san!" Ryoga warned Shuzo, who let out a what.

"She's not the representative of Fusion course without a reason!" Ruri said while concealing her worry. She had seen more Fusion horror than simply an 1800 ATK monster like that.

Matsumi simply washed the dust off her shoulder as if the massive damage was not a nuisance to her.

"That was good… but… don't think you will win with just this!"

"Such a sore loser!" Yuzu told Matsumi, who simply responded. "'Sore loser' or not, you will see on my turn!" Neglecting her words, Yuzu activated the last card on her hand, Magic Card Melodious Backstage. "I can banish three cards from my graveyard to draw two cards!" She then set two cards down and finished her turn.

"With this, Yuzu has a backrow to protect herself in case she loses her monsters!" Ruri commented.

"Keep going Yuzu!" Yuya cheered for his childhood friend, which earned a smile from Yuzu in return.

"Watashi no turn, draw!" Matsumi drew her card, Gem-Knight Alexandrite. She immediately summoned it.

 **Gem-Knight Alexandrite** EARTH Thunder Effect LV4 **1800** /1200

"A normal monster with 1800 ATK…" Gongenzaka said.

"It's not gonna be here for long…" Ryoga commented.

"Uh!" Yuya confirmed.

"She will use it to gain access Fusion Summon again…" Sora bit his candy while explaining.

"Now I will release it to special summon Gem-Knight Crystal from my deck!" Alexand disintegrated, another warrior appeared.

 **Gem-Knight Crystal** EARTH Rock LV4 2450/1950

"A level 4 normal monster with high ATK…" Yuzu commented. "You can destroy Opera but not Prodigy!"

"Hmm…" Matsumi smiled before activating her face-down card, Fragment Fusion. "By banishing Alexandrite, Tourmaline, Emerald, I can Fusion Summon a Gem-Knight monster!"

"What? Using monsters from the grave?" Yuya wondered.

"Uh! It can!" Ryoga said, his tone voice was raised slightly along with a hint of hatred, which Sora took notice of.

"Gem with facets of day and night. Gem tinged with lightning. Brilliant emerald of good fortune. In a whirlpool of light combine to bring forth a new dazzling radiance!" The three gem-knights appeared before turning into three swirls of energy, joining in the fusion spiral. A purple card pulled out, Matsumi took it and slapped it to her blade.

"Yugō Shōkan! Appear! Supreme radiance who illuminates everything! Gem-Knight Master Dia!" The white-armored warrior with a gem on its chest wielding a large Zweihänder appeared, putting the sword down to its side.

 **Gem-Knight Master Dia** EARTH Rock Fusion Effect LV9 **2900** /2500

Yuya glanced at Ruri, knowing her fear of Fusion, but both she and Ryoga hid it very well, so he simply looked on.

"This is my ace monster!" Matsumi warned. "And now I will banish Topaz!" She took out Topaz from the grave and put it into her pocket.

"Wh…what? Banish? Why?" Yuzu was shocked. Sensing her unease, Ruri and Yuya encouraged her. She looked at them, especially Yuya, but suddenly, an image of Yuto appeared in place of her friend with a cryptic warning.

"She's planning to do something."

Needless to say, Yuzu was totally shocked, unable to look away from the ghost of Yuto.

"Freely looking away like that, how rude…" Matsumi told Yuzu, who managed to return to reality to see the fair-skinned girl declaring battle. "Gem-Knight Crystal, attack Canon!" The warrior fired multiple needles from its gems on its shoulders at Canon, destroying it. Yuzu shielded herself from the blast.

 **Yuzu** : 4000 - 3850 [0]

"Master Dia, attack Prodigy Mozart!" Before Mozart could use its baton, Dia slashed across the singer, destroying it.

 **Yuzu** : 3850 - 3550 [0]

"Yuzu-neechan!" Ayu became worried.

"Don't worry, just 450 damage!" Futoshi tried to calm down but…

"No! There's more!" Ruri said.

"What do you mean?" Yuya wondered.

"That lookalike of your friend was right Yuya!" Matsumi explained. "By banishing Topaz using Dia earlier, I can have Dia gain Topaz's effect until the end of this turn!"

"So that's why you banish it!" Yuzu realized, but she regained composure and waved her hand at the set card. "Trap Card, Rope of Life!" A hole appeared from below, Prodigy Mozart returned and gained a blue aura.

 **Melodious Maestra - Prodigy Mozart** ATK 2600 - 3400

"Doesn't matter because you will receive the original ATK of the destroyed Prodigy Mozart as damage!" Matsumi said.

"What?" Everyone besides Ruri, Ryoga, Sora and the LDS was shocked.

"That's the effect from Topaz?" Yuzu asked. But before she could get an answer, Dia fired a blast of wind from its hand, knocking Yuzu down.

 **Yuzu** : 3550 - 950 [0]

"Yuzu! Keep going! Keep going on!" Shuzo tried to help her.

"2600 damage…" Tatsuya said.

"Lucky for you that I could make another attack due to Topaz's effect but your monster is here!" Yuzu allowed herself to breathe out of relief.

"During my End Phase, Dia would be destroyed due to Fragment Fusion but I will special summon Gem-Knight Agate to prevent it!" A warrior in red armor appeared.

 **Gem-Knight Agate** FIRE Pyro Effect LV4 **2000** /1600

"Using its effect, I can return up to 2 banished Gem-Knight monsters back and draw 2 cards at the cost of being unable to attack this turn!"

"Clever…" Even though Ruri still felt uncomfortable with Matsumi, she had to compliment her smart move.

"What?" Gongenzaka wondered.

"She let her monster being destroyed by Fragment Fusion just to prevent it and increase advantage!" Ryoga said, which earned nods from everyone.

"I set one card down and end my turn!"

"Atashi no turn, draw!" She looked at her drawn card before proceeding. "Trap Card, Melodious Illusion! I can make Prodigy Mozart attack twice this turn!"

"What?" People from LDS all shared the same shocked face.

"Yossa! She will surely win!" Yuya and Gongenzaka all said.

"Battle! Prodigy Mozart, attack Agate! Graceful Wave!" It waved its baton again, sending a blast at Agate. "Besides, your backrow will do nothing to Dia this turn!"

"But as long as they affect it! Trap Card, Gem-Knight Mirror! I can negate your attack and draw one card, also negate battle damage this time! Of course, you cannot attack Agate again!" Matsumi quickly countered. A literal mirror appeared and hit the blast, protecting Agate at the cost of itself being shattered to pieces.

"But not the second time! Attack Crystal! Graceful Wave!" This time, Prodigy managed to destroy a monster. Matsumi had to use her right hand to stop the wind from pushing her.

 **Matsumi** : 1100 - 150 [1]

"Dammit! This time Matsumi has very low LP!" Yaiba said in worry. Never before have LDS reputation been in a huge risk like this, and it was from a small school to add the insult.

"But by doing that, Crystal is now in the grave, which gives Dia a power boost!" Matsumi said. The gem-knight warrior gained a green aura.

 **Gem-Knight Master Dia** ATK 2900 - 3000

"Dammit…" Yuzu cursed before activating her Magic Card on the hand, Melodious Concert. "During each of your End Phase, it will inflict 1000 damage for each Melodious monster on my field and allow me to special summon one Melodious monster from my deck with equal or lower ATK than the damage! I will win after your next turn Matsumi!" Yuzu finished her turn.

"Way to go Yuzu!" Shuzo cheered.

"She will have a chance to win!" Ruri cheered.

"Sorry… but this duel is finished!" Matsumi said, earning a surprised look from Yuzu. "Watashi no turn, draw!"

"You actually put up a good fight Yuzu! But… it will end right now!" Matsumi warned. "By banishing Tourmaline I brought back earlier, I can add back Gem-Knight Fusion to my hand!" She took out Tourmaline and the magic card, putting the monster to her pocket and activate Gem-Knight Fusion. "And activate it again!"

"What? Recycling? That card is powerful!" Yuya exclaimed.

"Yes! Fusion decks like Gem-Knight must use Fusion card, so it usually has a recycling effect like that!" Sora explained, knowing that Ruri and Ryoga would look at him bitterly, but it did not matter, because he knew who they really were anyway.

"I will use Gem-Knight Garnet and Crystal this time! Yugō Shōkan! Appear now, Gem-Knight Ruby!" A red-armored warrior with an axe appeared.

 **Gem-Knight Ruby** EARTH Pyro Fusion Effect LV6 2500/1300

"It only has 2500 ATK!" Yuzu defiantly said.

"But by releasing Master Dia, it will gain 3000 ATK!" Matsumi countered, shocking Yuzu and everyone. Master Dia shone up before flying to Ruby as a cloud of dust, increasing Ruby's ATK.

 **Gem-Knight Ruby** ATK 2500 – 5500

"No… no way… I cannot lose…" Yuzu realized her loss but tried to prevent it, but… there was no card to help her this time. Concert only activates its effects during her End Phase. Yuzu panicked, looking at Yuya, but once again, Yuto appeared in his place. Fearful of the image, Yuzu knocked herself down.

"Such a shame… afraid to the point of losing balance…" Of course that was not the real reason. "Battle!" Ruby slammed its axe at Prodigy Mozart, destroying it and sending Yuzu flying. She was knocked out cold.

 **Yuzu** : 950 - 0 [0]

Yuya and Ruri immediately ran to the duel room to check Yuzu while Sora simply bit his food, not going in. "She lost anyway…"

Ryoga eyed at Sora with hatred, but wise enough to not outright attack him in front of the crowd.

Yuzu managed to wake up, hearing Yuya's voice. She weakly looked up to see… Yuto instead. She managed to really see Yuya after he called her name for the third time.

"Yu…Yuya?" She mumbled. She slowly got up, not looking at him.

"Are you… are you okay?" Yuya asked her.

"E…eh!" She weakly answered.

"That's good-" Ruri was cut off by Yuzu falling to Yuya's arm. Both Ruri and Yuya were shocked but not doing anything. Yuzu was weakened by the duel anyway. So Yuya simply hugged her waist slightly. Everyone from You Show looked on in worry.

Meanwhile, Yuzu was lost in her thoughts. "Just… just what am I doing… Yuya is here… He is definitely right here…" She held Yuya's shoulder slightly tighter, her fingertips touching his shoulders more. "But… I did not believe the Yuya right in front of me and worried on my own… It's just like that girl said… I was deceived by my stupid imagination…"

"Do you think that you are quite romantic?" Matsumi joked at the scene.

Yuzu realized what she meant and looked at Yuya, blushing very brightly at what they were doing while Yuya simply gave an innocent look at her. She immediately pushed Yuya away, making the poor boy hitting the floor painfully on his butt while Ruri felt pity for Yuya.

"What… what the hell did you do?" Yuya grasped his butt, getting up.

Yuzu immediately bowed. "I… I am sorry!"

"If you just simply want to apologize, then you should not have pushed me away!"

"I am sorry. It just… it was an important duel to claim the win for You Show but… but I…" She looked down in shame, not being able to say anything.

"Don't worry about it! All we have to do is to win the next one!" Yuya confronted her.

"Yeah! Don't put too hard on yourself Yuzu!" Ruri told her.

Hearing that, Yuzu managed to give a smile to them.

"All we have to do is to win the next one?" A boy mocked from behind them. They looked at the door to see a short boy with long hair wearing a white sleeveless jacket with a long sleeved shirt under the jacket, long pants. He also had a katana on his back.

Yuya asked. "Who are you?"

"I am a representative from the LDS Synchro course, Toudou Yaiba." The boy answered. "Now, who will be my opponent?"

* * *

"I take the first turn!" Yuto declared his turn. He looked at his hand before taking out three cards.

"I set down 3 cards and end my turn!" Yuto set down three cards. They materialized before disappearing.

"Usual stuff, too predictable. Ore no turn!" Shun drew his card and looked at it briefly before slapping at to the blade.

"From my hand, I summon Raid Raptors - Vanishing Lanius!" An armored lanius with boosters on its wings and its sides appeared.

"Course I will call out two more birds! Come out, Vanishing Lanius and Tribute Lanius!" Shun slapped two more cards down, another Vanishing Lanius and a blue armored bird of prey appeared.

2x **Raid Raptors - Vanishing Lanius** DARK Winged Beast Effect LV4 **1300** /1600

 **Raid Raptors - Tribute Lanius** DARK Winged Beast Effect LV4 **1800** /400

"Thanks to Tribute, I send Fuzzy Lanius to the grave and it will allow me to add another one to my hand! Of course I will special summon it!" After a long setup, Shun summoned a purple armored lanius to the field.

 **Raid Raptors - Fuzzy Lanius** DARK Winged Beast Effect LV4 **500** /1600

"Finally Raid Raptors - Sanctuary! I draw 2 cards since I got 4 Raid Raptors now!" Shun drew two cards and put them on his left hand.

"Not gonna Xyz Shun?" Yuto attempted to bait him.

"I'm not that stupid!" Shun immediately growled back. "Battle! Vanishing Lanius, direct attack!" The dark green and grey lanius flew at Yuto, who quickly swung his hand forward.

"Double Trap, open! Phantom Knights - Lost Vambrace!" On cue, the attacking Vanishing Lanius and Tribute Lanius got a red aura, the two traps turned themselves into two armored ghosts with hands covered by old vambraces.

2x **Phantom Knights Lost Vambrace** DARK Warrior LV2 **600** /0

 **Raid Raptors - Vanishing Lanius** ATK 1300 - 700

 **Raid Raptors - Tribute Lanius** ATK 1800 - 1200

"I know they will survive this battle phase but I can still inflict damage!" Vanishing Lanius scratched its claws to the armor. It was not destroyed but the battle created a blast, forcing Yuto to cover himself.

 **Yuto** : 4000 - 3900 [2]

"And now Tribute Lanius-"

"Quick-Play Magic, Phantom Knights Double Badge!" Yuto declared. After the card was revealed, the two monsters on his field turned purple, flying to the overlay network.

"Carry on the ten thousand warriors! Cursed spear buried in the darkness! Descend now! Xyz Shōkan! Appear! Rank 2! Phantom Knights Cursed Javelin!" A warrior with a skeleton head wielding an old shield and a skull-decorated javelin appeared.

 **Phantom Knights Cursed Javelin** DARK Warrior Xyz Effect LV2 **1600** /0

"Huh… I set two cards down and end my turn!"

"Ore no turn, draw!" Yuto started his first turn. "Battle! Cursed Javelin, attack Fuzzy Lanius!" Cursez Javelin charged energy on the blade of its javelin before blasting it at the lanius.

"Quick-Play Magic, Raid Raptors - Rapid Xyz activate!" Shun countered. Two Vanishing Lanius and Fuzzy Lanius flew to the overlay network.

"Falcon lurking in darkness! Raise your sharpened claws in adversary! Wing of Rebellion, spread outwards! Xyz Shōkan! Appear now!" Shun slapped the Xyz monster to the blade. "Rank 4! Raid Raptors - Rise Falcon!" An armored, six-red-eye falcon with boosters on its wings appeared, roaring creepily in anger.

 **Raid Raptors - Rise Falcon** DARK Winged Beast Xyz Effect R4 **100** /2000

"Now by detaching one Overlay Unit!" The overlay unit flew to Lost Vambrace. "It gains 1600 ATK!"

"Cursed Javelin's effect! Rise Falcon loses its ATK and effect!" Lost Vambrace fired a blast at the big falcon, nullifying its power. Lost Vambrace then proceeded to destroy it.

"Trap Card, Raid Raptors - Readiness!" Shun covered himself from the blast, but he took a chance to do something. "Rise Falcon will not be destroyed."

"But you will still take the damage!" Yuto reminded.

 **Shun** : 4000 - 2400 [3]…

* * *

"Yuya-niichan has won!" Tatsuya said.

"Yuzu-neechan has lost…" Ayu added.

"Which means 1-1!"

Gongenzaka was angry. "If I could, the man Gongenzaka would really want to avenge Yuzu but… You Show depends on this duel. As an inheritor of Gongenzaka Dojo, I am just an outsider!"

He then turned to Sora. "Listen Sora! Now is the time, you gotta win!"

"I'm not sure about that… Maybe you can duel Gon-chan!" Sora declined.

"Gon… Gon-chan?" He was surprised by Sora addressing him informally like that, unlike the members from his dojo.

"Why don't you duel Sora?" Ryoga pushed. Sora slightly froze before answering. "I'm not sure that I can do well against Yaiba…" Sora looked at Yaiba, who was stretching, ready for the duel.

" _Never fought a Synchro user before?"_ Ruri knew the real reason.

Yuya then stepped behind him. "I wish my luck to you, Gongenzaka. As your friend, I can totally depend on you for this final duel!"

Touched by his friend's words, Gongenzaka fired up with resolve. "GOOOD! Leave it to MEEEE!" All the teenagers from You Show sweated out after that.

"OI!"

"Huh?" He realized Yaiba was right in front of him.

"How long are you going to stall? Or are you too afraid and wanna quit?"

"How you! You see this man Gongenzaka as a weak man? Your opponent…" He quickly slapped his duel disk to his left hand. "Is MEEE!" He did a manly pose, which forced Ruri and Ryoga to hold their laughters.

"Gonna tell you…" Yaiba mocked. "If you think I am like those two buddies of mine there… you were wrong! Unlike them…" He let the word sink in. "I am really strong!"

"That asshole Yaiba! Who does he think us two are!" Hokuto angrily sneered.

Matsumi reminded him with a mocking tone. "It's true that it's hard to hear but… can you say it when you actually lost first?" Hokuto lost all color on him. He then proceed to curl himself in the corner of the watching room while Matsumi weirdly looked at him.

"Finish the chatters?" Sora reminded everyone. "We got a duel to watch."

" _And two remnants to handle…"_

After a while, Yaiba and Gongenzaka went into the duel room. Once again, just the Action Field setting, no Action Field, no Action Cards. A true battle between the two warriors, a duel to decide the fate of You Show Duel School. Everyone looked on with tense looks on their faces, besides Reiji, who passively looked down, eavesdropping form the corner.

 **DUELLL!**

 **Gongenzaka Noboru** : 4000 [5]

 **Toudou Yaiba** : 4000 [5]

Gongenzaka declared his first turn. "From my hand, Superheavy Samurai Kabuto summon!" He slapped the card to the orange blade. From the smoke, a big, mechanical-like samurai wielding a big brown hammer appeared.

 **Superheavy Samurai Kabuto** EARTH Machine Effect LV4 **1000** /2000

"Turn end!" He finished his turn, which earned him a mock from Yaiba.

"Just a trash monster with 1000 ATK?"

"A real man will not waste his moves!" Gongenzaka countered.

"What the hell are you going to do… Gongenzaka?" Ryoga wondered the same thing as everyone else, besides Yuya.

"We'll see…" Yuya simply replied, which earned him bewildered looks from the You Show squad.

"Huh! Do whatever you want the big meat! Ore no turn, draw!" Yaiba declared his turn. He smirked at the sight of the card.

"XX-Saber Boggart Knight summon!" He slapped the card. A muscular warrior with an beige armor revealing his six-packed abs, along with a red cape and a sword appeared.

 **XX-Saber Boggart Knight** EARTH Beast Warrior Effect LV4 **1900** /1000

"Then I will special summon XX-Saber Fulhelmknight!" He slapped another card to the blade. A long blonde haired warrior wielding an energy whip with weights between parts of the whip appeared.

 **XX-Saber Fulhelmknight** EARTH Warrior Tuner Effect LV3 **1300** /1000

Kabuto suddenly grew a faint blue aura around it, readying in a defense stance. A short while, a blue barrier completely shielded it.

"It's bad that you special summon monsters." Gongenzaka said.

 **Superheavy Samurai Kabuto 1000** /2000 - 1000/ **2000** \- 2500

"It switches itself to Defense and got defense power-up for this turn. In this duel, whoever wastes his moves will lose! Remember that!"

"Good, Gongenzaka!" Yuya cheered. "Show your 'Steadfast' duel!"

"Just switching itself to defense? And what is 'Steadfast'?" Ruri wondered.

"Huh! What is 'Steadfast' duel?" Yaiba mocked. "I will do my best now!" He then showed a level 6 monster to Gongenzaka before slapping it.

"I can special summon this card when I have two X-Saber monsters on the field!" On cue, another X-Saber warrior came out.

 **XX-Saber** **Faultroll** EARTH Warrior Effect LV6 **2400** /1800

"3 monsters at once!" Tatsuya was dumbstruck.

"Incredible!" Futoshi said.

"Wait! They do not have the same levels!" Ayu noted.

"He uses Synchro remember?" Ryoga told her.

"Wait for the incredible till you see this!" Yaiba raised his hand up. "I, using the level 4 Boggart Knight and the level 3 Fulhelmknight, tuning!" Fulhelmknight spun the whip around itself, turning to three Synchro rings that swept through Boggart, turning it to 4 stars before a light went through them.

"Wielder of crossed blades of light, trample over this mountain of corpses! Synchro Shōkan! Come forth! Level 7! X-Saber Souza!" A large warrior wielding two large blades with a tattered red cape appeared.

 **X-Saber Souza** EARTH Warrior Synchro Effect LV7 **2500** /1600

"What the hell?" Futoshi was shocked.

"Using monsters with Tuner Monsters for tuning to awaken a power in the Extra Deck which has the level equal to the levels of the monsters used for tuning!" Himika explained.

"So, the Tuner level 3 Fulhelmknight and the level 4 Boggart Knight tune together to special summon a level 7 Synchro monster?" Yuya realized.

"Of course! And now, Faultroll will bring back the tuner back!" Faultroll slammed its sword to the ground, creating a blue portal. Fuhelmknight returned.

"Wait… so it is…" Ryoga realized.

"Another Synchro Summon?" Ruri finished.

"Uh lady!" On cue, the Synchro Summon happened again.

"Let your silver armor shine, and crush the hope of everything that opposes you! Synchro Shōkan! Come forth! Level 9! XX-Saber Gottoms!" This time, an even bigger armored warrior with an equally big two-edged sword appeared, burning with bloodlust.

 **XX-Saber Gottoms** EARTH Warrior Synchro Effect LV9 **3100** /2600

"What the hell…" Yuzu did not know what to say to those moves anymore.

"Two Synchro Summons in one turn…"

"That's quite normal actually!" Ruri said, bringing everyone's attention to her, even Reiji.

"Extra Deck-centric decks focus on swarming its materials, so it is not a surprise. There are decks that can summon multiple Extra Decks monsters in a single turn." Ryoga said to Yuya and Yuzu. "You two did not use Extra Deck so you find it to be awesome." Yuya and Yuzu widened their eyes at his words.

"Anyway, let's go back to the duel!" They turned back.

"So what now? Too afraid to say anything?" Yaiba mocked.

"A real man has to keep his stance still and his mind calm! Someone who run away cannot win!" Gongenzaka said, which annoyed Yaiba.

"Enough with the rambling! Battle!" Yaiba told him. "Feel the swords of X-Saber!" On cue, Gottoms destroyed Kabuto by a burst from its blade, then Souza jumped up high, before slashing its sword, creating a blast of wind. Gongenzaka tensed himself in a defense stance, the blast only knocked him back slightly.

 **Gongenzaka** : 4000 - 1500 [4]

"2500 damage…" Tatsuya became worried.

"He endured it!" Futoshi said.

"I set down one card and my turn is concluded!"

"Ore no turn, DRAW!" Gongenzaka drew his card with such strong force that he created a splash of wind, shocking Ryoga. "Wow… how could he do that…"

"He is from the Gongenzaka dojo, that is why Ryoga!" Shuzo said from the machine room.

Gongenzaka looked at the card he just drew. _"Yoss! The foundation of my 'Steadfast' dueling is here!"_ He then put it in his left hand and grabbed another. "I can special summon Superheavy Samurai Ten Bin since you have 2 monsters!" On cue, a big samurai with a carrying pole on its shoulders appeared.

 **Superheavy Samurai Ten Bin** EARTH Machine Effect LV4 800/ **1800**

"Using its effect, I can special summon Kabuto!" On one end of the pole, Kabuto returned.

"Immovable like the mountains, I shall show you the true form of steadfastness! Advance Shōkan!" The two samurais turned into dust and into two big pillars. From it, a big samurai appeared, spinning its stake in its grand introduction.

 **Superheavy Samurai Big Benkei** EARTH Machine Effect LV8 1000/ **3500**

"What? Advance Summon in Defense Position?" Yaiba was surprised.

"How could he do that?" Ruri wondered.

"Because of its own effect!" Yuya said in place of Gongenzaka. "And he did say about 'Steadfast' dueling earlier, remember?"

"What do you mean?" Ryoga asked. Yuya simply smiled.

Gongenzaka then did something strange. "Big Benkei, attack XX-Saber Gottoms!" On cue, the big samurai punched the ground.

"WHAT?" The question that everyone besides Yuya asked out loud.

"That's the ability of Big Benkei! And its DEF will be used during damage calculation!" Gongenzaka revealed. From the place Big Benkei punched, flames began to run at Gottoms until it did, consuming it in fire.

"3500 versus 3100…" Ayu said.

"Big Benkei win!" The kids yelled.

"Shiveru!" The usual move of Futoshi, which Ryoga barely torelated.

 **Yaiba** : 4000 - 3600 [2]

Gongenzaka looked at his hand, smiling. _"Good, the formation is set!"_

"I end my turn here!"

"Ore to turn, draw!" Yaiba drew his card.

"I summon another Boggart Knight! And of course another one, XX-Saber Ragigura!" Boggart Knight and a frog wielding two short daggers appeared.

 **XX-Saber Ragigura** EARTH Beast Warrior Effect LV1 **200** /1000

"What the? Just a 'trash' monster with 200 ATK…" Futoshi mocked while Ayu looked on uncomfortably.

"Any card can be useful Futoshi-kun!" Yuya reminded the kid to his words during his duel with Sawatari.

"Ragiguga will allow me to add Faultroll from my graveyard back to my hand, and of course I can special summon it due to having 3 X-Sabers now!"

"Using its effect, I can bring back Fulhelmknight from the grave!" Faultroll slammed its sword to the ground, bringing back the yellow-haired tuner monster again.

"Eh, special summon again?" Ayu became annoyed at this repeated play.

"It's like he's playing with himself!" Futoshi had the same answer.

"As long as he can Synchro Summon multiple monsters, it doesn't matter!" Ryoga said.

Yaiba then raised his hand. "I, using the level 6 Faultroll and the level 3 Fulhelmknight, tuning! Synchro Shōkan! Appear, level 9, XX-Saber Gottoms!" Another Gottoms appeared on the field.

"What the… It's already hard to beat a Gottoms, and now another…" Yuzu worried for Gongenzaka.

"And now for the grand show! Field Magic, Saber Vault!" Yaiba slid the card to the duel disk, activating it.

"What? Field Magic?" Gongenzaka was surprised for real this time.

"This card allows "X-Saber" monster on the field gains 100 ATK x its Level, and loses 100 DEF x its Level!"

"What? That means…" Yuya became shocked.

"Uh! All 4 X-Sabers will gain ATK!"

 **XX-Saber Boggart Knight** **1900** /1000 - **2300** /6000

 **X-Saber Souza 2500** /1600 - **3200** /900

 **XX-Saber Gottoms 3100** /2600 - **4000** /1700

 **XX-Saber Ragigura 200** /1000 - **0** /900

"Shit! Gongenzaka!" Yuya exclaimed.

"Battle! Gottoms, attack Big Benkei!" Yaiba said. "And my trap Meteor Rain will inflict piercing batte damage!" Gottoms destroyed the samurai, but before that, Gongenzaka slid a card from his hand to the graveyard. He covered himself from the blast. Thanks to his big stature, he was not pushed back an inch.

 **Gongenzaka** : 1500 - 1000 [2]

As the dust settled, Yaiba was surprised to find Big Benkei still standing straight. "What happened?"

"I sent Superheavy Samurai Soul Fire Armor to the grave to negate battle destruction of Big Benkei!" Gongenzaka said, which annoyed Yaiba. "Sacrifice a card in your hand to protect your ace?"

"But in exchange, it will lose 800 DEF!"

 **Superheavy Samurai Big Benkei** DEF 3500 - 2700

"Hand trap…" Ryoga said.

"What?" Yuzu wondered.

"Those cards like the one that Gongenzaka played are called hand traps due to being able to activate its effects from the hand, much more flexible than normal traps." Ruri explained.

"Hummh… But I still got Souza! Battle!" Souza created two energy waves and splashed them at Big Benkei. A huge explosion occurred. Gongenzaka managed to stay still despite the ensuring wind blast hitting him.

 **Gongenzaka** : 1000 - 500 [2]

 **Superheavy Samurai Big Benkei** DEF 2700 - 1900

"You managed to survive with monster effects. Calling yourself highly yet you used cheap tactics…" Yaiba mocked Gongenzaka, who simply answered "It's because the Deck that I've trusted in had saved me!"

"Stop those petty tricks! I will release Boggart Knight and Kagigura…" The frog and the smaller warrior of the monsters in Yaiba's field turned into purple energy, flying at the edge of Gottoms. "To take away your entire hand!" Gottoms shot an energy blast at Gongenzaka's hand, making the two cards glowed purple, signifying its inability to hold it.

"What?" Gongenzaka was shocked.

"The cards Gongenzaka holds now…" Futoshi said.

Gongenzaka had no other choice. He put the two cards to the graveyard slot.

"Hand destruction? I thought that deck only focus on swarming…" Ryoga said.

"Crippling the opponent's chance to make a comeback, that's another aspect of this X-Saber deck!" Himika explained.

"That's why he's strong!" Ruri noted.

"Whatever it is, Gongenzaka will not lose." Yuya reassured.

"How can you be so sure when he had 0 card on his hand? Besides, if there were Action Cards, he would simply grab them." Yaiba mocked.

"I would never use it!" Gongenzaka answered, which earned him shock faces from the You Show and mocking ones form LDS.

"Whatever. I end my turn here!" Yaiba concluded his turn.

"Ore no turn, draw!" He looked at the drawn card, smiling. "Yossa!"

"What?"

"By banishing Superheavy Samurai Soul Seeker from my hand, I can draw 2 cards!" Gongenzaka sent the card to the grave and drew two cards with force. "Good! I summon another Superheavy Samurai Soul Great Wall! And I will equip it to Big Benkei to make it gain 1200 DEF!"

 **Superheavy Samurai Soul Great Wall** EARTH Machine Effect LV3 **1200** /1200

 **Superheavy Samurai Big Benkei** DEF 1900 - 3100

"Battle!" Gongenzaka declared battle, shocking everyone on the scene. "Big Benkei, attack X-Saber Souza!" The big samurai punched it fists to the ground, creating flames that ran towards Souza.

"What the hell? It's weaker than Souza!" Yaiba did not know the real reason the man Gongenzaka did that.

"And now!" Gongenzaka said. "I will send Superheavy Samurai Soulbuster Gauntlet to the graveyard to increase Big Benkei's DEF by its original DEF!"

"What?"

"Way to go Gongenzaka!" Yuya cheered.

 **Superheavy Samurai Big Benkei** DEF 3100 - 6600

 **Yaiba** : 3600 – 200 [0]

"Turn end!"

 **Superheavy Samurai Big Benkei** DEF 6600 - 3100

"What the…" Hokuto became shocked.

"Chuck out 3400 LP in one attack…" Matsumi could not hide her surprise.

"Now the Synchro course of LDS is at stake too…" Himika whispered worriedly.

"Even though he managed to balance the LP, his is 500 and cards in hand is 0. Now Gon-chan does not have a chance to win anymore?" Sora became pessimistic. A "no" from Yuya made him stop. Everyone turned to see the serious Yuya, a Yuya that they did not see frequently.

"He will not give up." After that, all of them looked back at the duel room.

"Ore no turn, draw!" Yaiba declared his turn.

"Magic Card, X-Saber Charity! By banishing Boggart Knight and Ragigura, I can draw 2 cards!" Yaiba took out those two monsters from the graveyard slot and drew two cards after breathing to release nervousness.

"I summon Ragigura again!" The frog warrior once again came to the field.

"Using its effect, I will add Faultroll back to my hand and special summon it!" Faultroll came back in pride.

"Faultroll, bring back Fulhelmknight!" After receiving the order, Faultroll slammed its sword to the ground, allowing Fulhelmknight to return.

"Again?" Yuzu did not really need to say it.

"Uh!" Ragigura and Fulhelmknight did their job again.

"Synchro Shōkan! X-Saber Souza!" The duplicate of the dual-wielding warrior appeared.

"And now I will release Faultroll!" Faultroll turned to dust. Gongenzaka widened his eyes at that.

"The face of 'what is he planning to do?'" Yaiba mocked. "You will know soon! Battle! Souza, attack Big Benkei!"

"Why?" The kids wondered.

"By tributing a monster, Souza will destroy Big Benkei at the start of the damage step!" Yaiba answered, shocking the kids.

"Dammit! He will lose!" Ryoga became worried.

"No!" Gongenzaka took out Soul Great Wall and sent it to the grave. "By doing that, Big Benkei loses its DEF but I can negate the attack!" Souza's swords slammed themselves to the ground, blocking Souza.

"Dammit! But! After negating the attack, that piece of junk is now officially useless!" Yaiba pointed at Big Benkei.

 **Superheavy Samurai Big Benkei** DEF 3100 - 0

"Doesn't matter! With Gottoms, I will-"

"I have been waiting for that!" Gongenzaka declared, shocking the short boy.

"I activate the graveyard effect of Superheavy Samurai Soul Break Armor!"

"What? Graveyard?" He looked at the card Gongenzaka just pulled out. "Can't… be…"

"Yes! That was the card you sent to the graveyard by Gottoms effect! When I only have monster cards in my graveyard, by banishing it, the difference between the attacked monster's current DEF and its original DEF, in this case, 3500 damage, will be inflicted to you!" He explained. Yaiba lost his composure. Sora was so in awe of this hard condition but powerful effect that he dropped his candy to the ground. It shattered into pieces.

"Kid… kidding me…"

"No Magic or Trap in grave?" Ryoga's eyes were widened in pure shock.

Yuya then told to everyone with pride for his friend. "To execute this move, the condition is that there is no magic or trap cards in the graveyard. That's the reason why Gongenzaka did not use any, creating a Full Monster Deck!" Everyone from You Show smiled at this.

"Only monsters… Full Monster Deck? Is that even possible?" Matsumi looked at Gongenzaka in shock.

"Insane!" Hokuto had the same feeling as her.

Even Reiji who was peeking could not keep his stoic composure, in place for a proud smile at this boy's deckplay.

Yaiba was truly impressed this time though. "So that's it… You said you would not get even a single Action Card, or play any magic or trap card… because of this…"

"Yes! Action Cards are counted as monster cards!" He let his word sink in for a bit.

"See that! That's the basis of the 'Steadfast' Dueling!" Soul Fire Armor fired energy beams at Yaiba, who quickly countered by sliding a magic card into his duel disk.

"Quick-Play Magic, Saber Reflect! Negate effect damage and reflect it back to you asshole!"

"What!?"

"He still has this play left as a last resort!?" Yuya exclaimed.

A blue barrier formed around the two X-Sabers, hitting the blast then turned itself into energy, shooting at Gongenzaka.

" _Namusan!"_

He opened his eyes fiercely. "I activate the grave effect of Superheavy Samurai Soul Big Bang!" He took out the card and threw it to the sky, Soul Big Bang materialized itself.

"What? Another card sent there by Gottoms?" Yaiba realized.

"It negate your attempt at effect damage!" Big Bang absorbed the blast.

"What?"

"Not yet! Now every monsters will be destroyed, and both of us will take damage equal to the total levels of the destroyed monsters x100!" Gongenzaka smiled defiantly. No one could hide their shock anymore at this play.

"What? The total levels are 24…"

"2400 damage!"

Soul Big Band exploded, destroying all monsters on the field and knocking both Yaiba and Gongenzaka unconscious.

 **Yaiba** : 200 - 0 [0]

 **Gongenzaka** : 500 - 0 [0]

"This is…" Ayu said.

"A draw!" Tatsuya finished.

A holographic board showed the two unconscious contestants with a word DRAW in the middle.

1 - 1

Yuya immediately ran to Gongenzaka to wake him up.

"I am sorry… even with my 'Steadfast' dueling could not defeat him…"

"What are you saying? This school still stands thanks to you! No need to apologize!" He reassured his friend, who smiled.

From the machine room, Shuzo declared. "So this match is one win, one loss and one draw for each team. Mrs. Chairwoman, your condition to take over this school is not met! So please, get out of You Show Duel School!"

"What are you saying?" Himika said, clearly annoyed at the result. "We used duel to solve the problem, then it must be done with duel!"

"But the match ended with a draw!" Ryoga spoke up.

"Shut up! An extra match! The winners from each single duel will duel now to decide which team will wiin!"

"How dare you-" Yuzu hissed, but was stopped by Yuya coming out, looking down fiercely, his goggles covering his eyes. She could only mutter his name in worry, knowing her friend's nervousness.

"It seems you are ready! Now…" On cue, Matsumi prepared to put her duel disk on her left hand.

"Wait up!" Reiji decided to finally interfere. Everyone looked at him, the source of the voice. He unhooded his hoodie. Yuya turned around to see him.

"Leave the duel to me…"

* * *

"How was that Shun? Give up on killing innocent people?" Yuto asked.

"Urgh… I will not stop! I set down a card! Proceed Yuto!" Shun said calmly but clearly there was anger in his voice.

"Too reckless Shun!" Yuto reminded. "Draw!"

"Phantom Knights - Dusty Robe summon!" A ghost with, true to its name, dusty clothes appeared.

 **Phantom Knights - Dusty Robe** DARK Warrior Effect LV3 **800** /1000

"And Phantom Knights - Silent Boots special summon!"

 **Phantom Knights - Silent Boots** DARK Warrior Effect LV3 **200** /1000

"Come now?" Shun said to himself.

"I, using the level 3 Dusty Robe and Silent Boots, overlay!"

"Soul of the Knights who fall on the battleground, now revive and become the light that rend the darkness! Xyz Shōkan!"

"Rank 3, Phantom Knights - Break Sword!"

 **Phantom Knights - Break Sword** DARK Warrior Xyz Effect R3 **2000** /1000

"Using its effect." One Overlay Unit disintegrated. "I will destroy this card and your Rise Falcon!" The horse rider slammed its sword to the ground, creating a huge shockwave, destroying both monsters.

"And now I will revive the materials!" Yuto said. The two monsters returned.

 **Phantom Knights - Dusty Robe** LV3 - 4

 **Phantom Knights - Silent Boots** LV3 - 4

Shun quickly countered. "Rank-Up-Magic Revive Force! I special summon the destroyed Rise Falcon and rank it up by 2 ranks!" Rise Falcon came out from an opened portal and rose up to the overlay unit. Flame came out from it. Yuto was shocked by his cunning move.

"Prideful falcon! Spread your wings dyed in the blood of the fallen! Advance through the path of revolution!"

"Rank-Up Xyz Change!" Fire rose up high behind Shun, paving the way for the powerful armored falcon with the shape of a secretary bird. It opened its wings, clearing the flame surrounding it.

 **Raid Raptors - Revolution Falcon** DARK Warrior Xyz Effect R6 **2000** /3000

"Revolution Falcon, destroy Cursed Javelin! And don't bother using its effect because Revive Force negate the effects of all monsters on the field!" The falcon rose up high and threw down bombs on its panels, destroying the warrior. Yuto was pushed back by the blast.

 **Yuto** : 3900 - 3100 [1]

Yuto quickly acted. "I, using the level 4 Dusty Robe and Silent Boots, overlay!"

"From the pitch-black darkness. Rise up against the foolish oppression, Fang of Rebellion! Descend now! XYZ Shōkan! Come forth! Rank 4! Dark Rebellion Xyz Dragon!"

 **Dark Rebellion Xyz Dragon** DARK Dragon Xyz Effect R4 **2500** /2000

"Finally… Dark Rebellion…" Shun commented. "But you cannot attack Revolution Falcon without losing ATK at the start of the Damage Step Yuto!"

"I know!" He said before setting a card down. Yuto then looked at Shun and suddenly realized something was wrong.

"Ore no turn…" Shun said but Yuto cut him off. "Wait! Why do you have three cards? You should only have two!" He noticed. "Can't be…" He recalled the moment Shun covered himself from the battle before. Shun had his right hand covered behind his coat.

" _Too late Yuto…"_ Shun immediately activated the card, Smoke Bomb, the card he took out from under his coat earlier. He always had it as a last resort. Smoke began to release on the materialized card, Shun immediately covered his face and ran away. Yuto could not react in time. He hit the smoke and cough painfully before passing out.

" _Shun… Don't…"_

* * *

"Akaba Reiji… why the f### are you here?"

That was what Yuya told to him. Everyone gasped at this, especially Sora, Ruri and Ryoga.

"Yuya!" Yuzu was shocked at his friend's use of profanity.

"You know him Yuya?" Ruri could not hide her curiosity.

"Why the f### am I here?" Reiji calmly responded. "Does that even matter?"

"Never believe LDS would do this dirty piece of shit to You Show Duel School, the school bearing the name of my father! As the strongest student of You Show, I do not allow your company to take over this school!"

"I never said I would do that!" Reiji said. Of course Yuya did not buy it. "Just a duel is enough."

Yuya gritted his teeth and hardened his face. _"This is the real final duel! I will definitely win to protect this school and my father's reputation!"_

Yuya then went to the duel room and waited for Reiji, who simply went into there as well. Everyone from You Show Duel School watched the scene worryingly.

"Yuya-niichan is really off now!" Ayu noted.

"Because of the responsibility to protect You Show!" Ryoga said.

"And don't ask him to smile or behave like an entertainer these times. He is dead serious right now and he will not smile." Yuzu told everyone. _"Try your best, Yuya... and don't let the nervousness get the better of you…"_ She internally encouraged her best friend.

Seeing Yuzu like that, Ruri patted her hand on Yuzu's shoulders to confront her. "Don't worry Yuzu, I know he will do it!"

"Yeah…" Yuzu smiled at her.

Ruri then whispered to Ryoga.

"Is that the Akaba Reiji that you, my brother and Yuto are looking for?"

"Uh! We wanted to capture him as bait to Leo… but now things are getting worse… we cannot just shoot our way in…"

"Yeah… I don't want to fight, to get my hands dirty. You know that. We will find a way to convince him to join in our side."

"We will. For now, we will go back to the hideout after today…" They then turned back to the room. Reji briefly glanced at them and Sora, the newcomers to Miami and specifically, You Show. He then turned to Yuya.

"So… are you ready?"

"Uh! Start the duel you bastard!"

Shuzo then spoke up to Yuya with concern. "Alright. Yuya, I know this is a very important duel, and I know with the Action Field limitation we've set earlier, you would be at a disadvantage. Do you wanna return the old settings to your best?"

Yuya looked up at Shuzo, smiling. "Uh! Do it Shuzo-san!"

"Alright!" Shuzo then clicked the Enter button. "Action Field on! Field Magic, Athletic Circus activate!" The scenery turned into a circus-like room with numerous colorful decorations including multiple floating balls, poles surrounded by platforms appeared, making the kid yelled in joy. Sora noted it was a circus while Gogenzaka commented that this duel field is Yuya's strongest field.

"Duelist locked in battle!" Yuzu recited.

"Kicking against the earth and dancing in the air alongside their Monsters!" Ruri said.

"They storm through the field!" Came Futoshi. Ayu then continued "Behold!"

"The ultimate evolution of Dueling!" Tatsuya said.

"ACTION…" The girls and the kids said at the same time.

"DUEL!" Yuya and Reiji yelled.

 **Sakaki Yuya** : 4000 [5]

 **Akaba Reiji** : 4000 [5]

* * *

After running away from Yuto, Shun caught his breath. _"Damn you Yuto! Forcing me to use this!"_ He then threw Smoke Bomb away. Those cards could only be used once only.

After regaining normal breath, he silently went out to scout, finding any possible leads, especially LDS, which could lead him to find Akaba Reiji, and in turn, Ruri. After a while, he found an LDS member with a blue coat, suggesting a high-ranking one. Like a predator hunting its prey, Shun jumped up to a two-story building and suddenly jumped down in front of him. That man got shocked by this.

"Who… who are you?" He managed in fear.

"Don't care! Are you LDS?" Shun whispered dangerously.

"E… uh! I am! Then what? Why are you stalking-"

"LDS!?" Shun growled in anger. He immediately swung his left hand forward, activating his Duel Disk. "Duel me you moron!"

"What!?" He felt extremely nervous. Never before had someone challenged him in a very harsh and dangerous way like this. But he had no choice now. He looked at Shun for a while before placing his own Duel Disk on his arm.

"You force me to do this!" He reminded Shun, who said nothing. "I will beat you!" He threatened Shun in nervousness.

 **DUEL!**

 **Kurosaki Shun** : 4000 [5]

… **Marco…** : 4000 [5]

* * *

 **Fanfic OC cards**

 **Rank-Up-Magic Revive Force (Quick-Play Magic Card)**

If a "Raid Raptors" Xyz monster you control is destroyed and sent to the graveyard this turn, target that monster, special summon it, and special summon from your Extra Deck, 1 "Raid Raptors" Xyz monster with 1 or 2 ranks higher than the target, by using the target as Xyz Material. After that, all monsters your opponent control have their effects negated this turn.

 **Sacred Orion**

LIGHT Warrior Effect LV4 1900/1900

If a "Sacred" monster you control would be destroyed by battle or card effect, you can send this card from your hand to the graveyard instead.

 **Pendulum Charging** **(Quick-Play Magic Card)**

Pay half of your LP and destroy two of your pendulum cards on your field, special summon a Pendulum Monster from your graveyard, then draw 2 cards.

 **Gem-Knight Agate**

FIRE Pyro Effect LV4 2000/1600

If your "Gem-Knight" monster(s) would be destroyed, you can special summon this card from your hand instead, and if you do, return up to 2 banished "Gem-Knight" monsters to the graveyard, and if you do, draw 2 cards. You cannot conduct your Battle Phase this turn.

 **Gem-Knight Mirror (Trap Card)**

When your opponent declares an attack, target 1 "Gem-Knight" monster you control, negate the attack, and if you do, draw 1 card. Your opponent cannot attack the target for attacks.

 **Melodious Concert**

During each of your End Phase, inflict 1000 damage to your opponent for each "Melodious" monsters you control, and if you do, special summon 1 "Melodious" monster from your deck with ATK equal or lower than the damage inflicted by this effect.

 **Melodious Backstage (Magic Card)**

Banish 3 cards from your graveyard, 1 of them must be a "Melodious" card. Draw cards equal to the number of "Melodious" card banished by this effect.

 **Superheavy Samurai Soul Seeker**

EARTH Warrior Effect LV4 1800/1000

You can banish this card from your hand, draw 2 cards. You can only activate this effect once per turn.

 **X-Saber Charity (Magic Card)**

Banish 2 "X-Saber" monsters from your graveyard, draw 2 cards.

* * *

 **Changed effect to anime card**

 **Odd-Eyes Pendulum Dragon**

Once per turn, you can reduce the battle damage you take from an attack involving a Pendulum Monster you control to 0.

4

DARK Dragon Pendulum Effect LV7 2500/2000

If this card battles an opponent's level 5 or higher monster, any battle damage this card inflicts to your opponent is doubled. If this card is Special Summoned from the graveyard or Pendulum Summoned face-up from the Extra Deck, you can target up to 2 Pendulum Cards in your Pendulum Zones or face-up from your Extra Deck, banish them, and if you do, all of your opponent's monsters lose ATK equal to the total scales of the 2 banished Pendulum Monsters x100.

* * *

 **Phew! Close to 14000 words! A huge accomplishment for me! Happy me! This is officially the longest chapter up to date! And it's good that I managed to finish the chapter before taking exams.**

 **I am sure that you guys will complain that I did not show the Yuto vs Shun duel in full. But keep in mind, Shun wanted to go out immediately to find Reiji. And yes, no Action Duel this time, but to keep the damage Action Duel may cause, I kept the Action Duel setting for this 3 vs 3 match. At least, Yuzu actually fought tooth and nail before losing.**

 **So yeah, Yuya did know Reiji, and how did he know is not too pleasant, which you will know during the next chapter. I will probably not show Shun vs Marco though due to time issue, sorry about that.**

 **I gave Odd-Eyes Pendulum Dragon the ATK reduction effect to make it on par with the other Dimension Dragons.**

 **Tired now, so… this is matrixnis, out!**


	12. Scale 12

**Yossa! I am back with a new chapter after a long break! Sorry about that. Thanks for all of the reviews that I have got, you guys are amazing!**

 **In return, you all will get a nice treat from me! Just read the duel and you will know! That is my version of answering the question surrounding that never-played-always-secret card.**

 **To Yuka Kuroshiro, thanks. I thought Shun is pragmatic, readying to use dirty tactics when needed (just think about Liam Neeson in Taken) but still keep a sense of honor and a level of seriousness.**

 **To Gentyman, thank you for your statement, never thought my duel writing style would manage to bring multiple duels that long though (lol).**

 **To Guest, rich papa does give someone life advantage but here I want to give Sawatari more self-aware of his status so that he is much more likeable to others (at least in my point of view).**

 **To Playerhood18, yes, this is about to get massive soon.**

 **To thetiger39, I did wonder why the directors chose to let Shun and Selena go guilt-free like that. I understand that Shun being broken due to the war and Selena being unknown of the genocide Academia committed but they all carded people and terrorized a lot of innocent Miami citizens for their crimes yet simply being Lancers will erase all of them? It will not happen like this in here! I actually think that your way of 3 vs 3 match works better than what I did but it is too late to change that! But Yuzu will shine more of course. About Sawatari, I do not like the way they use him, being a joke to the team all the time and being a Lancer while LOSING to Yuya during semi-finals? I guess Ono loved to joke around.**

 **One last thing, if you can, read this chapter carefully. You will know what I mean by doing that.**

 **Once again, I do not own Yu-Gi-Oh ARC-V! Let's put that aside and get started!**

* * *

 **Chapter 12: Akaba Reiji and the Spear of Rebellion**

"I have chosen the field, so you can start your first turn in return!" Yuya told Reiji.

"In return… what is that?" Reiji said. Yuya did not answer. Usual opening mocking. He got used to that since three years ago.

Seeing Yuya not saying anything, Reiji simply started his turn. "I activate three magic cards in my hand!" He slid three cards to the duel disk simultaneously. The images of the cards appeared. Two of them had an image of a forest with a roll of paper tied by a rope, behind it stood a demon figure. The remaining card at the middle instead, had an image of a teal figure from a swamp in a dark forest behind a grey tablet written in unknown language. All of the cards created a dark, scary and dangerous feeling, especially for the kids.

"The two outer cards are called Covenant with the Hellgate. I can add a level 4 or lower 'DD' monster from my deck to the hand." He chose two monsters on the touchscreen of his duel disk, two cards got pulled out from the deck. He took them out and showed them to Yuya. "I add DD Cerberus and DD Lilith to my hand."

"And the middle card is called Covenant with the Devil King. These three cards have the same price that I will take 1000 damage during each of my Standby Phase." Reiji explained. Yuya gasped. "What?"

"1000 damage for each?" Gongenzaka wondered.

"Which means 3000 damage during his next turn!" Yuzu said out loud.

"I don't think that's the case!" Ruri said, shocking everyone.

"What do you mean Ruri-neechan?" Ayu asked her.

"No one is foolish enough to mindlessly take that huge damage like that! He may get rid of those cards soon." Ryoga said. As one of the best duelists in Heartland City, he knew the usual gimmick of this kind of play.

"Besides, think about it like a deal with the devil. Like Supernatural." Sora said, earning questionable looks from everyone.

"And this card." Reji said, catching everyone's attention. "Allows me to conduct a Fusion Summon once per turn without a Fusion Magic Card." He said with a calm, monotone voice.

Sora gasped. Ruri and Ryoga widened their eyes in surprise, realizing Reiji first, knew Fusion Summon, the thing that destroyed their spirits, and second, no need a magic card to conduct it. Both shocked and angered, Ryoga tried his best to conceal his mixed feelings in front of everyone, especially Reiji. Ruri did it better.

Reiji glanced at the watchers before looking back at Yuya. He held the two added cards up high.

"Hellhound baring its fangs, seductress of dark night! In the whirlpool of light from the realm of the dead, become one and give birth to a grand new king!" Cerberus and Lilith appeared above Reiji, turning to two swirls of energy before joining in a fusion spiral. Everyone looked on cautiously, especially the Xyz remnants who hardened their eyes in slight fear.

"Yugō Shōkan! Be born, level 6." A warrior-like demon wreathed in fire came out of the spiral.

"DDD Flame King Temujin!"

 **DDD Flame King Temujin** FIRE Demon Fusion Effect LV6 **2000** /1500

"Wow…" Ryoga could not hide his surprise.

"A Fusion Summon without a Fusion Magic…" Ruri managed while her body shivered in fear. _"Just like Antique Gear Hound Dog…"_

"Calm down Ruri…" Yuzu confronted Ruri, which succeed. "But why he would risk 3000 damage for a 2000 ATK monster?"

"Last was DD, now is DDD" Futoshi said.

"Three 'D''s this time!" Tatsuya continued.

"What does that mean?" Ayu wondered.

" _DD is Different Dimension. But DDD… what does that mean?"_ Sora thought. _"And this… this is different… ain't it is…"_

Shuzo surfed the Internet on his duel disk. "Akaba Reiij never used Fusion Monsters before. Which means he is already strong without it. How will you beat him, Yuya?" He wondered for his best student. Himika slightly smirked. She knew her son had not shown his best yet.

"I set 2 cards down and end my turn." Reiji set his entire hand down.

"Ore no turn, draw!" Yuya drew his card while running to get an Action Card.

"Entermate Whip Viper summon!" The purple viper returned.

 **Entermate Whip Viper** EARTH Reptile Effect LV4 **1700** /900

It wrapped itself around Yuya's left hand. He used it like a grappling hook to propel himself up to the standing place above him. He saw an Action Card there. "And Action Card-what?" Yuya grabbed an Action… Trap… "Dammit!" The card immediately shone up and disappeared. A red aura appeared on Yuya, he grasped his chest in pain.

 **Yuya:** 4000 - 3000 [5]

"What the?", "What the hell?"

"That was Action Trap, Life Drain…" Yuzu said worryingly.

Feeling the pain had gone, Yuya got up. "Whatever… Now Whip Viper will change Temujin's ATK and DEF!" The viper opened its eyes, hypnotizing the demon, making it drop its sword down.

 **DD/D Flame King Temujin** ATK 2000 - 1500

"Destroy that monster, Whip Viper!" The viper got out of Yuya's arm and flew towards Temujin. Reiji pointed his hand upwards, a trap card rose up and shone up.

"Continuous Trap, Covenant of the Valkyries!" Reiji's first set trap activated.

"Another one?" Gongenzaka said.

"That means…" Yuzu continued.

"4000!" Futoshi said.

"All of my Demon-Type monsters gain 1000 ATK!"

 **DD/D Flame King Temujin** ATK 1500 - 2500

Yuya jumped from one ball to another, finally getting in a higher platform. He snatched an Action Card and luckily, Magic this time. "Action Magic, High Dive! Whip Viper gains 1000 ATK!" Whip Viper landed on a materialized trampoline and jumped up, biting Temujin, creating an explosion. However, before that, Reiji jumped up to a floating ball and got an Action Card. He immediately activated it and his last set card after that, unknown to everyone but Sora, Ryoga and Ruri.

 **Entermate Whip Viper** ATK 1700 - 2700

 **Reiji** : 4000 - 3800 [0]

All the kids yelled in joy, but they stopped when they saw Temujin still standing. Whip Viper got back on Yuya's arm.

"What happened?" Yuya asked.

"Action Magic… Evasion." The card materialized. Yuya gritted his teeth.

"But now he will take 4000 damage!" Yuzu said.

"No!" Sora said. "He is not a kind of person who would make a stupid mistake like that. Furthermore, before Whip Viper attacked, Temujin lost its ATK gain."

"I saw him hitting something on his duel disk before the attack connected." Ryoga confirmed Sora's suspicion.

"What is that card…" Ruri wondered.

"Anyway, I set down one card and end my turn. At this moment, the changes in ATK return to normal!"

 **DD/D Flame King Temujin** ATK 2500 - 2000

 **Entermate Whip Viper** ATK 2700 - 1700

"Now you will lose!" Yuya reminded Reiji. The four 'Covenant' cards appeared, but to his surprise, Reiji simply said with a confident smile "Covenant? … Such trivial things…" On cue, the four cards destroyed themselves, shocking everyone.

"What the hell? What did you do?" Yuya nervously asked.

"Because I have activated a trap earlier when Whip Viper was about to hit Temujin, Lease Laundering. When activated, it will negate all of the effects of the 'Covenant' cards."

"During the End Phase, all of the negated cards are destroyed."

"Oh! That's why Temujin lost ATK!" Sora realized.

"And for each destroyed cards by this effect…" Reiji put his hand on the deck. "I will draw the same number of cards!" He drew 4 cards, holding it between the tips of his index and middle fingers. Yuya got shocked by this turn of events. Nervousness began to creep on him. Akaba Reiji, the unpredictable duelist, the very strong one, but also his most hatred person at the moment. He closed his eyes, recalling the words his father gave to him.

"He's really serious!" Ayu said.

" _Yuya…"_ Yuzu thought.

After thinking for a while, he opened his eyes and looked at Reiji. "You are truly strong… even though you are the person I hate most right now, I will do my best! To beat you, to protect my Dueling that my father inherited to me!"

"From Sakaki Yusho?" Reiji said, which earned him a hard look on Yuya.

"Do not talk shit about my father, especially from you!"

Yaiba smiled smugly from below. "About your father, we all know! He's remarkably popular as a former champion running away from the duel!"

Hearing these words, rage began to rise inside Yuya. "Shut the-"

"SHUT UP!" Reiji loudly yelled at Hokuto and Yaiba, a very out of character moment for a president like him, resulting in Yuya narrowing his eyes at Reiji. These two simple but effective words froze the stupid boys in fear. Matsumi berated them in a mocking tone.

"Sorry… Your father Sakaki Yusho, a pioneer of Action Duel, bringing to its prime today. I truly respect him. Today, let me see, the Duel you inherited from your father."

"Not for a man like you! You stole my father away from me!" Yuya countered, shocking everyone present.

"What? His father disappearing was Reiji's fault?" Yuzu exclaimed.

"You are accusing!" Himika defended her son like any mothers would do.

Ignoring the questions, Reiji simply said. "It was not like what you think." before drawing his card. "Watashi no turn, draw!" He looked at his drawn card.

"Since you are trying your best, even though not in a way that I prefer to see, I will show you my best as well!"

"What? You haven't shown your best!?" Yuya was surprised.

"I summon the level 3 Tuner Monster, DD Night Howling!" A purple demonic creature with only the face and its large mouth and sharp teeth appeared.

 **DD** **Night Howling** DARK Demon Tuner Effect LV3 **300** /600

Besides Himika, all of the people present was shocked.

"Tuner Monster?" Yuya said.

"That means… _Synchro Summon!?_ " Ryoga said, having seen Yugo doing Synchro Summon before.

"It allows me to special summon 1 DD monster with ATK becoming 0!" On cue, Lilith returned from a portal opening from Yuya's side of the field, scaring him a bit. The poor snake squealed his arm for cover.

"I, using the level 3 Night Howling and the level 4 Lilith, tuning!" The monsters each grabbed a trapeze, swinging to get momentum before releasing it to fly close to each other to begin the summon.

"Howls that tears through the night, become the cry of birth of a new king with swiftness of gales! Synchro Shōkan!"

"Be born, level 7, DDD Gust King Alexander!" From the piercing light, a monster with a teal cape and a sword appeared, swinging its sword around in pride. Teal wavelengths surrounded it.

 **DDD Gust King Alexander** WIND Demon Synchro Effect LV7 **2500** /2000

Everyone from You Show, especially Ryoga, looked at the monster in awe.

"That guy can use more than Fusion?" Gongenzaka wondered.

"Not over yet!" Reiji said. "When another DDD monster is special summoned, Temujin can revive one DD monster from the graveyard! Reborn again, DD Lilith!" Once again, Lilith rose up from an opened portal on Reiji's side.

"And now! Once per turn, Alexander can special summon a DD monster from the grave! Come out! DD Cerberus!"

Yuya widened his eyes in shock. "They all have level 4!"

Ruri realized. "Don't tell me!" Ryoga hardened his face in anticipation.

"I, using the level 4 DD Cerberus and DD Lilith, OVERLAY!" Two demon creatures turned into purple before flying up to the overlay network above them.

"With these two monsters, overlay network constructing!" A large pillar of light struck down.

"To conquer this entire world, descend now onto the peak of this realm!"

"That… that is…" Yuzu said.

"Xyz Shōkan!"

"Be born now! Rank 4! DDD Wave King Caesar!" A monster came out of the pillar of light by slicing it open.

 **DDD Wave King Caesar** WATER Demon Xyz Effect R4 **2400** /1200

"Even… Xyz?" Sora wondered.

"What… what the hell is this man…" Gongenzaka questioned.

"Freely manipulating the three summon methods…" Shuzo said. "This is… Akaba Reiji!"

Reiji checked his glasses before looking at Yuya. "DDD is the abbreviation of Different Dimension Demon. The power of the kings ruling the dimensions." He adjusted his glasses before eyeing Yuya menacingly.

"Get ready to taste their power…"

* * *

"Come out! The Last Warrior from Another Planet!" Marco summoned a Fusion Monster, enraging Shun.

 **The Last Warrior from Another Planet** EARTH Warrior Fusion Effect LV7 **2350** /2300

"With this, we cannot summon any monsters!" Marco said.

"Battle! The Last Warrior, attack Rise Falcon!"

"Continuous Trap, Overlay Brest Armor! Rise Falcon will not be destroyed!" Shun countered and arched himself slightly to cover himself from the smoke.

 **Shun** : 4000 - 1750 [1]

"Your LP is low now, I will win during my next turn! Turn end."

Shun clenched his fist in anger before drawing his card with much force. "ORE NO TURN!" This scared Marco a lot. He had never seen anyone duel with much hatred before.

"Equip Magic, Raid Raptors - Piercing Claws!" Rise Falcon gained a sharp grey claw on its lower jaws.

 **Raid Raptors - Rise Falcon** ATK 100 - 1100

"It makes a 'Raid Raptors' monster gain ATK equal to half of its original DEF and during damage calculation, your monster will lose ATK equal to its original DEF! And now!" Rise Falcon flung an overlay unit to the middle of the field; it drained energy from The Last Warrior. After that, Rise Falcon absorbed it, making it burn up in fire.

 **Raid Raptors - Rise Falcon** ATK 1100 - 3450

"What? ATK gain?" Marco could not hide his shock.

"Finally, Equip Magic, Junk Attack! This allows me to inflict damage equal to half of your monster's ATK in the graveyard after destroying it!"

"What! No!" Marco realized his imminent loss.

"BATTLE! Raid Raptors - Rise Falcon! Predator Howling!"

 **The Last Warrior from Another Planet** ATK 2350 - 50

Rise Falcon howled, creating circular waves, blasting them at Marco's monster, destroying it. Marco screamed in pain as he was pushed back to the wall before falling down.

 **Marco** : 4000 - 0 [2]

* * *

"Battle!" Reiji declared battle. "Temujin, attack Whip Viper!" The demon flew towards Yuya, ready to slash the viper. Yuya quickly acted.

"Quick-Play Magic, Hippo Carnival! You can only attack the three Hippo Tokens I summoned!" On cue, three colorful hippos appeared.

3x **Hippo Token** EARTH Beast LV1 0/ **0**

Temujin changed its target to the leftmost hippo, slicing it into oblivion. The kids exclaimed in joy that Yuya was able to defend Whip Viper.

"Alexander, attack Hippo Token!" Alexander spun upwards before delivering its sword to the token, destroying it. It suddenly turned towards the last Hippo Token, making it freeze in fear.

"After destroying a monster, Alexander will destroy another one!" Alexander made short work of the last Hippo.

"Finally, Caesar, destroy Whip Viper!" Caesar slashed its sword at the fleeing snake, destroying it. Yuya covered himself from the blast.

 **Yuya** : 3000 - 2300 [4]

"Dammit! All of Yuya's monsters are destroyed!" Ryoga exclaimed in worry.

" _So this is the power of the son of the Professor…"_ Sora thought.

"He is damn strong…" Ruri whispered.

Reiji set down a card and finished his turn.

"I see… Fusion, Synchro, Xyz… all 3… more than enough to beat my father." Yuya accused.

"I told you I did not hurt him or take him away like you think! It's much more complicated than that!" Reiji slightly raised his voice, making the You Show members worried.

"Whatever you say… I will not let you take You Show Duel School away! Ore no turn, draw!" Sparkles appeared as Yuya drew his card with more focus and hope than usual.

"Yuya is too serious!" Ruri noted.

"But there is no other way to say to him now." Yuzu said to her. "He hated Reiji a lot."

"I'm afraid that this will make Yuya lose focus and lose." Ryoga exclaimed his worry for his new lookalike-of-Yuto friend.

Yuya looked down at his friends and the kids to calm down his anger. Looking at them, he realized he had made them worried due to not using Entertainment Duel style, the duel style of his father that they came to idolize. He cursed himself for this. Not wanting to upset them any further, he decided to use the duel that he inherited from his father to win, to protect You Show Duel School, and to make them smile like he always had. He allowed himself a small smile and looked at his cards before turning to Reiji "You amazed me with those Extra Deck monsters, but I did have a surprise for you!" before held up 2 cards. "I, using the Scale 1 Stargazer Magician and the Scale 8 Timegazer Magician, Pendulum Scale setting!"

" _What surprise?"_ Reiji wondered in his mind. _"What is he planning?"_

"With this, I can special summon monsters with levels between 2 and 7!"

"It's here! Pendulum Summon!" The kids said in joy.

"Swing now, pendulum of the soul! Draw a miracle arc across the ether! Pendulum Shōkan! Appear now, my monsters!"

"Odd-Eyes Pendulum Dragon! And now a new friend! Entermate Fire Mufflion!" Yuya's signature dragon, a circus lion and appeared.

 **Odd-Eyes Pendulum Dragon** DARK Dragon Pendulum Effect LV3 Scale 4 **2500** /2000

 **Entermate Fire Mufflion** FIRE Beast Pendulum Effect LV3 Scale 5 **800** /800

"Yo! Pendulum Summon!" Tatsuya yelled.

"Two monsters! And a new one! Shiveru!" Futoshi said.

"How cute!" Ayu commented.

"Counter him Yuya!" Yuzu encouraged.

"Strike!" Gongenzaka said.

"Circus animals… cruelty…" Sora whispered.

"Finally from my hand, a new friend, Entermate Snula Hoops summon!" A green snake with heterochromic eyes shaped in a hula hoops appeared.

 **Entermate Snula Hoops** EARTH Beast Pendulum Effect LV1 Scale 9 **0** /0

"Sunla Hoops effect activate! I can target a monster on the field and have it gain a level equal to the target!" Yuya said, shocking everyone present. "And I choose Odd-Eyes!" Snula Hoops went through Odd-Eyes body, spinning for a couple of seconds before going out, gaining a blue aura.

 **Entermate Snula** **Hoops** LV1 - 7

"What?" Hokuto realized what Yuya may do.

"Now he has two level 7 monsters!" Ruri said.

"Don't tell me…" Ryoga whispered.

"I, using the level 7 Snula Hoops and the level 7 Odd-Eyes Pendulum Dragon, overlay!" The two monsters turned purple for the dragon and black for the hula Hoops before flying to the overlay network opening above. Unknown to everyone, Yuya's pendant was glowing brighter and brighter.

"With these two monsters, overlay network constructing!" A large beam of light erupted.

"O Dragon of perfection, come out of the cold ice surrounding you and let out a roar of prideful mighty! Xyz Shōkan!" A light blue dragon came out after breaking some layers of ice encasing it in the overlay network, roaring loudly. The weather seemed to get lower after this dragon came out.

"Appear to the stage now! Rank 7! Odd-Eyes Absolute Dragon!"

 **Odd-Eyes Absolute Dragon** WATER Dragon Xyz Effect R7 **2800** /2500

"This is…" Yuzu managed to say in amazement.

"An Xyz Monster!" Shuzo said.

"How did this possible!? He did not have an Xyz Monster earlier!" Gongenzaka wondered the legit thing.

"Wait! So it means that Yuya really attack Sawatari last night?" Hokuto questioned, earning a harsh response from Yuzu. "Quit that thought! The dragon attacking him was Dark Rebellion Xyz Dragon, not this one!"

" _Dark Rebellion!"_ Ryoga thought, finally confirming his suspicion.

" _Yuto… why…"_ Ruri could not help but think about what Yuto did.

"Well, this is, my surprise for you! My Entertainment Duel inherited from my father and integrated to my own!" Yuya said to Reiji, who nodded in agreement and pure amazement at this shocking turn of event, but he quickly regained his stoic composure soon.

"Battle! Odd-Eyes Absolute Dragon, attack Temujin!" The dragon charged blue energy on its mouth before blasting at the Fusion monster. "But! I will negate this attack by detaching Odd-Eyes!" The Overlay Unit flew toward Temujin, creating a barrier, stopping the attack.

"Why do you stop your attack Yuya?" Yuzu wondered.

"Because after that, I can special summon Odd-Eyes Pendulum Dragon from the graveyard!" Yuya answered, shocking all of the people in the watching room. Reiji slightly widened his eyes in surprise. The dragon returned in all glory, roaring.

"When an Overlay Unit is detached, it is not considered leaving the field, which means instead of going to the Extra Deck, a Pendulum Monster that is detached as an Overlay Unit, this case Odd-Eyes, will go to the graveyard like normal!"

"Oh!" The watchers exclaimed at this explanation, even Reiji lost some of his cold face at this cunning tactic.

'And now!" Yuya did a front flip, scaring the kids and Yuzu, before gracefully landing on Odd-Eyes. "Odd-Eyes Pendulum Dragon, attack Temujin now! Burn everything in front of you with that dual-colored eyes! Rasen no Strike Burst!" The dragon charged forward before leaping, firing a red blast, along with some black spirals gaining from the energy charging of its three orbs on its head, destroying Temujin.

 **Reiji** : 4000 - 3000 [3]

"Battle damage is doubled since the level of Temujin is higher than 5!" Ruri said.

"Now I will activate the effect of Fire Mufflion! Odd-Eyes will gain 200 ATK and can attack once more!" The lion fired up before creating a fire ring, which Odd-Eyes easily flew through, amazing the people of You Show.

 **Odd-Eyes Pendulum Dragon** ATK 2500 - 2700

"Rasen no Strike Burst!" This time, Odd-Eyes destroyed Alexander. The blast forced Reiji to cover himself and grit his teeth.

 **Reiji** : 3000 - 2600 [3]

Using Odd-Eyes, Yuya grabbed an Action Card, which he activated immediately. "Wonder Chance will let Odd-Eyes attack once more!"

"Yes! Three attacks!" Tatsuya exclaimed.

"Shiveru!"

" _This really pisses me off…"_ Ryoga did not know if he could keep his temper in check at the sight of this anymore.

"And now Odd-Eyes will finish Caesar!" Unknown to Yuya, Caesar absorbed an Overlay Unit to its chest. Taking advantage of the ensuring smoke, Reiji grabbed something near him.

 **Reiji** : 2600 - 2300 [4]

Smiling at this successful turn, Yuya jumped down. "Fire Mufflion cannot attack due to its own effect so I will end the show for now! Thank you everyone!" He then patted Odd-Eyes leg. "You did good Odd-Eyes!" But he was cut off when the smoke cleared, revealing that the three kings of alternative planes still stood alive and well.

 **Odd-Eyes Pendulum Dragon** ATK 2700 - 2500

"What… what happened?"

"Because I activated the effect of Caesar earlier. By detaching one Overlay Unit, it can revive all monsters destroyed by battle after that Battle Phase ends. But if these three monsters are still in the field during my next Standby Phase, I will take 3000 damage for three monsters."

"I doubt he would take that huge damage like that!" Yuzu noted, remembering what Reiji did earlier.

"Trap Card open! DDD Resource Management! I return three DDD monsters on my field to the deck…" Reiji slid the three monsters back to the Extra Deck and grabbed two cards pulling out from his Main Deck. "And add 2 DD cards to my hand." He revealed them but keep his palm at the bottom of the cards.

" _Why did he do it…"_ Sora wondered why Reiji did the unnecessary.

Yuzu encouraged her friend after seeing him being rather moody during his first two turns. "Just go forward from there Yuya! From now, be the Yuya that you really are! Smile and win by your Entertainment Duel!" Yuya smiled in return.

"Hm… you did good Reiji, I admit. Everything you did is beyond my expectations. I'm waiting for your surprise!" Yuya decided to put aside his hatred for him for a bit, focusing on entertaining his friends and himself first.

"It's true that you made me surprise with that play, especially the Xyz Monster there. So…" He adjusted his glasses. "This time I will show you… whether your Pendulum Summon is only to you of not!" Yuya got alarmed by this.

"Watashi no turn, draw!" His scarf began to fly around his neck, the light stage activated to add in the drama that he would do soon. He then showed two cards.

"I, using the scale 1 DD Magical Savant Galilei and… scale 10 DD Magical Savant Kepler!" No one in the room, besides Himika, could hide their total shock at this.

"Pendulum Scale setting!" He slapped them to the blade, the word 'Pendulum' appeared and two savants flew up to the two tubes.

"With this, I can summons monsters with levels between 2 and 9!"

The savants began to work. "O the grand power shaking my very soul! Become the new light residing in the body and crush the darkness creeping inside this forgotten soul!" The grand, hammy speech continued. "Pendulum Shōkan! Appear now, my monsters!" Reiji slapped three cards down to the blade and from the portal above him, three swirls of energy appeared, taking the form of floating crystals with the faces of Optimus Prime from The Transformers. The eerie sounds they made only added up to the power and the pride of this summon.

"D/D/D Death Great King Hell Armageddon!"

3x **DDD Death Great King Hell Armageddon** DARK Demon Pendulum Effect LV8 Scale 4 **3000** /1000

"What the hell…" Even though knowing that anyone can Pendulum Summon using two Pendulum Cards, this was the first time someone had used his own Pendulum Cards to Pendulum Summon. This unnerved Yuya greatly.

"Battle! Hell Armageddon, attack Odd-Eyes Pendulum Dragon!" The middle Hell Armageddon flew upwards before gathering energy, firing them as multiple separated energy blasts having the same knot.

Yuya quickly acted. "By detaching one Overlay Unit, Odd-Eyes Absolute Dragon can negate the attack!" The Overlay Unit created a blue barrier, shielding the red and white dragon from the attack.

"The second Hell Armageddon will destroy it!" The second crystal fired at Absolute, destroying it. Yuya covered himself.

 **Yuya** : 2300 - 2100 [0]

"The third Hell Armageddon, attack Odd-Eyes Pendulum Dragon!" Yuya quickly activated an Action Card. "Action Magic, Miracle! Negate battle destruction and halve the battle damage!"

"Action Card, No Action!" Reiji immediately acted.

"What!? How did you get it?"

"When you attacked Caesar earlier!" Reiji explained. Yuya used his right hand to cover himself.

 **Yuya** : 2100 - 1600 [0]

Reiji then climbed on top of one Hell Armageddon. It flew towards a floating ball, allowing him to grab one Action Card. "Wonder Chance! Hell Armageddon, attack Fire Mufflion!" The poor lion got struck by the blast. Luckily, Yuya managed to find an Action Card Miracle and activated it on time. The lion shrugged off the blast from Hell Armageddon, roaring like a king of the forest it should have been, instead of being stuck in the circus.

 **Yuya** : 1600 - 500 [0]

* * *

Badly wounded from the blast, Marco weakly looked up to see Shun standing above them with his Duel Disk pointing at him.

He managed to say in pain. "What… what are you doing? What do you want?"

"Academia… tell me the connection of LDS to Academia."

"What? Academia? I do not know-"

"Don't lie to me! What is the connection?"

"Please! I do not know really!"

"Well… considering we are looking for 'him', I may use you as bait…"

"Bait…? What do you mean?"

"By imprison you!" With that Shun pressed a button, blue light came out of the front of the Duel Disk and enveloped Marco. He screamed in massive pain, it was like the light was destroying every particles of his body. The pain was too much to handle until he could not feel it anymore, feeling life had left him…

The blue light shone brighter until it faded out, leaving a carded Marco behind. He passively looked on.

" _Just as frightened as other assholes…"_

"SHUN!"

Shun turned around to see his 'friend' Yuto fainting from running to find him. Yuto became shocked when he noticed a blank card lying on the ground.

"What the…"

* * *

"Dammit!"

"Yuya-neechan only have 500 LP left!"

"How can he survive his next turn?" Ryoga wondered. _"But… I did not notice earlier when I dueled him… the Action Magic Miracle… similar to Half Unbreak…"_ He hardened his face at the thought.

Yuya looked at Reiji in shock. "How did you have Pendulum Cards? You created them?"

"With the power of LDS, we can!" was his cryptic answer.

"Now you got Pendulum Cards as well!? What other dirty tricks you will use!?" Yuya asked in a harsh tone. Reiji simply set down a card and continued his cold stare.

Failng at getting information, Yuya grabbed his pendant and closed his eyes to calm himself down. He thought back about the words his father gave to him. That along with encouraging words from Shuzo managed to do what he needed most at that moment. Still having his eyes closed, he drew his card, his destiny card. White sparkles came out. He then looked at the drawn card. _"Yoss! It's here!"_

"Once again! Timegazer! Stargazer! Pendulum Shōkan!" Two swirls of energy flew down from the portal before shaping themselves as monsters.

"From the Extra Deck! Odd-Eyes Pendulum Dragon!"

"And from my hand, Entermate Partgana!" A red and yellow striped snake appeared.

 **Entermate Partgana** EARTH Reptile Pendulum Effect LV5 Scale 3 **500** /2100

"Yes! Two monsters!"

"And now, the effect of Odd-Eyes will make your three Hell Armageddons lose 900 ATK!" Two Pendulum Magician turned to dust before raining them down at Reiji's field, weakening the monsters.

3x **DDD Death Great King Hell Armageddon** ATK 3000 - 2100

"And now Partgana will activate its effect!" Partgana grabbed the tail of Mufflion and latched onto Odd-Eyes. Energy channeled through the Entermate monsters before charging Odd-Eyes in the form of a yellow aura, powering it up.

"For each 'Entermate' monsters I control, the targeted monster gains 300 ATK!"

 **Odd-Eyes Pendulum Dragon** ATK 2500 - 3100

Yuya then formed a plan with the monsters he had on the field now. With Odd-Eyes hitting the two weakened Armageddons with the help of Fire Mufflion, he will surely win!

"Battle! Odd-Eyes Pendulum Dragon, attack Hell Armageddon!" The dragon fired an orange and black spiral flame at the floating crystal, making it explode. Reiji simply covered himself, not even bothered by the massive LP loss and the potential defeat ahead.

 **Reiji** : 2300 - 300 [0]

He simply held up his destroyed Hell Armageddon card before putting it face-up to his Extra Deck slot "When Pendulum Monsters are destroyed, they will be sent to the Extra Deck…"

"Yes!"

"Reiji only has 300 LP left! Yuya will win!"

"Get him Yuya!" Yuzu cheered.

" _Is that really so?"_ Himika thought.

The dragon jumped back down. "Yes! Keep going! With the effect of Fire Mufflion-"

"Hell Armageddon's monster effect, activate!" Reiji declared while giving Yuya a deadly glare, shocking him. The two remaining Hell Armageddons grew purple aura, each channeling energy from each other as a form of dark purple mist running into their cores, crackling in purple electricity.

"When a monster or more is destroyed, Hell Armageddon can target one of them, and gain its original ATK until the end of this turn. The destroyed Hell Armageddon has 3000 original ATK, which means the remaining two will both gain 3000 ATK!"

2x **DDD Death Great King Hell Armageddon** ATK 2100 - 5100

"ATK… is 5100?" Futoshi said.

"How can he beat it?" Ayu wondered.

"There are two more! How can you beat it… Yuya?" Sora managed to say in fear. He never dueled one of these strong duelists like him before.

"Which means You Show will…" Gongenzaka say the dreaded words.

"Can't be…" Yuzu did not want to believe it.

Yuya cannot beat the remaining two Hell Armageddons by attacking, and no Action Cards nearby can do a bit. Unable to do anything anymore, he looked down in shame, ending his turn.

2x **DDD Death Great King Hell Armageddon** ATK 5100 - 2100

"Watashi no turn, draw!" Reiji proceeded his turn. Suddenly, Galilei and Kepler malfunctioned, shaking in electricity. The Pendulum lore on those two monsters shone up, the electricity charged at the two Hell Armageddons and the unthinkable happened.

1 10

2 10

2 9

3 9

3 8

"What the?" Reiji was shocked at this.

After that, the floating crystals exploded, shocking anyone present.

"They are destroyed!?" The kids wondered.

"Must be from the shortening of the Pendulum Scales!" Sora suspected.

"But this is a good chance!" Gongenzaka cheered.

"Now Reiji can only Pendulum Summon monsters with levels from 3 to 7!" Yuzu noted.

Yuya turned to her. "3 to 7…" He turned back to the field. "Partgana prevents any monster with level 5 or lower from attacking. And he could not easily summon any monsters with levels higher than 6. Pendulum Summon will not help him…"

Reiji thought at this for a moment. "After all, they were still prototypes… still unstable… but…" Reiji then looked at his only trap on the field, and his drawn card. A plan formed on his head.

"Ha… hahaha… hahahahahahahaha!" Reiji let out a long, crazy smile, holding his right hand on his head. Yuya gasped at this.

"Why didn't I realize it sooner…" He then looked at Yuya creepily. "That Pendulum Summon is not in its ultimate form!"

"What!?" Everyone was bewildered.

"I have seen the potential evolution of Pendulum Summon! And I will show it to you right now!" He said very confidently while just chiding himself earlier.

" _What the? What does he mean?"_ Yuya panicked.

"Trap activate!" He pointed at the only trap he had. "D/D Recruit!" The trap with an image of a king with 4 followers appeared. "Since you control three more monsters than I do, I can target Lilith, Cerberus and Covenant with the Swamp King from my graveyard and add them to my hand!" Reiji took the cards back to his hand.

"What!" Yuya could not hide his surprise.

"Now he has hand advantage!" Ruri said.

"The monsters are all level 4!" Yuzu noted.

Reiji then continued the shock. "O the grand power shaking my very soul! Become the new light residing in the body and crush the darkness creeping inside this forgotten soul! Pendulum Shōkan! Appear now, my monsters!" Three monsters appeared.

"D/D Cerberus! D/D Lilith! And D/D Night Howling!" The three exact same monsters he summoned earlier showed up, scaring Yuya for he knew exactly what play Reiji would do soon.

"What! They are returned!" Sora was in awe.

Reiji then activated the card in his hand, the card all the people in here knew too well. "Finally, the Continuous Magic, Covenant with the Swamp King activate!"

"Can't be!" Ruri realized.

"Is this…" Ryoga said.

"The evolution?" Yuzu wondered.

"Of course! Pendulum Summon allows multiple monsters to be special summoned without tribute! And with that, they can be used for other Extra Deck summon methods!" Reiji explained in pride. "That's similar to what you did earlier with Absolute using Snula Hoops, but you and your whole school were too stupid to realize!" He mocked.

"What the…" Yuya was speechless. Despite being an inventor of Pendulum Summon, he let someone outsmart him completely, from creating Pendulum Cards, Pendulum Summon right in front of him to realizing the potential evolution of the summon method way before he does. All fighting spirit within him disappeared, replacing with a pale, lifeless face. He was so shocked that by the time Yuzu yelled at him to bring him back to his senses, Reiji had brought back the three Extra Deck monsters he had summoned and returned to their original place earlier.

"I have read the lore of Partgana as well! Sad that level 6 or higher monsters can still attack! Not to mention that Xyz Monsters do not have Level Yuya! This is the end for you! Battle! Flame King Temujin, attack-"

"What?"

Both Reiji and Yuya turned to see Nakajima informing Himika something. Matsumi panicked.

"Marco-sensei has been!?"

Himika called Reiji to come back. Reiji took the call from Nakajima.

"What's wrong, Nakajima?"

"Marco has disappeared. We need you back President!"

With that, Reiji jumped down and quietly walked out of the room, pulling out the deck from the slot, declaring surrender.

"Reiji! What the hell is going on you coward!?"

"Something important! I passed this duel! Call that your win! At least your school is still safe!"

Yuya then mocked him. "Whatever it was, you should not have-"

"This is F###### important! I cannot miss it! Besides, you would have lost to me anyway!" With that, Reiji came out of You Show with Himika, the three representatives and Nakajima. Reiji got in the limousine after letting his mom get in first, the kids followed suit and they returned to LDS. Yuya looked on with wonder, not knowing why Reiji abandoned the duel. Besides, he still had a lot of things to say about the disappearance of his father, not to mention his complete loss to him.

"At least… the school is safe Yuya…" He could find some solace in Yuzu's voice. He turned around and smiled warmly at Yuzu, who slightly blushed in return.

"You Show Duel School is safe!" Futoshi loudly said.

"Fantastic!" Ayu cheered.

"But hey!" Sora caught everyone's attention. "How do you know Akaba Reiji? No one here but you do not!" Actually, Sora, Ruri and Ryoga had known.

Yuya then looked down a bit, breathing out before looking at them again. "Well… Guess I cannot keep it a secret anymore can I?" He told them the story. "But Shuzo-san, can you take the kids away? This thing is not suitable for them." Shuzo looked at him for a bit before agreeing. They got back into You Show with the kids taken upstairs. After that, Shuzo got to the room.

"They are gone Yuya. Now tell us why!"

Yuya sadly looked at them before telling. "Three years ago, my dad was supposed to duel with the Miami champion at that time, Strong Ishijima. But for some reason, my dad did not appear. I cried a lot. I was just 13 at that time…" Yuya solemnly said. Others felt sad for him at that.

"My dad had disappeared since then, never coming home, no one knew why. They called him a coward, a famous duelist abandoning the most important duel of his life due to some shit. And as his son, I got the blame pretty badly as well…" Yuya trailed off a bit to see the sad looks on his friends' faces before continuing.

"People mocked me a lot, friends from Miami Junior High School also loved to make fun of me. But I managed to put those cruel words aside and live as a normal teenager. I never blamed my dad for that, he must have had a reason to leave so suddenly like that. And, a year ago, I found out who might have been involved in his disappearance."

"Who Yuya?" Yuzu became curious. He never told her this before.

"Akaba Reiji."

Needless to say, everyone was shocked at that.

"With that information, I rushed to LDS to find him and make him tell me why, but what I got instead… was a simple 'I did not know'."

"What?" Gongenzaka exclaimed. "But you did say that he stole your dad from you right!?"

"Of course I knew that was not true because he slightly hesitated before saying that to me. So I continued demanding him to tell me the whole truth, but he did not say anything. His bodyguard forced me out of the building. I did not know how long I had cried…" His body started shaking.

"And without anyone knowing, I continued going to LDS but I always had the same answer from him. Many times over. I did not know how much… then I eventually gave up…"

Yuya tried to keep his tears while continuing "I was broken after that… I lived like a ghost, ignoring the mocking… I do not know if I could live with this anymore… So…" He hiccupped. "I… I use… Entertainment Duel… and smiling all the time… as a way to cope… with the internal loss…"

No one could keep their straight faces at this anymore. The Yuya that they knew, the always smiling and happy Yuya that they knew, was just simply a front to cover his deep-seated issues about his father's disappearance. The friendly, adorable Sakaki Yuya, the dear person they knew and loved, was on the verge of losing himself completely to his own sorrow without them knowing. Who knew how much hurt he felt every time? Who knew how much he had cried alone at night? Who knew how long he could keep himself up anymore? Their friend was dying, and they did not even think about it!

Yuya could not keep himself from breaking down anymore. He stared down, tears slowly flew down from his eyes, his body shaking. He suddenly felt something warm holding his shoulders tightly. He turned up and to his surprise, Yuzu was there, eyes threatening to let out sadness.

"Yuya! Yuya! Why? Why Yuya? Why!? Why did not you tell us about this!?" She hysterically asked, hating herself so much for abandoning him despite being with him every day.

Yuya looked at her blue eyes, seemingly frozen at its graceful beauty, before looking down. "I… I guess… I did not want… to bother you… and any of you…"

"Yuya!" Yuzu held his chin and pulled it up, making Yuya see her. She felt hurt at the sight of his eyes, his broken eyes, his teary eyes, his dying eyes. And she knew she had to do something to bring the usual warm and smiling eyes of his back. She found the solution quicker than she thought and she translated it into words from her sweet voice before she knew it.

"Yuya! I'm sorry Yuya! I'm sorry for not knowing how much you are suffering from this! I'm sorry! I'm sorry Yuya!" She paused a bit, looking at her best friend who she knew he needed her help right now. She continued her confronting voice. "Yuya, you should not have kept those awful thoughts to yourself like that! We are always here to help you Yuya! Whatever trouble it might be, we can and we will always be here for you when you need it! You are not alone Yuya! You have us!"

Gongenzaka added. "That's right Yuya! The man Gongenzaka, your friend here, will always be here with you when you need it! Friends till the end Yuya!"

"You have me too Yuya!" Shuzo continued. "As an adult and your father's close friend, I can help you when you are in trouble, you know that!"

"Even though we have only met recently, don't be afraid to ask us for help Yuya!" Ruri encouraged Yuya with Ryoga making a thumbs-up in approval.

"You have me too, 'teacher'!" Sora reassured his friend using the usual annoying word he formerly addressed him, for he knew it would help him return to who he usually is.

Yuya looked at everyone in awe, not knowing what to say. What he did, surely had made them worried so much.

"See Yuya?" Yuzu said. "We are always there for you, and we will always be! For you being the most cheerful person we have met!" She made a small smile, and finally, Yuya wiped her tears before touching Yuzu's shoulders in return, making Yuzu beet red and everyone else widen their eyes in shock.

"Yeah… I am sorry… for making you guys worry too much. I promise I will not do it again to anyone, especially to you Yuzu! Thank you for being there for me and helping me smile again!"

Despite her shock, Yuzu managed to say thank you while her eyes still looking away from Yuya from shyness.

Shuzo roared. "All right! That's the Yuya I know! But…" He then put his face close to Yuya, his eyes wanting to pierce through Yuya. "Would you mind letting my daughter go?"

"What?" He realized he was still holding Yuzu by his hands. He blushed hot red before letting them go and waved at Shuzo. "Sorry Shuzo-san! Please don't punish me!"

Everyone laughed so hard at this scene. The usual Yuya is back.

"Just kidding Yuya! It's good that we managed to make you smile again!"

"Yeah… I will not upset any of you again, I promise!"

"Okay!" Sora suddenly spoke up. "I guess I will buy something for Yuya, will anyone come with me?"

"Not candy again Sora!" Yuya joked.

"Whatever!" With that Sora ran off.

"That kid…" Yuya mumbled in annoyance of the kid's antic.

"Hey Yuzu, Shuzo-san!" Ryoga said.

"What?" They turned to see him.

"I want to bring Ruri to my house for a day. My parents want to see her, my close friend! The friend that I have been trying to find. They really cared about her!"

Ruri added. "Just for a day Shuzo-san, Yuzu! I will return tomorrow!"

Shuzo looked at his daughter for a bit. They turned to Ryoga and Ruri. "Okay! Just a day Ruri!"

"Of course!" With that, Ryoga and Ruri walked off too.

After a while, Yuya suddenly received a call. He turned up his Duel Disk.

"Who is that?"

"I am Nakajima, the bodyguard of Akaba Reiji!"

"What do you need from me Nakajima?"

"Sawatari told me that he wanted to see you and Yuzu!" Nakajima said, surprising the two.

"What!? Sawatari!? Why?" They exclaimed.

"He had recently awaked from his sleep. He told me to ask you two to come to see him. Just come to the Miami hospital. He said this is very important, he must speak to you two today, no other time! And only the two of you!"

Yuzu looked at Yuya who thought about this for a moment. Why did Sawatari want to see him and her? And what does he want anyway?

Yuya nodded at Yuzu before answering. "Fine, tell him to wait!" With that, he turned off.

Yuzu immediately became worried. "Yuya! Why did you do that! Why did you-"

"Yeah! He planned to punish you remember! And my daughter got into trouble because of this!"

"I don't trust him either Yuzu, Shuzo-san! But Nakajima did say that this is urgent, he must have something to tell us if he was this hurry like this. Besides, he was injured and in a hospital. He could spread the news to the entire city, damaging my already bad reputation further!"

Yuzu sighed, knowing that her friend's reason was right despite the potential danger of seeing Sawatari right now. She turned to her father. "Father, may you let me and Yuya go to the hospital to see Sawatari? This is important for Yuya's sake! Believe us dad! We can solve this problem! You were not involved in anyway."

Shuzo looked at his daughter with worry for a bit before relenting. "OK… just be careful."

"I know dad!" With that, Yuzu and Yuya took Shuzo's bike and rode off. Shuzo looked on with worry.

" _Hope you can settle this, Yuya, Yuzu…"_

* * *

" _I knew you two would follow me!"_

Sora knew that the moment the duel finished, he would be the ideal target for the two Xyz remnants hiding in You Show just like him. Sensing the appearance of Ryoga and Ruri, he quietly walked into a small alley and hid himself behind a wall. The two Resistance members stood at the alley with wonder.

"Where did he go? He was there seconds ago!" Ryoga said.

"Probably ambushing us. Be careful Ryoga!" Ruri warned.

They armed themselves with their Resistance Duel Disks and slowly walked into the alley, watching for any surprises the kid Sora may throw at them. And they found one. No, two, but much stronger! From behind!

"Watch out!" Ryoga warned before turning around. Suddenly, something hit him on his head, knocking him out.

"Ryoga!" Ruri exclaimed her worry before suffering the same fate as Ryoga. Both of them had been hit on their heads and lost consciousness.

Hearing the strange sounds, Sora peeked out to see Ruri and Ryoga lying down, standing behind them was two muscular men and the three lackeys of Sawatari.

"OK, first part done! Now the award!"

The three lackeys gave the two men some cards that they got from Nakajima. They grinned at that.

"Now the second, and the favorite part! Bring them to the pier!"

The lackeys grabbed Ryoga and Ruri and put them on their shoulders before walking with the two men. Unknown to them, Ryoga briefly woke up. He took out something from his Duel Disk and secretly left it to the ground without anyone knowing and, despite not knowing he was there, Sora.

Sora looked at the scene with wonder. _"What the hell happened… well, at least I don't have to worry for a while…"_ Staying away was the best thing he could do right now to avoid suspicion. He then simply walked away to buy foods to him and You Show Duel School

Unknown to everyone, Reiji was looking at the whole thing from his limousine parking across the street all the time…

"There you are…"

* * *

"Shun! What the hell had you done! We are not here to harm the innocents!" Yuto cursed.

Shun angrily showed him the card. The card of Marco.

"He was from LDS! We need to find a way to rat Reiji out to capture him!"

"So you carded him to terrorize LDS and the people here, forcing Reiji to come out and bargain with you!? You're insane, Shun!"

"Yes I am! For Ruri, I will do anything!" Shun roared, ready to beat Yuto if he interfered. But they both stopped when they heard a beeping sound from their Duel Disks. They instantly realized what may have happened with fear.

"Ryoga! That is his tracker! It's beeping!" Yuto noted. He, Shun and Ryoga agreed to use these small transmitter as emergency signals in case one of them got captured by LDS or similar parties.

"Dammit! He's in danger!" Shun realized.

Deciding to put aside the crazy plan of Shun and the argument ahead, he and Yuto ran to find the source of the sound.

There was only one thing on their minds now.

" _Ryoga! Be safe! And wait for us…"_

* * *

 **Fanfic OC Cards**

 **Life Drain (Action Trap)**

Lose 1000 LP.

 **Raid Raptors - Piercing Claws (Equip Magic)**

Equip only to a 'Raid Raptors' monster, it gains ATK equal to half of its original DEF. When the equipped monster attack an opponent's monster, that monster loses ATK equal to its original DEF. During your Main Phase 2, if the equipped monster destroyed a monster: You can add 1 "Rank-Up-Magic" Quick-Play Magic Card from your Deck to your hand.

 **Entermate Snula Hoops** EARTH Beast Pendulum Effect LV1 Scale 9

 **Pendulum Effect** : Once per turn, you can target two monsters having Levels you control, the first target gain a level equal to the second target. If this effect is used for a second time while it is in the Pendulum Zone, banish it.

 **Monster Effect** : Once per turn, you can target two monsters having Levels you control, the first target gain a level equal to the second target. If this effect is used for a second time while it is on the field, banish it.

* * *

 **That was it! My answer to Reiji's unknown trap card during episode 13! Yuya would have lost right then and there!**

 **And Ruri and Ryoga were kidnapped! Surprise! I did say that I had plans for the characters, and here it is!**

 **Thanks for Gentyman for allowing me to use the idea of Odd-Eyes Absolute Dragon appearing in this duel. I actually wanted Yuya to have it for a reason, which will be revealed much, much later in this story.**

 **So yeah, that was the reveal of why Yuya knew Reiji and came to hate him. I hope the revelation of Yuya's sorrow and the way I executed it was enough. I never wrote a chapter, especially that part before so I am sure it will not be any good.**

 **Next Chapter Preview**

 **Who you are in despair**

Yugo continued to deal with the loss of Rin, his best friend and his mother figure in his life. To help him somewhat, Aki decided to duel him.

 **This is matrixnis, out!**


	13. Scale 13

**Hello guys, I am back!**

 **Today, I happily present to you the as-of-now favorite chapter of mine starring Yugo and Aki (lol the chapter is actually quite depressing). This guy clearly needs more attention and I think I can write his backstory in my way before rolling in the main storyline.**

 **The way Yu-Gi-Oh ARC V works made certain main characters lack backstory, which is what fanfic writers like me and you guys tried to explore using our imagination, and this is one of them which I proudly show to all of you guys!**

 **I gotta warn you guys though, the final part of this chapter contains a pretty graphic scene. You may feel uncomfortable reading that.**

 **To Romadrox8975, they may not (lol).**

 **To Playerhood18, there will be more trouble that you and others will know soon enough.**

 **To Gentyman, Yugo here is very different from the anime. You will not even see him angry because someone got his name wrong.**

 **To Yuka Kuroshiro, your guess is somewhat… true. That's all I can say.**

 **To thetiger39, I consider Word 2013 a proofreader (lol), it is pretty good with error identification to be honest. And thanks for your idea on Yuzu; I may not give her that role, but definitely something similar.**

 **A little rambling before going in the chapter: watching ARC-V, sometimes I do not know how the writers made Yugo stupid and mentally stable like that. Having no parents since he was born, only having Rin as the closet person in his life would already wound him a lot, and now losing Rin to Yuri would cause Yugo to be unstable and cynical, no matter how hot-headed and stupid he may be. Besides, I never liked how Yugo was treated as an outsider at all, he should be seriously involved in this story, knowing and talking to more people. Of course this is just my opinion. I seriously need some replies from you guys on this matter, so please include your thoughts on this in your reviews.**

 **End rambling! Let's get started!**

* * *

 **Chapter 13: Who you are in despair?**

The people we know, the people we are close, the people we love, whoever they are, old or young, man or girl, smart or stupid, nice or controlling, they play an important part in our lives. They give your life a source of fun, happiness, a place where you can run to when you are in trouble, helping you return to your usual, loving personality that they had known since they befriended you. Losing them, any one of them, and it will create a big, permanent scar in your very heart, your very soul, your very existence, as if your heart was hit by a strong pane of glass, shattering it to a hundred pieces. That is the very thing happening to Yugo right now. Ever since the day when his best friend Rin was captured by an unknown male individual with the exact same face as him, Yugo's life has turned upside down completely. He became cold, distant, uncaring and emotionless, which made the kids, Yusei and Aki worried a lot. The Yugo that they knew, the hot-headed, reckless and stupid Yugo that they knew, was gone, probably forever. It seemed that he had become more mature, older and wiser for someone of his age, but at the same time, the only feeling that the residents of the orphanage could get from him was: lifeless. He was still Yugo physically, but at the same time, he was not Yugo anymore, he was so different from before.

The last time someone could see the normal Yugo would be two days ago. He was still a young, stubborn boy with tactless issues including laziness, coarse language and not caring much about others feelings but he was still a nice boy to all of the kids and his friends. Now, the loss of Rin, the closet person in his life, had changed him drastically, for the worse. He could not sleep properly anymore, too occupied with finding Rin and cursing himself for not having success. After the fateful day, Yugo, Yusei and Aki had informed the authorities about this and requested them to find her, but at this time, there was still no success in finding her. They could not find her anywhere in this city, along with the kidnapper that Yugo swore to share the same face as his. Even worse, as Yugo was a Common, the police officers seemed to ignore his pleading and instead made fun of the condition, joking him all the time, which enraged him greatly but instead of recklessly attack them and potentially being sent to the Underground Factory, he simply gave them a death glare and walked off angrily, an action which made Yusei and Aki nervous. He had become too cold, and they could not do anything to help him.

If there was only one positive thing that they could say, it would be that Yugo had matured greatly from this incident. He no longer meaninglessly wasted his day like usual anymore, instead he actively took part in helping the orphanage like Rin. He did the housework very effectively, he knew how to be sensitive towards others and learned cooking using the cooking books from the library near the orphanage. Even though the food was initially bad, he got better every day and after a short amount of time, he could cook pretty well; everyone was surprised at how quickly Yugo was able to change and improve but to be fair, he did know how to cook before, he just did not have to usually do it thanks to Rin. Needless to say, the reason behind this drastic improvement was not a pretty one; Yugo once even attempted to find a job to support the orphanage more, but Yusei and Aki shut him down, knowing the real reason why Yugo would ever think of that. He became just like Rin to honor her and to make a hope spot for himself. He indulged it too much like a heavy drinker.

Every night, Yugo would take out his D-Wheel and rode off aimlessly to try to ease himself of that painful feeling from losing Rin, and also to find her. He believed that she was still in Neo Domino City, probably in some ruined apartments or probably the pier. The Sector Security, or more specifically, the Tops did not do anything to help, so he decided he would do it himself. He took it upon himself to do that mission, the mission he had to do to atone for his stupid decision of hurting Rin that day. He searched every possible buildings, every potential leads, even from delinquents and criminals, every possible contacts to find her. It had happened for about a week or so but there was still no result. Either that they did not know, they did not care about her or even worse, they attempted to attack Yugo for wasting them time, but he managed to run away. After all of this, he became tired, pained, losing hope, losing himself in every second passing by. All of this, all of the unfortunate, they had happened, they had happened to him, and it was all his fault, he could not do anything to fix. All of this was too much for a 16-year-old like him and he could no longer bear it anymore. He took out something from his pocket. A picture. A picture of him with Rin smiling happily when they were just six. He looked at it, smiling sadly, feeling the good memories returned slowly, yet at the same time he could not take the sorrow out of him, out of his body. That feeling overtook him, the tears began to fill his eyes, making them heavy. And slowly yet painfully, they fell down across his cheeks, and his chin, and eventually his white Riding Duel bodysuit. He could not hold himself any longer, and he let his emotion overcome him. He did not care about that display of weakness anymore, it was no longer relevant to him. He gripped the picture tightly, looking at the sky, closing his eyes, roaring loudly like a lost king of the forest, yelling the name of his friend, Rin, in distress, in failure, in shame, for ignoring her, for hurting her, for abandoning her. He let out all of his hidden feelings, he hoped things would be easier and the heaviness would leave him. But no, it was still there, it was still inside him, squeezing his chest all over. He cried, cried for the pain, and for the current painful plight. Already losing his parents before he even knew them, Rin was the only person close to a mother figure to him; Yusei and Aki only came to the orphanage a few years ago. And now she was gone, she was gone in his life, the only person that made his life matters was gone. He could not know how much he could blame himself. But there was no point in doing that anymore. He had to endure it, he had to keep going forward. He had to do it, for his own sake, and for Rin's sake too. He put the picture back, roared the engine and got back home.

Hearing the engine from far away, Aki looked at Yusei sadly, shaking her head, before walking to the gate and opened it, allowing her poor friend to drive in. She looked at Yugo taking off his helmet and going to his room without even saying hello to her and Yusei, but the dead, lifeless look on his face said it all. No success. The current situation had changed the orphanage a lot, and in a bad way. The kids do not smile as much as before, they are not looked after by Rin anymore, and as the only mature girl left in the orphanage, not including the head of this place, Aki had to take the responsibility. Luckily they understood and did not wonder too much or cry. Her job combining with this took Aki a lot of time, but she did not protest, knowing that she and others had to remain strong and optimistic to keep this place working and waiting for the return of Rin, the most important person in this orphanage…

* * *

The next day, in the morning, Aki was looking at the kids playing in the front yard when Yusei touched her shoulders. Without turning around, she touched his hand lovingly.

"Yusei…"

"Aki…"

They continued looking at the kids, neither saying anything. Yusei then broke the silence after bringing his arm around Aki, hugging her tighter.

"Things are pretty messed up now… Rin was kidnapped, the kids do not smile much anymore, and the worst of it…"

"Yugo…" She finished.

"He has changed a lot, and it is not good. Not to mention that the kidnapper had the same face as Yugo according to what he said. Then he got pulled to another dimension and found a boy looking just like him as well. Things are getting strange and depressed at the same time."

"I do not believe it fully yet, but considering the situation right now, we may have to view it as a truth…" Yusei said, finding the absurd things Yugo said to be unbelievable but also convincing at the same time. Whatever it is, they trusted him in this.

Aki asked the obvious. "Do you know how to get him to be his usual self again?"

Yusei sighed before saying to her. "I don't know Aki. I wish I could, but I could not get to him. He is now pretty similar to who you were back then… lost, unguided and alone…"

"Yeah… I still have not forgotten that…" Aki trailed off, remembering the harsh times before meeting Yusei.

Yusei quickly continued to avoid the bad mood. "But he is not alone. Not on our watch."

"And Aki."

"Yes?"

"I am fixing D-Wheels for people today, probably not gonna be back until evening. In that time, try to make Yugo better okay?"

Aki knew Yusei worried about Yugo just as much as she did, so she immediately nodded. "OK, I will. I will try. Just be back soon."

"I promise!" He then leaned in while Aki turned her head around slightly and kissed her on the lips. After that, he released her, walking to his red and white D-Wheel and rode off. The moment Yusei was completely disappeared from her view, Aki went to Yugo's room and saw him still sleeping soundly. The sight made her happy somewhat as finally Yugo was able to return to his normal sleeping life usual, at least for now. With that, Aki walked off and went on her normal day, not forgetting to talk to the head of the orphanage to look after Yugo while she was gone working. In spite of all the awful things happening right now, Aki knew she could not flatter, there were still the kids she had to look after.

* * *

Time went fast and it was afternoon. She finished her work and got back to the place to find Yugo checking up his D-Wheel. He must have been doing it for a few hours, considering the black marks from the dirt all over his teal shirt. She approached him.

"Hey Yugo!"

He looked up to see Aki. "What's up Aki? Anything?" He asked disinterestedly.

"Yugo, change your clothes and come with me. We need to talk a little bit, and you know the subject."

Yugo sighed as he already knew what she would say but he relented, respecting the older friend's wishes. He cleaned up, changed to his D-Wheel outfit and rode off with Aki. After a while, they stopped at the Stardust River. The afternoon sunlight shone the water up, creating sparkles on the surface. They admired the beautiful scene for a bit. Aki then turned to Yugo.

"Yugo, you have changed a lot, both good and bad. You know that."

He looked at her sadly, then the river, before managing a small "Maybe…"

Aki looked at her friend for a bit before continuing. "Look. I am sorry for your situation, we all have the same feeling as you. But you let it affect too much Yugo."

"You are too different now, I can't see the Yugo before anymore. You used to be joyful and smiling. We love that Yugo, we love it a lot! We still want to see that side of you."

"You mean the tactless, lazy and insensitive Yugo? Thanks for that Rin has gone!" Yugo raised his voice, looking fiercely at Aki.

"I…" She was honestly surprised by his change of attitude, no longer bratty but much more depressed. She had to say something to him.

"Well… at least you are more mature now Yugo! Look at the bright side, you learn to be more sensitive, you even learn cooking! I am impressed!" Aki told the truth, hoping to make Yugo smile. He chuckled humorlessly before saying. "Maybe I have, but without Rin, this would be meaningless! She made my life have meaning Aki! She's the most important person in my life, and I broke her!" He trailed off. "Maybe this, this Yugo right now, is the punishment for that…"

"Don't think yourself like that Yugo!" Aki said, catching Yugo's attention from the strength of her voice, almost commanding. "You are who you are, don't blame for something you don't know how to handle! Life keeps pushing us, but we must not forget who we are!"

Aki paused for a bit before continuing. "I know losing Rin affected you a lot, but look at yourself right now! You are too cold and distant Yugo. You see, the kids are now afraid of you, they do not see the old Yugo anymore. Do you want Rin to know this and fear you too when she comes back?"

To her surprise, Yugo immediately answered, trying his best to control his temper. "I know that Aki! I know that I have changed a lot since that day! I made everyone worry, I am sorry! But I'm hurt and I'm lost! I don't know what to do right now! I've been looking for her every day yet I haven't found her yet! So it is only natural that I became like this!"

He breathed out heavily in sadness before looking at the river again. "As long as I have not found Rin yet, I cannot be normal… You were the same before right? Back in the underground…"

Despite his indifference and his saying harsh words of her past, Aki knew Yugo was only trying to pull himself together. She could clearly see that he was broken, his spirit slowly withered away. And she had to do something to help him, at least to make him feel easier for today.

"So how about doing normal stuff? A duel for example?"

Usually Yugo would be enthusiastic about a duel, he always loved that, but today, or more correctly, since a week ago, he did not find any fun in duel. "I don't find the need to do it right now Aki…" Of course Aki knew he would say it. "But at least it may help you forget about it right!" She immediately told him, taking him out of his depressing thoughts.

Yugo sighed. "Well, maybe…"

"Obviously! Now, let's roar up the engine and have a Riding Duel!" She readied her D-Wheel, red on top and black all over the rest, shaped similar to an F1 motorbike.

"Come on Yugo!" Aki said to Yugo, who reluctantly did the same. He went next to Aki at the same starting line.

An automated voice then spoke up from the D-Wheels of both D-Wheelers.

"Duel Mode On! Autopilot, Standby! Field Magic, Speed World Neo activate!"

"Whoever crosses the first streetlight over there will take the first turn, got it?" Aki proposed.

"Uh." Yugo responded. "It's been a while since you last dueled. Are you sure that you can still catch up?"

"Only one way to find out!" She answered confidently. They both roared their D-Wheels and sped up. They quickly increased the speed, trying to cross the streetlight first. They fought for the first turn fiercely, trying to beat the other. Eventually, Yugo was faster, reaching the streetlight, but Aki suddenly used her drifting skill to skillfully go through the small gap between Yugo's D-Wheel and the road, taking the first turn.

" _As good as always…"_ Yugo internally complimented Aki. She was the second best D-Wheeler in the orphanage behind Yusei, she clearly did not lose her touch ever since Yusei rescued her. This is a piece of cake to her.

Aki then said. "Riding Duel…"

They both yelled.

 **ACCELERATION!**

 **Yugo** : 4000 [5]

 **Izayoi Aki** : 4000 [5]

* * *

"I crossed the streetlight first, which means the first turn is mine!" Aki declared.

"Black Rose Witch summon!" A cute, purple-haired witch with a wand appeared.

 **Black Rose Witch** DARK Magician Tuner Effect LV4 **1700** /1200

"Its effect allows me to draw a card and reveal it!" She drew her card and showed it to Yugo after checking. "Since Dark Verger was a monster, I get to keep it in my hand!"

"And now Quick-Play Magic Seed of Deception will allow me to summon it!" After placing Dark into the blade, a small plant with two large but scary leaves having an eye on each leaf appeared.

 **Dark Verger** EARTH Plant Effect LV2 **0** /1000

"I, using the level 4 Black Rose Witch and the level 2 Dark Verger, tuning!" The small knight turned into four green rings, running through the fairy and turned it into three shining stars. Aki then chanted. "Gain the mystical power from the forest and come down shining in radiance! Synchro Shōkan!" A white woman in a red and purple dress covered in plants and flowers appeared. She wore a crown-like headwear made from roses, very fitting for her moniker of the queen of the forests.

"Appear now, level 6! Hell Bramble!"

 **Hell Bramble** LIGHT Plant Synchro Effect LV6 **2200** /1800

"Forcing me to lose LP from the get-go Aki? Salvage…" Yugo commented. Aki brushed off before setting down two cards from her hand and finishing her turn.

"Try to beat this monster Yugo! I bet you cannot do it in the current situation now right?" Aki talked to him, attempting to bring out his more hot-blooded side. As she predicted, Yugo did not seem to change his attitude much, could not be helped though.

Yugo quickly pulled out the top card from his deck and looked at it before activating another card.

"Magic Card, Speed Draw activate! I send Tri-Eyed Dice to draw 2 cards!"

" _Already set up the grave…"_ Aki thought at his usual move.

"Come out! Speedroid Ohajikid!" A toy man in Western clothing resembling an Ohajiki appeared.

 **Speedroid Ohajikid** WIND Machine Effect LV3 **1000** /200

"Now you will have to pay LP due to Hell Bramble!" A red aura surrounded his body, he gritted his teeth from the pain.

 **Yugo** : 4000 - 3000 [5]

"This guy will steal your Dark Verger for a bit!" Yugo said as Dark Verger was special summoned and turned into Synchro rings again.

"Stealing my monsters…" Aki mumbled. "Just like Security!"

"At least my LP is safe!" Yugo ignored her, knowing his hypocrisy but he could not let Aki mock him now. "Synchro Shōkan! Level 5, High-Speedroid Chanbarider!"

 **High-Speedroid Chanbarider** WIND Machine Synchro Effect LV5 **2000** /1000

"Only 2000 ATK… what are you doing?" Aki wondered.

"Of course I am not done without this! Magic Card, Speedroid Spin! It will change your Hell Bramble to Defense and take its strength away!" A cyclone erupted from Chanbarider and swept through the Queen, forcing it to collapse and lose its power.

 **Hell Bramble** ATK 2200 - DEF 1800 – 0

"Battle! Chanbarider, attack Hell Bramble!"

 **High-Speedroid Chanbarider** ATK 2000 - 2200

The monster hit the female monster using its front part, destroying it.

"Go now Chanbarider! Direct attack!"

 **High-Speedroid Chanbarider** ATK 2200 - 2400

Aki quickly countered. "Trap Card, Ground Capture!" A large hand appeared in front of Aki, creating a barrier, protecting her from further damage. "Battle damage is halved and I can draw a card!" She then drew a card from her Deck.

 **Aki** : 4000 - 2800 [2]

"As I have thought, you have prepared for that…" Yugo complimented her with a neutral voice, unlike the large one he usually gave. "I set down three cards and end my turn."

" _Still closed off… too stubborn Yugo…"_ She became worried for Yugo's uncharacteristic behavior.

"Watashi no turn, draw!" She drew her card.

"Trap Card, Ivy Shackle activate!" Tons of plant appeared from the trap, ensnaring Chanbarider and squeezed it. "Now all of your monsters will be treated as Plant monsters during my turns! Which leads to this card, Fragrance Storm! I can destroy your Chanbarider and draw a card!" Yugo's monster exploded, Aki drew her card and reveal it. "I have drawn Night Rose Night, a monster card! Which means I get to draw another one!" She drew her card, Rose Fairy. "Since I had drawn Rose Fairy by a card effect, I get to special summon it!" A small pink fairy similar to Tinker Bell appeared.

 **Rose Fairy** WIND Plant Effect LV3 **600** /1200

"From my hand, I summon Night Rose Knight! And it allows me to special summon Lonefire Blossom as well!" A small-looking knight in purple armor and a yellow blossom appeared, the latter of which was the same card Yuri used unknown to them.

 **Night Rose Knight** DARK Warrior Tuner Effect LV3 **1000** /1000

 **Lonefire Blossom** FIRE Plant Effect LV3 **500** /1400

"Since a Plant-type Tuner monster was normal summoned, Dark Verger will come back!" The small plant with two leaves returned to the field.

"You know what I will do right?" Aki asked Yugo, who simply blinked in agreement. A second blossom replaced the first, before in its place, a humanoid, tree with a large fire on the top showed up.

 **Seed of Flame** FIRE Plant Effect LV3 **1600** /1200

"And then Trap activate! Seed Blooming! I increase the level of Dark Verger by 1!"

 **Dark Verger** LV2 - 3

"I, using the level 3 Night Rose Knight and Dark Verger, tuning!"

"Hunter of splendid thorns hidden in the sacred forest, with your whip of punishment in hand, appear now! Synchro Shōkan! Appear now, level 6, Splendid Rose!" A female monster in a green suit with the leaves on its waists shaped like a dress. There were roses on its lower legs also, along with a spiked whip on its hand.

 **Splendid Rose** WIND Plant Synchro Effect LV6 **2200** /2000

"One of her main monsters…" Yugo said to himself, narrowing his eyes in preparation.

"Splendid Rose, Direct attack!" The monster swung its whip towards Yugo, but he already had a counter.

"Quick-Play Magic, Speed Squad!" On cue, three small red karts appeared.

3x **Speedroid Token** WIND Machine LV1 0/ **0**

"Futile defense Yugo!" Splendid Rose whipped a token instead, destroying it. The blast hit both Aki and Yugo, shaking them a bit.

 **Aki** : 2800 - 2300 [1]

 **Yugo** : 3000 - 2500 [2]

"You surely know that after a Speedroid Token is destroyed, we both take 500 damage right?"

"Of course I know, but that does not mean I will hesitate! By banishing Lonefire Blossom, Splendid Rose can attack again with half of its ATK!"

 **Splendid Rose** ATK 2200 - 1100

"The attack continues!" The green monster destroyed a token, once again making the duelists lose some balance on their D-Wheels.

 **Aki** : 2300 - 1800 [1]

 **Yugo** : 2500 - 2000 [2]

"Seed of Flame, now!" The plant fired a burst of fire at the last kart on the field, sending it to oblivion.

 **Aki** : 1800 - 1300 [1]

 **Yugo** : 2000 - 1500 [2]

Yugo brushed the dirt on his clothes a bit before turning to Aki. "It seems that what Yusei taught you surely works! I do not feel any pain!"

"Of course, thanks to him, I can be myself again!"

"But that does not apply to me Aki…"

"I was once just like you, but I got out thanks to Yusei, you, Rin and the people around me! You are not alone Yugo! Don't blame yourself too hard!"

"Maybe…" He mumbled.

"Surely Yugo! Now let's get back to the duel! Rose Fairy, direct attack!"

"From my hand, I special summon Speedroid Menkoat to change your monsters to Defense Position!" A large piece of paper shaped in a Menko card appeared, flying up high and releasing gas. All of Aki's monsters got faint blue auras and her cards automatically turned sideways.

 **Speedroid Menkoat** WIND Machine Effect LV4 **100** /2000

"Good job Yugo! You stopped my attack! I set down a card and end my turn!"

 **Splendid Rose** ATK 1100 - 2200

"Ore no turn, draw!" Yugo calmly drew his card and looked at it. He slightly widened his eyes in surprise at the sight of the card, then he immediately slid it to the Duel Disk.

"Magic Card, Speedroid Tornado!"

"What!?" Aki was shocked at that powerful card of Yugo.

By banishing Ohajikid from my graveyard and take 1000 damage…" He took out Ohajikid and put it to his coat.

 **Yugo** : 1500 - 500 [1]

"…All of the cards in our backrows will be sent to the graveyard!" A large storm swept through the field, all of the Magic and Trap cards disintegrated.

"By banishing Storm, all of the monsters must be in Attack Position this turn!" Yugo reminded Aki as her monsters lost their auras around them. "But you will take no battle damage this turn." Aki told Yugo.

"Finally from my hand, I summon Speedroid Takentomborg and release it to call out Red-Eyed Dice from my Deck!" The dice appeared, shooting a small blast at Chanbarider.

 **High-Speedroid Chanbarider** LV5 - 6

" _You call it out now?"_ Aki had a good feeling of what Yugo would do soon.

"I, using the level 1 Red-Eyed Dice and the level 6 Chanbarider, tuning!" A green ring turned the big toy into six stars, a large ray of light shot out.

"Spread those wondrous and beautiful wings. Strike down our enemies at light speed! Synchro Shōkan!"

"Appear now, level 7! Clear Wing Synchro Dragon!" Yugo's iconic white dragon was summoned, marking its appearance with a loud roar.

 **Clear Wing Synchro Dragon** WIND Dragon Synchro Effect LV7 **2500** /2000

"Clear Wing, attack Rose Fairy!"

"When you declare an attack, I can special summon Seed Blooming from my graveyard as a trap monster!"

 **Seed Blooming** DARK Plant Tuner Effect LV1 0/0

"And I can immediately do a Synchro Summon!"

"The cold flame envelops the entire word, be born in the cloak of black flower and bloom brightly on the Earth! Synchro Shōkan!" A large horizontal pillar of light appeared. Yugo looked on cautiously, preparing for the show-up of that dragon, the signature monster of Izayoi Aki.

"Appear now, level 7, Black Rose Bloomer Dragon!" From the Synchro light, a beautiful dragon came out. It had black skin with some red on its upper body in the shape of multiple circles around its neck. Its claws were also red and the most attractive feature of the dragon was its wings, made from numerous bright red rose petals. The dragon also had a long black tail with thorns on it. The dangerous yet beautiful appearance of Black Rose Bloomer Dragon astonished everyone each time they looked at it.

 **Black Rose Bloomer Dragon** DARK Dragon Synchro Effect LV7 **2400** /1800

"So your signature monster is out Aki…" Yugo commented, not feeling much surprise at all since he had seen this dragon frequently during her time in the orphanage. "That trap Seed Blooming forces me to only attack your dragon this turn, and it cannot be destroyed now… Huh! You're lucky…"

"That card also banishes if it is used that way, and I can draw a card also!" Aki said to Yugo before drawing a card.

"With this, I end my turn!" Yugo concluded.

"Watashi no turn, draw!" Aki immediately activated the card she had just drawn. "Magic Card, Synchro Failure!"

"What… Shit!"

"It will bring your Clear Wing back to the Extra Deck, special summon its materials. And then we both draw 2 cards for 2 materials and you gain 500 LP for each card we had drawn." Yugo reluctantly returned Clear Wing back and drew two cards. He allowed himself to sigh, the cards he drew would help him.

 **Yugo** : 500 - 2500 [2]

"And now the effect of Black Rose Bloomer Dragon will activate!" Aki declared, Yugo focused at the Rose dragon.

"When a monster of more with 2400 ATK or less is special summoned, it destroys all cards on the field!" The dragon created a strong storm, sending rose petals to the field, destroying everything. Losing Clear Wing, Yugo could not do anything besides letting his cards be destroyed along with Aki's.

"Since there are more than two monsters besides Black Rose destroyed by this effect, I can target Chanbarider, special summon Black Rose Bloomer Dragon and increase its ATK equal to half of the target's original ATK!"

 **Black Rose Bloomer Dragon** ATK 2400 - 3400

"Chanbarider will allow me to add Ohajikid back to my hand!" Yugo took out the card from his coat and put it to the Hand Holder.

"Since Seed of Flame was destroyed, I can special summon the level 3 Lonefire Blossom from my graveyard and you get a Seed Token in return!" The yellow plant returned, along with a small green seed on Yugo's field.

 **Seed Token** EARTH Plant LV1 0/ **0**

"By releasing Lonefire, I can summon my favorite monster, Gallant Angel - Queen of Rose!" Lonefire turned into dust and formed a masked female monster with red wings and a white and red Victorian-style dress very similar to Izayoi Aki.

 **Gallant Angel - Queen of Rose** EARTH Plant Effect LV7 **2400** /1300

Yugo looked at the monster with a small smile on his face. "There it is, the monster representing you the most." He complimented her skillful play.

"It has always been with me since childhood, along with Black Rose Bloomer Dragon." Aki looked at her two closet monsters, her companions during her dark times in the Underground proudly, reminiscing her past, her hard but eventful past, shaping her into who she is today. She could never forget that, she always remembered those harsh times, but now she looked at it in pride, knowing that she had grown up a lot.

"Anyway, let's get back! Queen of Rose, attack the Seed Token!" The winged warrior flew at Yugo, preparing to deliver her sword to him.

"I banish Tri-Eyed Dice to negate the attack!" The pyramid monster appeared, hitting the sword, preventing Yugo from losing the duel.

"But it cannot withstand the power of Black Rose Bloomer Dragon! Go now! Black Rose Bloomer Dragon, attack his Seed Token!" The dragon spread its red wings.

"Rose Blooming Flare!" The dragon gathered energy represented as rose petals flying to its mouth on its wings before blasting a wind burst, sending petals in a spiral shape at Yugo, who looked on. His face did not show any emotion before suddenly hardening up. He took out a card from his Hand Holder and slid it to the graveyard slot on his Duel Disk.

"By sending Speedroid Shieldaminx to the grave by tributing the Seed Token, battle damage will be halved, your Black Rose will lose its effects along with half of its attack and defense points!" A humanoid monster with its body similar to a megaminx puzzle came out, hitting the blast and punched the dragon's head, draining its power.

 **Speedroid Shieldaminx** WIND Machine Effect LV4 2000/1000

 **Black Rose Bloomer Dragon** **3400** /1800 - **1700** /900

 **Yugo** : 2500 - 800 [1]

Aki gritted her teeth in annoyance. "At least you are not moody anymore. I set down 2 cards. Your turn Yugo!"

Yugo looked at her, thanking her in his mind for waking him up from his depression. Even though he was still very sad inside, he felt a little better. "I am good for now, at least. But now there is a duel to finish, and it will finish now Aki! During your End Phase, Shieldaminx will special summon itself!" The big belly monster returned in attack position.

"Also, your dragon's ATK will drop down!" Yugo reminded.

 **Black Rose Bloomer Dragon** ATK 1700 - 700

"Uh! Good spirit! Bring it on Yugo!" Aki encouraged.

"Ore no turn! Draaaw!" He yelled as he drew his card.

"Magic Card, Speed Rebirth! I bring back Red-Eyed Dice and change Shieldaminx's level to 6!" The dice returned and together with Shieldamix, performed a Synchro Summon.

"Return now, my very soul! Synchro Shōkan! Clear Wing Synchro Dragon!" His dragon returned to the field once more.

"And now I can special summon Speedroid 5 6 Plane!" The plane appeared.

 **Speedroid 5 6 Plane** WIND Machine Effect LV5 **1800** /0

It fired bullets at Black Rose Bloomer Dragon but "Dichroic Mirror!" Clear Wing blasted 5 6 Plane using its glass-like wings, destroying the plane and increasing its own ATK.

 **Clear Wing Synchro Dragon** ATK 2500 - 4300

"Now I can banish Speed Draw and 5 6 Plane to draw 2 cards!"

"So this is your endgame Yugo?" Aki asked just to be sure.

"It surely is! Battle!"

"Clear Wing Synchro Dragon!" The white dragon flew up high and stopped, looking at the rose dragon and charging its wings with electricity.

"Attack Black Rose Bloomer Dragon!" Clear Wing did a loop before charging down at Bloomer Dragon.

"Senpu no… Helldive Slasher!"

Aki quickly countered. "Trap Card, Cactus Petal!"

"What?"

"Your attack will be negated and we will both take half of Clear Wing's original ATK as damage!" With this, Aki was sure she would win, but Yugo showed her a card before slapping it to the blade.

"By special summoning Speedroid Ichi-cycle from my hand, your trap's activation will be negated and it will be destroyed!" Fire Force destroyed in yellow dust, a black unicycle with a big, cute eye, along with two slim arms attached to the frame appeared.

 **Speedroid Ichi-cycle** WIND Machine Effect LV1 **0** /0

"He will call it out!" Aki realized what Yugo would do.

"I, using the level 1 Ichi-cycle and the level 7 Clear Wing tuning!"

"Spread those wings shining with scared light. Strike down your enemies with that radiance! Synchro Shōkan! Come forth! Level 8! Crystal Wing Synchro Dragon!" Yugo's evolved dragon appeared in, as he put it in his summon chant, radiance.

 **Crystal Wing Synchro Dragon** WIND Dragon Synchro Effect LV8 **3000** /2500

"This is the end Aki! Crystal Wing Synchro Dragon, attack Black Rose Bloomer Dragon!"

"Reppu no… Crystallos Edge!" The dragon charged at Bloomer.

 **Crystal Wing Synchro Dragon** ATK 3000 - 3700

Aki wasted no time to activate her last set card. "Trap Card, Trap Recycle!"

"The hell!? You had that card?"

"By releasing Queen of Rose…" The warrior in red dress disintegrated. "I can set Cactus Petal down again…" She took out Cactus Petal from her graveyard, inserted it into her Duel Disk and immediately activated it. "And I can activate it this turn!"

"No!" Yugo yelled, but it was too late. Petals flew out from the trap and pinned Crystal Wing, forcing it to negate its attack to blast them away using energy created from its wings. The petals were flown away, hitting Yugo and Aki. Both of them yelled, their D-Wheels released smoke, slowing them down until they came to a complete stop. They breathed out heavily.

 **Aki** : 1250 - 0 [1]

 **Yugo** : 800 - 0 [1]

Aki took of her red helmet and walked to Yugo.

"You did good Yugo! Not bad!"

Yugo made a small smile at her, taking off his white helmet too. "Yeah! Just as I expected from the Black Rose Witch, you are very strong!"

Despite that shameful nickname, she knew Yugo simply wanted to compliment her. She shrugged off the uncomfortable feeling and said to him. "It surely is! And Yugo, don't call me that again okay? I don't want to hear it."

"Yeah, sorry about that."

"No need. But you actually thanked me, what a surprise! You never did that before!"

"Hey!" Yugo made a hard look at her upon hearing that. Aki struggled to keep herself from laughing.

"Just kidding! But Yugo, answer me honestly, are you feeling better now?"

Yugo thought for a while before answering. "A bit Aki. To be honest, I could still not shake off the desire to find her and the kidnapper immediately, and I don't know whether I will be reckless again, but now I know I still have other things to do, the kids you know."

"That's good to hear Yugo! Of course we will help you find Rin." She touched his shoulders, giving him comfort.

"Yeah… I hope… Come on, let's go back."

With that, they both turned to their D-Wheels and rode back to the orphanage.

Even though Aki had helped Yugo, she could not shake off the feeling that Yugo would be reckless again. She saw Yugo not being hot-headed like usual, instead being cold and emotionless. She feared he might probably not care about others anymore. And that was the exact thing on Yugo's mind, he still felt a strong and painful need to find his friend and her kidnapper overlapping his conscience, along with an unknown, but even stronger feeling of destruction. Even worse, he actually found it to be welcoming. He liked it, he wanted to embrace it, to satisfy his burning desire.

 _And to destroy everything…_

He did not know that he did not even think about it…

* * *

The sun rose up from far away, bringing its morning light to the small brown room. Feeling it, Rin slowly opened her eyes, tired from sleepiness. She wiped them and finally got up, looking at the wall in her room, or more specifically, her prison cell. She recalled what had happened after that day. Arguing with Yugo, running away, then getting captured by Yuri, the guy who shared the same face as Yugo, she was put into here, the Eastern Tower as they called it. As if her life was not already hard enough, now the Lord decided to put even more misery. She worried for them so much, the kids, Aki, Yusei, and Yugo. She was an important member in the orphanage, and now she was gone to another dimension. What would happen to them? How the place was going to be? Would they frantically look for her, although they technically could not do it? Would Aki and Yusei be okay? Would Yugo be okay? Those questions spun around her head every day, upsetting her further. She worried for Yugo the most. Yugo and she had an argument previously, straining their relationship. But Rin eventually forgave him and she was about to tell him that, but Yuri took her before she got the chance.

" _How can Yugo handle this…"_

Her stream of thought was cut off when she heard a knock on the metal door. She looked up to see an Obelisk Force member. He had a creepy smile on his face.

"You're such a nice girl! I like it!"

She shivered in fear the moment he said those words. She had a good feeling of what he would do. And within a second, he opened the door and slowly walked in, confirming the suspicion. No time to think why he got the keys easily despite not being high-ranking, she slowly walked back in fear. The Obelisk Force member smiled at Rin, shaking his head, looking at her greedily. She jotted up when he slowly unbuckled his belt, the sound of the metal lock hitting the wooden belt crept the hell out of her.

She said in nervousness. "No! Stop it! Let me go! Or I will scream!"

"Try screaming babe, you think you can escape my lovely touch?" He told her with evident lust in his voice. The belt finally got free from his waist, he let it fall down and enjoyed the visible fear in Rin's face as she got back the moment the belt touched the ground. "You're mine today…"

"NO! Get off!" She raised her voice, which, unfortunately, encouraged that sick man more. She walked back but this time, she touched the wall behind her. The coldness of that brick wall frightened her even further. He smiled at her futile struggle. He then released his pants and his green underwear, revealing that big yellow sickening abomination to her. Rin forced herself not to throw up after seeing that horrible rod.

"Get off! GET OFF!" She attempted to kick him away but he dodged her attack and jumped on her, pinning her to the ground. He happily hugged that trembling body, smiling at the thought of stealing her virginity and releasing his needs. He kissed her greedily, pinning her hands and legs to prevent her from fighting back.

"GET OFF! GET OFFFFFF!" A tear began to let out of her eyes. Being a prisoner is one thing, now she was about to be raped, what else this horrible dimension would cruelly throw at her?

She did not have time to think about it though as the man was pulled out of her, along with a terrified voice from him. He looked at the person who did that in complete fear.

"Barrett! No, please! Don't do it!"

"You disgraceful piece of shit! Now you wanna do that to a girl? How sickening you are!" The old man, as evidenced by his deep voice, said, barely concealing his anger.

Realizing what he might do, the rapist pleaded for his life but Barrett did not listen. Instead he hit the masked man to the wall, breaking the mask. Blood began to fall down from his head. The old man released him to the ground and then proceeded to mercilessly crush his rod multiple times using his big black left boot. The man screamed in unbearable pain. Barrett finally stomped him multiple times, turning his head into a messy pulp, ending that lustful piece of f###.

"Ungrateful moth########..."

Rin looked at what remained of that half naked man in complete shock and fear, throwing up at that extremely graphic scene, and the strength that old man had. She slowly looked up to see him, a large, muscular man with spiked grey hair and an eye patch covering his scarred left eye. His ragged appearance alone definitely scared her even more than the rapist.

"Get out and come with me, you got work to do…"

* * *

 **Fanfic OC Cards**

 **Seed Blooming (Trap Card)**

Target one Plant-type monster you control, increase its level by 1. When your opponent declares an attack, special summon this card from your graveyard as an Effect Monster (Plant-Type/DARK/Tuner/Effect/LV1/0/0). Then, immediately after this effect resolves, Synchro Summon 1 Synchro Monster using monsters you control, including this card. When this card leaves the field, banish it and draw 1 card. This turn, your opponent must attack the Synchro Monster Synchro Summoned by this card's effect, and it cannot be destroyed by battle this turn.

 **Speed Squad (Quick-Play Magic Card)**

When an opponent's monster declares an attack, special summon 3 Speedroid Tokens (Machine-Type/EARTH/LV1/0/0) in Defense Position. When a Speedroid Token is destroyed, both players take 500 damage.

 **Speedroid Tornado (Magic Card)**

Banish one Speedroid monster from your graveyard and take damage equal to its original ATK; send all Magic and Trap cards on the field to the graveyard. You can banish this card from your graveyard, all of your opponent's monsters are switched into Attack Position, but your opponent take no battle damage this turn.

 **Black Rose Bloomer Dragon**

DARK Dragon Synchro Effect LV7 2400/1800

Once per turn, if a monster(s) with ATK less than or equal to this card's original ATK is special summoned, you can destroy all cards on the field. And if two monsters or more (other than this card) are destroyed and sent to the graveyard by this effect, you can target one of those destroyed monsters in the graveyard, special summon this card, and it gains ATK equal to half of the target's original ATK until the end of this turn.

 **Synchro Failure (Magic Card)**

Target one Synchro Monster on the field, return it to the Extra Deck. Then if all of its Synchro Materials are in the graveyard, you can special summon all of them. And if you do, both players draw a number of cards equal to the number of Synchro Materials special summoned by this effect, and your opponent gains 300 LP for each cards drawn by this effect.

 **Speedroid Shieldaminx**

WIND Machine Tuner Effect LV4 2000/1000

When an opponent's monster declares an attack, you can tribute one card you control and send this card from your hand to the graveyard; half the battle damage, then that attacking monster has its effects negated and its ATK and DEF halved. During the End Phase, if this card's effect was activated this turn (and was not negated), you can special summon this card from your graveyard.

 **Speedroid Ichi-cycle**

WIND Machine Tuner Effect LV1 0/0

When an opponent's Magic or Trap Card would be activated, you can special summon this card from your hand; negate the activation, and if you do, destroy it. Then, you can, immediately after this effect resolves, Synchro Summon 1 Synchro Monster using monsters you control, including this card. All battle damage will be halved this turn.

 **Cactus Petal (Trap Card)**

When an opponent's monster declares an attack while you control a Plant-type monster, negate the attack, and if you do, both players take damage equal to half of the attacking monster's original ATK. During the End Phase of the turn this effect was activated, each player special summon 1 'Petal Token (Plant-Type/DARK/LV1/?/?) to their respective side of field in Defense Position, the token's ATK and DEF are equal to the damage both players took this turn.

 **Trap Recycle (Trap Card)**

Target 1 trap card in your graveyard, set that target. It can be activated this turn.

* * *

 **Changed card effect**

 **Speed Draw (Magic Card)**

Activate this card when you control no monsters. Send 1 'Speedroid' monster from your hand to the graveyard; draw 2 cards. During your turn, expect the turn this card was sent to the graveyard, you can banish this card and 1 'Speedroid' monster in your graveyard; draw 2 cards.

* * *

 **And that is the end of this chapter. There are a lot of things that I want to put in here, and I tried my best to do that. At least Yugo is slightly better now, but unfortunately, he won't be like that soon. Also as I told you, the last scene is very unfriendly to most people, which is why I put this story T-rated (I really hoped I did not overdo it though, if I did, then I am really sorry). By the way, I did that Negan scene because he and Barrett, for me at least, give me some Noble Demon feels, especially about rape.**

 **I forgot to include the effect change of Speed Draw when I wrote chapter 6 so I put it here, sorry about that. I want that card to be more useful other than drawing cards from the Deck, after all Yugo uses it.**

 **And yes! Aki's dragon is out! Black Rose Bloomer Dragon! Its effect was inspired from Topologic Bomber Dragon if you guys did not notice when you read this chapter.**

 **Next Chapter Preview**

 **Villainous Rescue**

Ryoga and Ruri are forced to do a Tag Duel with two violent duelists who repeatedly attack them physically. They tried to do their best to win and escape and… Meanwhile, Yuya and Yuzu meet Sawatari and something unexpected happens.

 **Don't forget to review and thank you for reading. This is matrixnis, out!**


	14. Scale 14

**Welcome back everyone! Sorry for the late update, school schedule is pretty tight now. I may only upload once a week from now on. Also this chapter will not have too much visual display during duels.**

 **I will talk about the last chapter for a bit. In that chapter, I did a pretty graphic scene that I will not mention about it here. thetiger39 had pointed me out in PM that I overdid it, and after reading it again, I must admit that I did do it a little too much. To be honest, I felt quite disgusted at myself. I guess that during the time I wrote that chapter, my life got pretty messed up in both a good and bad way so I kind of brought some of my frustration to that scene. Furthermore, I use quite a lot more coarse language than usual for a T-rated story. I know this is very unprofessional and I am really sorry for that. I promise to all of you that I will tone down the level of cursing and I will not make other similar scenes with the alarming level like that for a time.**

 **Disclaimer: I do not own Yu-Gi-Oh ARC-V and this story is rated T for Violence, Blood, Coarse Language and some Minor Adult Themes like Rape, Death, Drunk, Depression and Implied Torture.**

 **With that out of the way, I hope you guys enjoy this action-packed chapter and be ready for the massive reveal.**

* * *

 **Chapter 14: Villainous Rescue**

"You three will be finished during our turns!" Rio declared before pointing her right hand at her monster. "I activate Rioto Harpyria's effect! It will negate the effect of Chaos Giant and change its ATK to 0! Arm Freezing!" The monster created a frost wind using its scythe, weakening Chaos Giant.

 **Antique Gear Chaos Giant** ATK 4500 - 0

"And Numbers 103: Ragna Zero will finish it! Guidance to Funeral!" The blue maiden swung its scythe across the giant machine, destroying it in a huge explosion, knocking the three Obelisk Force members back. Rio drew one card from her deck due to Zero's effect.

"I end my turn! Finish them Allen, Kaito!"

"With pleasure Rio! Quick-Play Magic, Cyclone! I destroy your Fusion Trench!" The Continuous Trap Card was gone.

"Now by detaching an Overlay Unit, this turn Iron Wolf can make a direct attack!"

"What? It can attack us directly?"

"Finish the guy in the middle Iron Wolf!" The train released smoke before rolling forward, ramming the red gem Obelisk Force, sending him flying and injured. The other two looked on in horror, fearing what would happen to them soon.

 **Red** : 1000 - 0 [1]

"Turn end! Now, Kaito!" Allen yelled.

"Ore no turn, draw!" Kaito proceeded his turn.

"Use my monster, Kaito!"

"I got it Rio! Using the effect of Cipher Dragon, I can take control of Harpyria and negate its effects, make its ATK 3000 and its name become 'Galaxy Eyes Cipher Dragon'! Cipher Projection!" The dragon blasted a light stream of light at Harpyria, covering them in blue wavelengths before making them disappear and reappear on Kaito's field. It then turned into a ghostly form of Cipher Dragon.

 **Reort Harpyia, the Sub-Zero Bird Princess** ATK 2500 - **Galaxy-Eyes Cipher Dragon** ATK 3000

"Battle! Galaxy-Eyes Cipher Dragon and Harpyria, attack their two Antique Gear Triple Bite Hound Dogs!"

"Hametsu no Double Cipher Stream!" The two dragons blasted the mechanical dogs using two blue energy streams from their mouths, destroying the dogs. The reaming two Obelisk Force members screamed in pain as they were blown back, unconscious.

 **Blue** : 1200 - 0 [2]

 **Green** : 1200 - 0 [3]

"Yes! Another squad is gone!" Allen yelled.

"Finally… we stopped three of them… how about others?" Rio asked in worry.

"Our comrades said that they have managed to push them back. They will not attack the base for some time." Kaito confirmed after contacting the Resistance.

"By the way Rio!" Allen said. "Are you good?"

"What? What do you mean?"

"It's just... after saying Ryoga goodbye, you cried a lot. You clearly missed him."

"Allen!" Kaito growled.

"It's fine Kaito!" Rio stopped. She thought back about that day for a bit. After Ryoga went with Shun and Yuto for the mission, she went to the tent of Akio, Yuto's mom and cried with her. The thought of losing someone was too much for her. She became more closed off, not talking to her friends and others as usual and focusing on protecting the base and the people there a little too much.

"Listen Rio." Allen told her. "I know the pain of having to say goodbye to someone you know, especially ones that you are close. But Ryoga left you for a reason. He did the mission entrusted to him. He did that to bring back peace to Heartland, to return it to the way it used to, and to give you a better future, Rio. Don't let his temporary disappearance from your life affect you! Try to be more relaxed and open your mind more! We are here to help!"

"We are here if you need us Rio!" Kaito added.

Touched by their words, Rio sweetly smiled at them. "Thank you. I guess I have made you guys worried for a last few days. I'm sorry."

"It's fine Rio! Don't blame yourself! Ryoga is a very strong person! He knows how to handle himself, he will be fine. Just trust him okay?"

"Yeah." With that, the three walked back to the base, smiling at others.

* * *

"President! They are captured! What are you going to do?"

Reiji did not say anything to Nakajima's question, instead he looked at the scene unfolded in front of him with an unknown look on his face, a face full of dark intentions.

"What are you going to do President?"

"A lot." Reiji finally answered, looking back at the driver Nakajima. "I originally wanted to find them and gain information about why they are here or something about Akaba Leo, but now…" He paused before continuing. "Rescuing them is the best option. And then we tell them that we want to help. We will handle Sawatari's goons and those students from Duel School later." With that, he turned up the windshield and Nakajima rode away, without knowing that if he had looked on a little bit longer, he would have found Sora walking away from that alley.

Shun and Yuto was running quickly, frequently looking down at their Duel Disks to pinpoint the last known location of Kamishiro Ryoga. It was nearly nighttime, the sun was about to set down at the horizon. Forgetting the argument earlier, they both ran to find their friend, their comrade. Since there was not a map of this dimension in their Duel Disks, they had to rely on their instinct to find out the location of the transmitter. After a pretty long time, about 30 minutes, they finally caught sight of something beeping on the ground.

"There Yuto!" Shun told Yuto before running at it. He picked up.

"That is the tracker! Of Ryoga!" Yuto confirmed.

"Dammit! Ryoga! He was kidnapped!" Shun growled in anger.

"All right, calm down Shun! We will find him."

"But how? There is no clue!"

"Yes I know! But we have to find him! He's in danger you know!"

"Which means we have to separate?"

Yugo considered for a bit. Knowing Shun's personality, he would cause a carnage on his way if he happened to find an LDS member. But right now, the situation was very tight, they had no other choice. So, he relented.

"Ok Shun, we will separate, you go left, I go right. If we cannot find him before midnight, we will regroup at the hideout."

"Fine to me! Let's go!"

"One thing Shun!"

"What!?" He nearly lost his temper.

Yuto looked at Shun fiercely. "Do not attack innocent people. And that includes LDS!"

"Yeah…" Shun reluctantly said. With that, they went to the end of the alley and went on separate directions, with only one goal in sight.

Their dear comrade, Kamishiro Ryoga…

* * *

"Where is Sawatari Shingo's room?" Yuya asked the receptionist.

"Why do you want to see the son of the Mayor?" She asked, wondering why two teenagers would get to see Sawatari.

"He called us to meet him in his hospital room immediately." Yuzu answered. Yuya showed the call of Sawatari on his Duel Disk to confirm. The receptionist looked at it for a bit and agreed.

"All right. His room is number 1205."

"Thank you!" Yuya and Yuzu got into a nearby lift and slowly went up.

"What does he want to tell me…" Yuya wondered.

"Don't know Yuya, but this is important! For your own sake!"

"I know, it just… what does he want?"

"We will find out soon."

The lift opened. They went out, briefly admiring the beautiful view of Miami City at sunset before going to the room 1205. Yuya knocked the door twice.

"Who's there?" A voice could be heard inside. Yuya and Yuzu immediately knew it was from Sawatari.

"It's us Sawatari!"

"Oh… Get in…" He then opened the door, allowing the two teenagers to come in. Brushing off the fact that Sawatari had a bandage around his head and how friendly he was when he met them, they sit down next to his bed. The room was painted white, bright and lively, completed with a nice view of the city from the windows in front of them.

"Okay Sawatari, what do you want from us! We are not involved in your ambush!" Yuya got straight to the point.

"I knew you would say that. The guy who did this to me." He pointed at his bandaged head. "I'm sure he wasn't you." Yuya and Yuzu sighed in relief after hearing that. "His hairstyle is different from yours, his voice is not the same as well and he used an Xyz monster, unlike you."

"He had the same face as me!? That's why…" He turned to Yuzu, who looked down in shame for not telling him about Yuto, causing trouble for the school and her lost against Matsumi.

"I'm sorry Yuya… I saw him, and I saw you… You two are very similar, and I got confused…" Yuya noticed her sullen mood and touched her shoulders to confront her.

"So that's why you seemed to lose focus when you dueled Matsumi." He realized.

"Eh…" Yuzu whispered, feeling sad.

"Yuzu, don't think too hard about it. Strange things happened all the time. This incident is just like you and Ruri sharing the same faces as well. Don't beat up yourself anymore okay?"

"Okay…" She finally felt easier after hearing his confronting words.

He turned to Sawatari. "Well… I did use an Xyz monster earlier, but I did not attack you. I only had one of them in my Extra Deck and I'm sure that guy would have more Xyz monsters."

"Wait! How did you get an Xyz monster?" Sawatari wondered.

"Not important right now. Wanna prove it?" He took out Odd-Eyes Absolute Dragon and showed it to Sawatari while hiding the bottom part of the card out of view so that Sawatari would not know the power of this ice dragon.

"Odd-Eyes Absolute… not Dark Rebellion... Xyz Dragon…"

"Dark Rebellion?" Yuzu said.

"At first I thought he was Yuya not only because of his face being the same as him, but also the name of the card as well."

"Odd-Eyes... Pendulum Dragon…"

"Their naming patterns are similar!" Yuzu realized. "So yeah! Yuya is innocent!"

"I know, and, Yuzu…" He looked at her. "I'm sorry for hurting you. I really did not want to do it. Also, Akaba Reiji hired me to take Yuya's Pendulum Cards."

"What? Akaba Reiji!?" Yuya and Yuzu wondered loudly. Never before had they thought Reiji was behind their troubles two days ago.

"Uh…" He looked at them sadly, as if he expected to be punished by them.

"So that was him… of course…" Yuya mumbled in slight disgust.

"It's okay Sawatari. I was too blinded in returning Yuya a favor that I did not see things in different ways. I am sorry as well." To be honest, after thinking back more clearly, she realized that she was too stubborn and stupid. She could have been in trouble and her dad would have been extremely worried about her well-being.

"The past is the past you two!" Yuya put his hands on both Yuzu and Sawatari's shoulders. "At least the problem is solved!"

"Uh!" Sawatari agreed before becoming serious. "Even though LDS is still not safe after this…"

"What do you mean?" Yuzu asked.

"As I said before, I am the son of the Mayor. I got some connections to LDS. I got information that LDS was attacked moments before."

"What?"

"LDS was attacked!?"

"Yep. The victim was a teacher. Professor Marco, from the Fusion Course."

"Marco…" Yuya recalled Matsumi calling his name in worry, and Reiji leaving the duel between him and Yuya. "Oh! That's why Reiji suddenly left!"

"Professor Marco has not returned yet, and the attacker… uses Xyz…"

"Xyz!? But I thought there was only one attacker who ambushed you!"

"And by the way, will you two participate in the Miami Championship?"

The name left the two visitors in bewilderment. "Miami Championship?"

"Yes. Leo Corporation is holding a Dueling tournament. About a week from now. This is a good chance for both of you to become Pro. And to settle the scores between you and me as well Yuya."

"Yeah… we will…"

"But you have to qualify for the competition first!"

"Qualify?" Yuzu wondered.

"To participate in Miami Championship, a competitor must have participated in at least 50 official duels in a year, with a win rate of at least 60%!"

"60 percent… I got 46 duels this year… with 26 wins…"

"Ahhh…" He sighed.

"Only 56 percent…" Yuzu said.

"Dammit! I need to duel 4 more people! And I have to do it within a week! How can I!?"

"There's an alternative requirement!" Sawatari revealed.

"What? What is that?" Yuya wondered.

"Six consecutive wins in official Duels!"

Yuya and Yuzu looked at each other, thinking about the condition.

"Seems to be easier Yuzu…"

"Easier said than done! Especially to you!"

"What do you mean?"

"I met the first requirement already! Tons on wins in recent duels with you!"

"Hey! How dare you…" Yuya became annoyed.

"Oh! How weak Yuya! Being beaten by a girl every day!" Sawatari mocked.

"Cut it off! I will meet the condition soon!" Yuya protested. Sawatari widened his eyes in amusement at Yuya's strong but probably quick resolve before proposing. "Well Yuya, how about starting it now?"

"What are you saying?"

"I mean…" He got up, taking his Duel Disk from the table near there and attached it to his left arm. "This! A duel right now! At the rooftop!"

The two childhood friends could not believe what was happening now. "You mean a duel with you? Right now?"

"Uh!"

"But you said we would duel at the Championship later!"

"Call this the pre-Championship preparation! Besides, I really wanted a rematch with you! The duel we had before was embarrassing! I will never forget it!"

"Uh huh!" Yuya felt his passion running through his body. "Then I'll make sure you will be really entertained again! After that massive fall before!"

"Hmph… quit talking… let's go!"

"Yuya!" Yuzu protested. "You really wanted to do this? We don't have time, our parents are waiting at home!"

"I can't miss a duel Yuzu! Especially an important one like this! Call my mom that we will be late and get to the rooftop!" With that Yuya walked outside and went to the top of the hospital. Yuzu sighed heavily at her friend's antics before going with him, calling Yoko and Shuzo on the way.

After a while, they got to the rooftops. A large one, usual for hospitals.

"The guards somehow forgot to lock the door, which is good for us…" Sawatari said before activating his Duel Disk. "Ready for a duel without an Action Field?"

"Yeah!" Yuya confidently said.

 **DUEL!**

 **Sakaki Yuya** : 4000 [5]

 **Sawatari Shingo** : 4000 [5]

* * *

"Oh! It seemed these two nuts are back!"

Ruri growled, feeling the pain on her head. She held his hand on her temple and opened her eyes. She saw that she was in a dark room, the empty space around her and the darkness overall indicated to her that she was in some kind of a warehouse, probably a same one as she went to last night with Yuya. She looked to her right and noticed Ryoga waking up.

"Ryoga! Ryoga! Are you OK?"

"Ru… Ruri?" He turned to her. "I'm fine. You?"

"Quite…"

"Anyway, where is this place, and why are we here? I remembered getting hit on the head!" He held his head in pain.

"I got the same as well…"

"You like it?" A man's voice suddenly spoke up from their left, and the way he said it made them uncomfortable. They turned to their left to see five men, three in LDS costume and two strange men. One in a yellow Keikogi (not sure) and one in a sleeveless blue shirt; they both seemed to be well-built and hostile. All of them looked at Ruri and Ryoga with slasher smiles on their faces.

Ryoga immediately got up and stood in front of Ruri "Who are you guys, and why did you do this to us?"

"Call it revenge for attacking Sawatari-san!" One henchman from LDS spoke up.

"Sawatari?" Ruri remembered that bastard. "We did not do anything to him! He attacked us first! He deserved it!"

"But Yuya did!" The second henchman said. "And we would not prefer to keep this incident go away that easy…"

"Which is why we hired these two Duelists to beat you two up!" The final henchman said, pointing at the two tall Duelists. They looked at Ryoga and Ruri with a clear intention, and it was not a nice one.

"By the way, the one in blue is Umesugi Ken, and the other one is Makoto Takeda, two of the strongest duelists in Ryozanpaku!"

Ryoga became angry. "Damn you! You use Dueling as a tool to hurt people!? I thought Duel Schools are built up not to teach students this!"

"The Duel School we participate, the Ryozanpaku School, Ryozanpaku School, actually encourages us that! That's our discipline!"

"The hell!?" Ruri was honestly disgusted. The horrible condition in Heartland City was already cruel enough, now things are not any better in this supposedly peaceful Dimension. There were still people who use Dueling selfishly and disgracefully like that. "What kind of man are you to use Dueling like that? Dueling is supposed to bring people together and make them smile!"

"Make people smile?" Takeda said. "We do smile bitch! When we beat up others in duels!" The three LDS chimed in by smiling from behind.

Ryoga's temper boiled up. He gritted his teeth in absolute anger. "Damn you… damn all of you… my hometown is already in ruins due to Dueling! I will not let anyone do that or anything similar anymore!"

"Good defiance idiot! How about translating it into action?" Ken said before he and Takeda activated their Duel Disks.

"Sounds like we have no other choice Ruri…"

"Uh… and try your best to conceal your anger Ryoga. They will use it against you!" The two got up and activated their purple Duel Disks.

"We will duel in Battle Royale setting! And we will all have separate LPs! Good?"

"Whatever! We have been in worse situations than this shit!"

 **DUEL!**

 **Kamishiro Ryoga** : 4000 [5]

 **Kurosaki Ruri** : 4000 [5]

 **Umesugi Ken** : 4000 [5]

 **Makoto Takeda** : 4000 [5]

* * *

"Dammit! Where are you Ryoga?" was Shun's worried question all the time since he and Yuto found out that Ryoga was attacked. He continued to run across alleys and streets, attempting to find him, but there was still no result.

At the same time, Yuto was catching his breath after running frantically from one street to other. No matter how much he took notice of any possible traces, he did not find anything.

He suddenly stopped when he ran into a river. The water there and the surface far away from it gave him a possible clue. He contacted Shun.

"Shun!"

"What Yuto? Have you found Ryoga?"

"No sign of Shark yet but…" He looked back at the surface far away from him, the pier.

"I got a clue."

"What? What clue Yuto?"

"They could be at the pier."

"Really? How do you know?"

"I just thought! Come on, we don't have much time! You see the pier?"

Shun looked around, eventually finding it. "I found it Yuto! It's very far! Can we make it there on time?"

"Only if we try! Let's go! See you at the bridge! Also try to look around during your way to see if there is a potential clue!"

"OK!" With that, they both ran to the bridge connecting the pier, pretty far from them.

* * *

"Not too hard to find you… Ruri… Ryoga…"

Reiji whispered as he looked at the warehouse number 52 in his limousine. Nakajima parked the car far enough so that the people in that warehouse would not hear the engine.

"President! Should we go in and get them?" Nakajima spoke up from the driver seat.

"Not yet Nakajima! We can take this chance to test their skill, probably get some information as well."

* * *

"I take the first turn!" Yuya declared before slapping a card down. "Magic Card, Spiral Strike Burst activate!" After activating the card, a card from Yuya's deck shone up and got pulled out. He took it out and showed it to Sawatari. "I can add 'Odd-Eyes Pendulum Dragon' from my deck to the hand!"

"What? Getting your ace this early?"

"And now magic card, Three Teams Reinforcements! By sending Entermate Partgana to the graveyard, I can draw two cards!"

" _Good move_ … Yuzu thought. _"Sawatari's deck seems to focus on level 5 or higher monsters, the effect of Partgana will be useless…"_

Finally, he did the obvious. "I, using the Scale 1 Stargazer Magician and the Scale 8 Timegazer Magician, Pendulum Scale setting!"

"With this I can simultaneously summon monsters with level between 2 and 7!"

" _There it is…"_ Both Sawatari and Yuzu thought.

"Swing, Pendulum of the Soul! Draw an arc of light across the ether! Pendulum Shōkan! Appear now!"

"Odd-Eyes Pendulum Dragon!"

 **Odd-Eyes Pendulum Dragon** DARK Dragon Pendulum Effect LV7 Scale 4 **2500** /2000

"Only one monster Yuya? How sad…" Sawatari mocked.

"There will be more to please you! I set down two cards and end my turn!"

"Ore no turn, draw!" Sawatari looked at the card, a smirk appeared on his face. _"This is good!"_

"I activate the magic card, Terraforming! With this, I can add a Field Magic Card from my hand!"

"Field Magic?"

"Yup. And now, since you have two set cards, I can special summon Escher!"

Yuzu noted at the monster. "That's the card he played last night!"

 **Escher the Vassal of the Ice Monarch** WATER Aqua Effect LV4 **800** /1000

"After I special summon this card…" He showed another card to them before slapping it to the blade. A big monster with ghost-like eyes emphasized by a piece of fabric over it head, cladding in a yellow armor appeared. At the same time, Odd-Eyes dissolved into dust and manifested as a face-down card in a horizontal position.

 **Landrobe the Vassal of the Rock Monarch** EARTH Rock Effect LV4 **800** /1000

"What happened?" Yuya was honestly surprised.

"Your monster will be switched to face-down Defense Position as a condition to special summon Landrobe!"

"What a powerful effect!" Yuzu noted.

" _The Magicians cannot negate monster effects… good move Sawatari…"_

"It is! But I cannot call out Extra Deck monsters for the rest of this turn though. And this Field Magic card will set up my play!" He activated it. "Field Magic, Monarch Conquest." With that, the rooftop where Sawatari, Yuya and Yuzu was standing turned into a battle field in an open desert with swords stabbed on the head armors around them, creating a harsh environment. Hot winds flew through the area, but since there was no Action Field, therefore the impact of Real Solid Vision was weak, they could barely feel it.

"Usually we could clearly feel the wind blowing here but there was no Action Field so… there you go. How are you going to entertain me when this situation does not allow monsters to interact?"

"I'll find a way!" Yuya excitedly responded.

"We'll see! And now I activate Unearthing of the Monarchs!"

"What does that card do?"

"You'll realize soon! I release Escher to Advance Summon! Appear now, level 6! Mobius the Ice Monarch!"

 **Möbius the Ice Monarch** WATER Aqua Effect LV6 **2400** /1000

"Watch out Yuya!" Yuzu warned.

"Uh!"

"When Möbius is Advanced Summoned, it will destroy your two set cards! Freeze Burst!" The monster created a strong wind, attempting to remove the two troublesome cards on Yuya's field, but he had a counter.

"Trap Card, Entermate Revival! I can special summon Partgana!" On cue, the snake appeared on the field. "And Quick-Play Magic, Emergency Provisions! By sending Revival to the grave before it does after resolving its effect…" He pointed at the trap, which immediately disappeared. "I gain 1000 LP!"

 **Entermate Partgana** EARTH Reptile Pendulum Effect LV5 Scale 3 **500** /2100

 **Yuya** : 4000 - 5000 [0]

"Yes! He avoided it!" Yuzu cheered.

"Very good strategy. But now I will resupply! Conquest allows me to draw a card when I tribute summon a monster!" He drew one card. "And Unearthing let me add a high-level 'Monarch' card as well!" A card got pulled out and he took it to his hand.

"Krugh!"

"And I will Advance Summon again!" He slapped the card he just added down, a large yellow monster with big hands showed up.

"What? A second Advance Summon?" Yuzu wondered.

"Thanks to the effect of Conquest!"

 **Granmarg the Earth Monarch** EARTH Rock Effect LV6 **2400** /1000

"This guy will destroy your set Odd-Eyes Pendulum Dragon! Earth Trembling!" Granmarg slammed the ground using its fists, breaking the ground into two, the resulting fissure ran to the set card, making it fall down. Yuya did not need to run away as the chasm was not real.

"And I will add a 'Monarch' monster again and draw a card!"

"By banishing Rollback from my graveyard, this turn I can draw a card when a Pendulum Monster is destroyed!" Yuya drew his card while becoming alarmed at Sawatari's tactic.

" _Dammit! My field is empty! Sawatari surely is stronger now! He broke my field easily!"_

"Battle!" Sawatari snapped Yuya out of his thoughts. "Granmarg, destroy Partgana!" The emperor punched the snake, shattering it to pieces.

"And now Mobius! Direct attack!"

"Yuya!"

"I'm fine Yuzu!" He said as he drew a card.

 **Yuya** : 5000 - 2600 [2]

"I set down 2 cards and end my turn! That was how you counter me? Too amateur Yuya!"

"Don't worry! I will turn the tables during my next turn!"

"Then show me how Yuya! Show me the spirit of the son of Sakaki Yusho!"

"Uh! I will! Ore no turn! Draw!" Sparkles appeared.

" _Try your best Yuya!"_ Usually, Yuya was pretty quiet, but during duels like these, Yuzu knew he will try his best to win. She understood her best friend very well.

"Entermate Skullcrobat Joker summon!" A monster wearing a black clown outfit with long coattails, a black mask, blonde hair and black shoes appeared.

 **Entermate** **Skullcrobat Joker** DARK Magician Pendulum Effect LV4 Scale 8 **1800** /800

"After summoning it, I can add Entermate…" He took a card out from his deck and showed it. "…Snula Hoops to my hand!"

"And then Magic Card Wavering Eyes activate! I destroy all cards in the Pendulum Zones!" On cue, the two magician disintegrated.

"What? You destroy your own cards?"

"What are you doing Yuya?"

"Two Pendulum Cards were destroyed, which means I can add another Pendulum Card to my hand!" He grabbed another cards pulled out from his deck. He then took out Snula Hoops.

"I, using the Scale 1 Entermate Gumgumouton and Scale 9 Entermate Snula Hoops, Pendulum Scale setting!"

"Swing, Pendulum of the soul! Draw an arc across the nether! Pendulum Shōkan! Appear now!"

"What? You don't have any cards in your hand to call out!?" Sawatari did not know it.

"When Pendulum Cards are destroyed, they are sent to the Extra Deck face-up instead!"

"The hell?"

"And if I have the appropriate scales, I can Pendulum Summon them! I did not do it in our first duel because there was no need to!"

"Really?" He remained shocked before turning excited. "Interesting…"

"From my Extra Deck, Stargazer Magician! Timegazer Magician! Entermate Partgana! And of course, Odd-Eyes Pendulum Dragon!"

"What the hell… 4 monsters at once…" Sawatari could not find anything to say anymore. Yuzu was amazed by this spectacular feat that her friend just did.

 **Stargazer Magician** DARK Magician Pendulum Effect LV5 Scale 1 **1200** /2400

 **Timegazer Magician** DARK Magician Pendulum Effect LV3 Scale 8 **1200** /600

 **Entermate Partgana** EARTH Reptile Pendulum Effect LV5 Scale 3 **500** /1200

 **Odd-Eyes Pendulum Dragon** DARK Dragon Pendulum Effect LV7 Scale 4 **2500** /2000

"When Partgana is summoned, Skullcorbat Joker gains 300 ATK for each 'Entermate' monsters on the field!" The snake held the monster by its tail, increasing its strength, evidenced by the yellow aura the two monsters got.

 **Entermate Skullcorbat Joker** ATK 1800 – 2400

"Battle! Skullcorbat Joker, attack Granmarg!"

"You crazy? They have the same ATK!"

"Entermate Gumgumouton will ensure that only your monster is destroyed!"

"And now Odd-Eyes Pendulum Dragon, attack Mobius! Rasen no Strike Burst!"

 **Sawatari** : 4000 - 3800 [3]

"Go now Stargazer! Sawatari direct attack!"

"Wait up! Trap activate! Monarch Legacy Barrier! I can banish the destroyed Granmarg to halve all battle damage this turn!" A barrier formed around Sawatari, shielding him from further damage.

 **Sawatari** : 3800 - 2350 [3]

"Dammit… I set down a card and turn end-"

"During the End Phase!" Sawatari interrupted. "Legacy Barrier will destroy one card you control since it halved more than two battle damages this turn! Bye bye, Odd-Eyes Pendulum Dragon!" A beam of light shot out from nowhere, destroying the dragon. However, it suddenly returned to the field.

"What did you do?"

"The effect of Stargazer Magician! If exactly one monster leaves the field, I can special summon it!"

"Well… whatever… ore no turn! Draw!" Sawatari proceeded his turn.

"Trap Card!" Yuya suddenly said. "Large Dust Tornado! Your Unearthing is destroyed!" A blue tornado swept through the Continuous Magic Card, destroying it. Sawatari looked on passively, as if nothing had happened.

"Thanks for clearing the field for me Yuya! You helped me set up my strongest formation!"

"What?"

"Don't be that overconfident Sawatari!" Yuzu criticized.

"I did not! Watch!"

"Magic Card, Pantheism of the Monarchs! By sending The Prime Monarch to the grave I can draw 2 cards!"

"And then by banishing Conquest I can special summon The Prime Monarch as a Normal Monster!"

 **The Prime Monarch** LIGHT Angel LV5 1000/ **2400**

"Reverse Card open! Trade-in! I discard the level 8 Granmarg to draw 2 cards!"

"Amazing… he continuously fills his hand!"

"That is not all Yuya-kun! I can banish Pantheism to force you to add a card to my hand!"

"What do you mean?"

"By banishing Pantheism, I can reveal 3 "Monarch" Magic, Trap Cards from my deck, you must choose 1 of them to let me add it to my hand and shuffle the rest back to my deck!" He took out 3 cards after selecting them on the display. Yuya carefully looked at the cards before choosing Tenacity. Sawatari activated Tenacity to add another card and he immediately activated it.

"Field Magic, Domain of the True Monarch!" The scenery changed to a dark and strangely foggy room with a large, ghost-like being sitting at the throne. Yuzu literally yelled out in fear, which Sawatari and Yuya had to keep themselves from laughing at the spot.

"It's alright Yuzu! They're not real!"

"But it's still scary!" Yuzu protested.

"Get used to it Yuzu! And now I normal summon Edea the Heavenly Squire!" A monster in shining armor appeared.

 **Edea the Heavenly Squire** LIGHT Warrior Effect LV1 **800** /1000

"Using its effect, I can special summon Eidos the Underground Squire from my deck!" A demon-like being in black armor appeared, contrasting to the bright appearance of Edea.

 **Eidos the Undergound Squire** DARK Magician Effect LV2 **800** /1000

" _He's generating tribute fodders!"_ Yuya thought.

"Eidos allows me to do an additional normal summon! I will release Edea to Advance Summon! Come out! Level 6! Kreis the Light Monarch!" The bigger version of Edea appeared.

 **Kreis the Light Monarch** LIGHT Warrior Effect LV6 **2400** /1000

"When it is advanced summoned, I can destroy your dragon and Joker!"

"What? 2 cards?" The emperor gathered energy on its palm and released it towards Yuya's field, destroying the targets.

"Stargazer can only bring back one monster, but in return you can draw 2 cards!" Sawatari explained. Yuya drew 2 cards.

"Finally, Resurrection of the Dead! Appear now, Granmarg the Sturdy Earth Monarch!"

 **Granmarg the Sturdy Earth Monarch** EARTH Rock Effect LV8 **2800** /2000

"Ready Yuya? Battle!"

"Granmarg, attack Partgana!" The rock emperor charged at the snake.

"Continuous Trap Card, Magician's Protection! All battle damage I take is halved! And thanks to Gumgumouton, Partgana will be safe this battle!" Yuya explained and shielded himself with his right hand as the punch failed to destroy the colorful snake.

 **Yuya** : 2600 - 1450 [2]

"Nice move Yuya!" Sawatari complimented as he clapped his hands. "Kreis cannot attack this turn after activate its effect. That's how a duelist I want to face would do!"

"You're welcome Sawatari!" Yuya returned while Yuzu was smiling at the sidelines for the blooming friendship.

"Well, I end my turn with one face-down!"

"Ore no turn!" Yuya drew his card white shouting. "The real fun has just begun!"

"Swing again, Pendulum of my soul! Pendulum Shōkan! Return from the Extra Deck, Odd-Eyes Pendulum Dragon! And from my hand, Entermate Drumbull!" The dragon and Yuya's most powerful Entermate monster appeared.

 **Entermate Drumbull** EARTH Beast Effect LV8 **2700** /2200

" _To beat Sawatari, I need to call it out!"_ Yuya thought as he began his move. "I activate the Pendulum Effect of Entermate Snula Hoops! I treat Partgana as level 7!"

"What are you going to do Yuya?" Sawatari wondered.

 **Entermate Partgana** LV5 - 7

"Is he going to?" Yuzu said.

"I, using the level 7 Odd-Eyes Pendulum Dragon and Entermate Partgana, overlay!" Yuya raised his left hand up in the air, waiting the two monsters to go to the Overlay Network, but they remained still… and there was no Overlay Network appearing.

Yuzu gasped in surprise. "What? Why didn't they?"

Yuya wondered the same thing. "Nothing happened? Why?" He was soon stopped by a loud laugh. They turned to see Sawatari having a smug smile.

"Of course you can't! Thanks to my Field Magic, Domain of the true Monarch, you cannot special summon monsters from your Extra Deck if I have no cards in my Extra Deck and I am the only player to control a Tribute Summoned monster!"

"What? No Extra Deck cards!?" Yuzu said in disbelief.

"So that's why you did not summon any monsters in your Extra Deck!"

"Yes, because I have no Extra Deck monsters to begin with! People at LDS use Extra Deck monsters a lot! And I did not expect you to use one, thanks for showing that card Yuya-kun! Knowing this, I got myself a special deck! A deck that does not need to use those monsters! And taking advantage of that, my deck features a special move, and this is it! The Monarch Lockdown!" Sawatari unleashed his large ham, smiling very crazily as his technique was successfully finished. Yuya gritted his teeth, he did not expect Sawatari to be this strong. Now he cannot summon his newest and his first Extra Deck monster, Odd-Eyes Absolute Dragon anymore, what would he do?

"Yuya..."

* * *

"According to the Battle Royale rule, all players cannot declare an attack and do their normal draw until they have finished their first turn, also we are technically each other's enemies. Got it?"

"Whatever! Now make your move assholes!" Ryoga said in anger.

"I will now take the first turn!" Ken said before setting down three cards.

"I set down 3 cards and end my turn!" He finished his turn, smiling. Ryoga and Ruri both gasped at this move. It was very similar to the strategy Yuto usually used.

"What the hell are you doing?" Ruri wondered.

"You will know soon!"

"Ore no turn!" Takeda declared before setting down 2 cards, making the Xyz remnants became cautious.

"What? Not gonna proceed? Too scared to do?" Ken mocked, waving his hand in a "come here" manner.

"Hell no! These 5 cards will not stop any of us!" Ruri said. "Watashi no turn! I summon Lyrical Luscinia - Sapphire Sparrow!"

 **Lyrical Luscinia - Sapphire Sparrow** WIND Winged Beast Effect LV1 **100** /0

"It's effect allows me to special summon Cobalt Sparrow from my hand!"

 **Lyrical Luscinia - Cobalt Sparrow** WIND Winged Beast Effect LV1 0/ **100**

"Level 1 monster! How weak and pathetic you are!" The goons mocked.

Ryoga defended Ruri. "Shut up!"

"It's fine Ryoga! I got used to it. Cobalt Sparrow let me add Ruby Canary to my hand. I will special summon it with another Sapphire!"

 **Lyrical Luscinia - Ruby Canary** WIND Winged Beast Effect LV1 0/ **0**

" _She put the three of them in defense position… She's really cautious!"_ Ryoga thought.

"Ruby Canary allows me to draw 2 cards! And now, I will use the four monsters here to overlay!"

"Xyz Shōkan! Rank 1! Lyrical Luscinia - Assembly Nightingale!"

 **Lyrical Luscinia - Assembly Nightingale** WIND Winged Beast Xyz Effect R1 **0** /0

"This card gains 100 ATK for each overlay units attached to it!"

 **Lyrical Luscinia - Assembly Nightingale** ATK 0 - 400

"So this is an Xyz Summon… it's good to fight with students from LDS!" Takeda said. Of course, this is far from the truth.

"I set down 3 cards and end my turn!"

"Ore no turn! Magic Card, Infinity Tooth! Since Assembly Nightingale has four overlay units, I send 4 cards from my deck to the grave and draw 1 card!" Ryoga drew five cards in a smooth motion, discarding the top four.

"I special summon Big Jaws!" A waterspout rose up. From the small cyclone, a blue and white shark with mechanical teeth appeared.

 **Big Jaws** WATER Fish LV3 **1800** /300

"And now Skull Kraken normal summon!" A black kraken with a skull head and red eyes appeared.

 **Skull Kraken** DARK Aqua Effect LV3 **600** /1800

"I, using the level 3 Big Jaws and Skull Kraken, overlay!"

"Xyz Shōkan! Appear now, rank 3, Aero Shark!"

 **Underwater Mothership Aero Shark** WATER Fish Xyz Effect R3 **1900** /1000

"Another Xyz monster!" Ken noted.

"Keep mocking however you like fool! By detaching an Overlay Unit Aero Shark can inflict 400 damage for each card in my hand!"

"What!?"

"I will give this 'honor' to…" He eyed Ken. "You in blue shirt!" Ken became panicked at this.

"Air Torpedo!" The monster fired missiles at Ken, who ran back and did a wall run, shocking Ruri and Ryoga before activating his set card.

"Trap Card, Star Power! I negate effect damage and special summon a "Star" monster from my deck! Come out now, Earth Thunder Star Todoroki!" A tall warrior wearing a red and beige armor appeared, swinging its club in a circle. Meanwhile, Ken landed gracefully to the ground.

 **Earth Thunder Star Todokori** EARTH Warrior Effect LV6 **2100** /0

"Damn… he negated battle damage to summon a high-level monster!" Ryoga noted.

"How stupid you are! Walking right into our trap!" Takeda mocked.

"You think Ryoga would stupidly do it like that?" Ruri said, catching the attention of the two duelists.

"I knew at least one of your five traps have to do something with effect damage, so I forced you to activate it!"

"What? Damn!"

"Don't fuss about it Takeda!" Ken reminded his partner.

"And now Magic Card, Xyz Treasure! I draw 2 cards since there are 2 Xyz monsters on the field!" He drew his cards before setting down two cards to end his turn.

"Which means it's my turn, and now you will suffer from our true strength! Ore no turn, draw!" Ken drew his card. "I summon Fire Thunder Star Kajima!"

 **Fire Thunder Star Kajima** FIRE Warrior Effect LV4 1800/0

"And then trap card, Star Duplicate! I special summon this card as a trap monster with the same stats as Kajima!" A silver armor appeared.

 **Star Duplicate** LIGHT Warrior **0** /0 – **Fire Thunder Star Kajima**

"When there are two "Star" monsters on the field, Senkou can be summoned without release!"

 **Heaven Thunder Star Senkou** LIGHT Warrior Effect LV7 **2300** /0

"Finally Continuous Magic, The Allied Forces! All Warrior-type monsters gains 200 ATK for each one on the field!"

"They all got a boost?" Ruri exclaimed in worry.

 **Earth Thunder Star Todokori** ATK 2100 - 2900

 **Fire Thunder star Kajima** ATK 1800 - 2600

 **Star Duplicate** ATK 1800 - 2600

 **Heaven Thunder Star Senkou** ATK 2400 - 3200

"Battle! Todoroki, attack Assembly Nightingale!"

"By detaching an Overlay Unit, battle destruction is negated and I take no damage!"

"Huh, such an annoying effect, you bitch! We'll handle you later, for now, Kajima, attack Aero Shark!" Suddenly, a fish rose up from the ground, biting the fire warrior, forcing it to negate its attack and lose power.

 **Fire Thunder star Kajima** ATK 2600 - 2100

"What did you do?" Ken said annoyingly.

"I banished Killer Rabca to do that!"

"But my attacks are not over yet! Star Duplicate, slash that small fortress!"

"Trap Card, Advantage Location! Kajima's attack power is halved and my monsters are safe from battle!"

 **Star Duplicate** ATK 2600 - 1300

"Dammit!" Ken said as he covered himself.

 **Ken** : 4000 - 3400 [0]

"Such an annoying asshole… but you will still take battle damage thanks to Senkou! And when it attacks, it gains 500 ATK!" The monster threw its large stick at Aero Shark but it made it so that the stick suddenly flew down towards Ryoga, hitting him in his stomach. He was thrown backwards painfully.

 **Heaven Thunder Star Senkou** ATK 3200 - 3700

 **Ryoga** : 4000 - 2200 [2]

"Ryoga! Are you okay?" Ruri became worried.

"I… I'm fine Ruri! If I go down like this, Rio would be ashamed!" He slowly got up, giving a smile at Ruri to ease her then he spitefully did the same at the two violent duelists.

"How was that? Feeling any pain now?" One of the three lackeys mocked.

"We… we will not lose against any of you!"

"Good resistance… I cannot wait to break all of you by force! Turn end-"

"Quick-Play Magic, Cyclone! I destroy your Allied Forces!" A cyclone came out of the card, consuming the magic card.

"Huh… tricks… Ore no turn, draw!" Ken declared his turn.

"Since I control no monsters, I can summon Tsumuji without release!" A Japanese warrior in grey clothes appeared.

 **Earthly Wind Star Tsumuji** EARTH Warrior Effect LV6 **2200** /0

"Tsumuji will call out another teammate! Come out, Arashi!" A warrior in winter clothes and a white fur on its head appeared.

 **Heavenly Wind Star Arashi** LIGHT Warrior Effect LV7 **2300** /0

"Well… I got three monsters here, which monster should I attack~~" Takeda did a playful tone before pointing at the humanoid bird.

"My monsters, attack Assembly Nightingale!" They all charged at the bird, who quickly detached its remaining Overlay Units to defend itself.

"Dammit!"

"Now your monsters cannot defend itself anymore sweet girl~~"

"But you cannot attack anymore dickhead!"

"Really?" He then pointed at his set card, activating it. "Quick-Play Magic, Supremacy Fusion!"

"What the hell?" Ruri and Ryoga became shocked at this unexpected play. Their tempers was slowly threatening to explode.

"This is the specialty of Ryozanpaku Duel School! Fusion Summon!"

Ken looked at the angered expressions of the two remnants with interest. "It seems that you two hate Fusion for some reason… Fearing it too much since you use Xyz?"

"It doesn't matter!" Ryoga roared. Hearing the name 'Fusion' caused him to remind of the painful memories again. He looked at them, only to see a faint image of the destroyed Heartland City. He closed his eyes and shook his head in attempt to put those images out.

"Calm down Ryoga!" Ruri helped him. Thankfully she could control herself better than him. "We cannot think about it for now! We need to win this fight!" Ryoga finally managed to calm down. He nodded Ruri as a way to say 'thank you' to her.

"Uh… we will win this battle!"

"Battle? We think of duels like that as well! Every duels we engaged is a fight!"

Ruri became perplexed at their psychology. _"They think about duels like that? Duels are not supposed to be used like that! It was supposed to make people smile!"_

"Anyway, go back shall we?" The vortex appeared, sucking the monsters.

"Blow, wind! Rage, storm! Surging God of Destruction, reign over this land! Yūgō Shōkan! Appear now, level 10, Great Storm Star Fujin!" A big, muscular monster in dark green skin appeared. It wore some teal fabric on its pelvic area, some white one on its back and it held a long blue stick.

 **Great Storm Star Fujin** WIND Warrior Fusion Effect LV10 **3000** /2200

"When this card is Fusion Summoned, it changed the ATK and DEF of all of your monsters to 0!"

"What?"

 **Lyrical Luscinia - Assembly Nightingale** ATK 400 - 0

 **Underwater Mothership Aero Shark** ATK 1900 - 0

"And for each monsters on the field that has 0 DEF, you take 500 damage!"

"No way!" Ruri was blown back and got hit to the wall behind. She gasped in pain.

 **Ruri** : 4000 - 1000 [1]

"Hihihihihihi! Such a pleasure to see you crumbling like this!"

"Enough assholes!" Ryoga said back.

"Wait up! We're still in a duel! Battle! Fujin, attack the defenseless Nightingale!"

"Dammit, she cannot use its effects anymore!"

"Trap Card, Lyrical Luscinia - Avenge! When I take effect damage from a monster effect, I can gain 300 LP for each "Lyrcial Luscinia" monsters in my hand, field and graveyard!" She said as a green light covered her body.

 **Ruri** : 1000 - 2800 [1]

"And Takeda, you take the same amount as damage!"

"What?"

 **Takeda** : 4000 – 2200 [2]

"Also, your Fujin is destroyed!"

"Fujin's effect! I release Star Duplicate to negate its destruction!" The monster suddenly held up the duplicate on its belt and threw it at the light, destroying it. This action made Ruri very uncomfortable.

"Huh… Fujin can still attack! Destroy the monster of that puny girl!"

"Trap Card!" Ryoga suddenly said. "Demon's Chain!" Two strings of metal chain flew out from the trap, squezzing the monster.

"What the hell happened?"

"The monster targeted by Demon's Chain cannot attack or activate its effect!"

"Dammit… I set down a card and end my turn!"

Ryoga looked fiercely at Ken and Takeda before declaring his turn. "Ore no turn! DRAWWW!"

* * *

"Oi Yuto! Yuto!" Shun yelled as soon as he saw his friend.

"Shun!" Yuto said back. "You find anything?"

"No! By the way, are you 100% sure that Ryoga is in the pier!"

"I got a good feeling about it Shun! Let's run to there, we have no time!"

They then both ran to the pier, in worry and in hope for their dear friend and comrade.

* * *

"Dammit... I cannot summon Absolute anymore...!" Yuya looked at his hand, deciding to do something else.

"I set down one card and activate "Defense" Sealing! It will switch your Prime Monarch to attack position!" The monster was forced to stand up.

"And then I switch Stargazer, Timegazer and Partgana to defense!" Yuya changed the cards' position, the monsters kneeled down.

"Battle! Odd-Eyes Pendulum Dragon! Attack The Prime Monarch! Rasen no Strike Burst!" The red blast did its work as usual, expect.

"Trap Card, Monarch Defense! My "Monarch" monsters cannot be destroyed this turn!"

"Dammit... But damage is still taken!" Yuya told him.

 **Sawatari** : 2350 - 850 [1]

"Entermate Drumbull, ram Kreis!" The bull hit the emperor, but it survived thanks to the trap.

 **Sawatari** : 850 - 550 [1]

"I end my turn here!" Yuya said in worry. Yuzu looked at her friend anxiously, seeing his stress.

"Ore no turn, draw!" Sawatari drew his card, smiling. He looked back at Yuya. "Sakaki Yuya, the duel is over now!"

"Really?"

"Really! I activate Strike of the Monarchs! By tributing Granmarg, the effect of Stargazer is negated!" The emperor turned into dust and flew at the space magician, negating its power.

"No!"

"Now you cannot bring back a monster anymore! And I can draw a card thanks to Strike!" Sawatari drew his card.

"And now the effect of the Field Magic, Domain of the True Monarchs! I reduce the level of Gaius in my hand by 2!"

"Reducing level!?" Yuzu thought out loud.

"To Advance Summon it with less than one tribute..." Yuya noted.

"Of course! I release The Prime Monarch to Advance Summon!" A pillar of light shone up from under The Prime Monarch, paving the way for the demonic-looking monster. The fur cape it wore further signified its strength and horror it already gave.

 **Gaius the Grudge Wicked Monarch** DARK Demon Effect LV8 **2800** /1000 - LV6

"It will banish your Odd-Eyes Pendulum Dragon!" The monster created black energy and threw it at the dragon, consuming it before making it implode.

"Odd-Eyes!" Yuya exclaimed.

"And the additional gift is 1000 damage!" The energy blasted Yuya, making him yell in pain.

 **Yuya** : 2600 - 1600 [0]

"Finally Quick-Play Magic, Barrier Maneuvering! This turn I can inflict piercing battle damage!"

"No way! Yuya will lose!" Yuzu realized what the card would do.

"As I told you Yuya, the duel will end now! Battle! Kreis, attack Timegazer!"

"Trap Card, Dimensional Prison! Your Kreis is banished!" The trap turned into a black hole, dragging the golden emperor to it. "The duel is not over yet!"

 _"No, it's over Yuya..."_

"The other effect of Barrier Maneuvering! When you control three or more monsters and I control less when I activated it, this turn, one of my monsters can make a direct attack!"

"What? No way! I will lose!"

"Yes! This is the end Yuya! Gaius the Grudge Wicked Monarch, I order you to direct at-"

"Stop the duel right now and get down!" A voice suddenly spoke up. They turned to see the hospital security guards. Yuya and Yuzu became panicked.

"Wait up! We're-"

"Get down, on the ground now!" They pulled out their sticks, scaring the teenagers greatly.

"Wait up guys! I told them to come to the rooftop to have a duel!" Sawatari explained. "And I am the son of the Mayor of Miami City, Shingo Sawatari, you surely don't want to have trouble if you capture me and my friend right?"

"What?"

"Are you the son of the Mayor Shingo?"

"Yes!"

They looked at him to confirm. One of them took out an Ipad and showed the rest.

"He is really the son of the Mayor!" He showed them the image of the Mayor and his son. They looked at each other in understanding before looking at the teenagers.

"Okay, we leave this case for now. Just don't do this again, or we will surely catch you three without hesitation. Now stop the duel!"

"Fine..." Sawatari took out his Deck and so did Yuya. The monsters disappeared.

"We will come down soon!" Yuzu said. With that the guards got out of the rooftop.

Sawatari turned to Yuya and Yuzu. "Sorry for ruining your day Yuya, Yuzu."

"It's fine Sawatari!" Yuzu assured.

"So, Yuya, the duel is interrupted, so this is neither counted as a win nor a loss. Your score is still safe!"

"Yeah." Yuya smiled at him. "You are really good. You have improved since last time. See you at the Miami Championship!"

Sawatari smiled in return. "See you there!" They shook hands. Yuzu smiled at that.

"It's pretty late now, goodbye Sawatari!"

"Uh! And just be careful okay? Take care!" He then saw them leaving the rooftop with a smile on his face. He then got back to his own room as well and met his father there.

 _"Great... gotta explain to my father now..."_

* * *

"Magic Card, Card of Current! I banish Big Jaws and Saber Shark from my graveyard to draw 2 cards!"

"The hell? You did not have Saber Shark!"

"Thanks to the effect of Infinity Tooth!"

"And now I activate the effect of Aero Shark! Air Torpedo!"

 **Ken** : 3400 - 2200 [0]

"Since you got a Fusion Monster… it's time to fight for real!" He widened his eyes and looked up, raising his hand.

"I, using the Rank 3 Aero Shark, overlay!" Aero Shark slowly rose up to the opening overlay network, a huge explosion occurred shortly after.

"What the hell?" The five men became dumbstruck at this phenomenon.

"Rank-Up Xyz Change! Appear now, Rank 4! Full Armored Black Ray Lancer!"

 **Full Armored Black Ray Lancer** DARK Beast-Warrior Xyz Effect R4 **2100** /600

"For each Overlay Units attached to this monster, it gains 200 ATK!"

 **Full Armored Black Ray Lancer** ATK 2100 - 2300

"Form my graveyard, I attach Bull Shark to Black Ray Lancer as an Overlay Unit and make it gain 800 ATK!"

 **Full Armored Black Ray Lancer** ATK 2300 - 3300

"And now I summon Xyz Remora!"

 **Xyz Remora** WATER Fish Effect LV4 **800** /800

"Using its effect, I can detach two Overlay Units of Black Ray Lancer!"

"Since Bull Shark was detached, your Fujin loses 800 ATK!"

 **Great Storm Star Fujin** ATK 3000 - 2200

"And after doing that, I can Xyz Summon one monster with the number of Xyz Materials reduced by the number of Overlay Units detached by this effect!"

"I, using the level 4 Xyz Remora, overlay!"

"Xyz Shōkan! Appear now, numbers 32! The most powerful ruler of the deep sea! Exterminate everything with your sharp fangs! Marine Biting Dragon, Shark Drake!"

 **Numbers 32: Marine Biting Dragon – Shark Drake** WATER Sea-Serpent Xyz Effect R4 **2800** /2100

"Shark Drake, attack Fujin!"

 **Takeda** : 2200 - 1600 [1]

"And now by detaching an Overlay Unit, Shark Drake can bring your Fujin back but it loses 1000 ATK!"

 **Great Storm Star Fujin** ATK 3000 - 2000

"Shark Drake can attack a second time when it uses its effect! Destroy Kajima now!"

 **Ken** : 2200 - 1200 [0]

"I set down a card and end my turn!"

"Watashi no turn, draw!" Ruri started her second turn.

"By banishing Avenge, I special summon Lyrical Luscinia - Amber Warbler from my hand!"

 **Lyrical Luscinia – Amber Warbler** WIND Winged Beast Effect LV1 **100** /0

"When this card is summoned, I can inflict 200 damage for each "Lyrical Luscinia" monsters in my graveyard!"

 **Takeda** : 1600 - 800 [1]

"Reverse Card open! Summon Lock! I target Amber Warbler and other players cannot summon monsters with the level higher than it, which means 2 or higher!"

"What?"

"But that means your angry friend is restricted too!"

"Just Shark Drake and Black Ray are enough to beat you two! Then we will beat you three LDS scums!"

"Magic Card, Reckless Summon of Hell! I special summon two more Amber Warblers from my deck!"

"You could have summoned two more copies of 1 of your monsters, but thanks to this trap, you cannot!" Ruri smiled. "And the effect of the two Amber Warblers will finish you off!"

"Damn you bitch… Just kidding!"

"What?"

Ken answered by activating his trap. "Trap Card, Star Rebound! Up to twice per turn, when you inflict damage, I can negate it, then destroy a monster on the field and inflict damage equal to its original ATK!"

"What?"

"The first monster is… Black Ray Lancer!"

 **Ryoga** : 2200 - 100 [1]

"This time you will lose, Kamishiryo Ryoga!" The light flew at Shark Drake.

"Ryoga!"

"Not gonna lose that easy! Dream Shark!" The monster appeared, absorbing the damage.

 **Dream Shark** WATER Fish Effect LV5 0/ **2600**

"I'm sorry Ryoga! We almost lost!"

"It's OK Ruri! Now proceed with your turn!"

"With pleasure! I, using the three Amber Warblers, overlay!"

"Xyz Shōkan! Rank 1! Lyrical Luscinia - Recite Starling!"

"It gains 300 ATK and DEF for each Overlay Units!"

 **Lyrical Luscinia - Recite Starling** **0** /0 - **900** /900

"By detaching an Overlay Unit, I can add Cobalt Sparrow to my hand!"

 **Lyrical Luscinia - Recite Starling** **900** /900 - **600** /600

"This is the end for you Takeda! Battle!"

"What?"

"Lyrical Luscinia - Recite Starling, attack Fujin!"

"But it has lower ATK!"

"Any battle damage I take from battles involving Starling is also inflicted to you!"

"WHAT?" For the first time, Takeda clearly lost his temper, but... "Not... gonna... happen."

"What do you mean?"

"Trap Card, Star Power activate!"

"No!"

"You know what it will do right?" Fujin swung its stick to cancel the wind blast and thursted it at Starling, destroying the poor bird. After that, a monster in blue clothing showed up.

 **Water Thunder Star Shimizu** WATER Warrior Effect LV4 **1800** /0

 **Ruri** : 2800 - 1400 [1]

"Dammit... he countered that too... What would I do..." He sadly thought before concluding her turn.

"At this moment, Summon Lock is destroyed." Ruri said as the trap disappeared.

"Well, I gave you an applause for fighting this well and for actually gonna win against us, but that was futile!"

"You two will lose for real this time!" The goons mocked.

"Ore no turn! Draw!"

"Magic Card, Yūgō activate!"

"Dammit! What monster would he bring out?" Ryoga readied himself.

"Careful Ryoga!" Ruri warned.

"Flash across the heavens! Echo through the earth! Lightning God of Destruction, reign over this land! Fusion Summon! Come forth! Supreme Thunder Star Raijin!" A big monster in yellow outfit appeared.

 **Supreme Thunder Star Raijin** WIND Warrior Fusion Effect LV10 **3000** /2200

"When Raijin is Fusion Summoned, it destroys 2 cards on the field!"

"No way!"

"The targets are Shark Drake and your left set card!" The monster charged its big sword before emitting a large beam of light at Shark Drake and Ruri's set card, destroying the first but as I went to the second, that card suddenly lit up and shone up brightly.

"Quick-Play Magic, Rank-Up-Magic Luscinia Force!"

"What? Rank-Up-Magic? What the hell is that?"

"This card targets Assembly Nightingale and special summons a "Lyrcial Luscinia" Xyz Monster in my Extra Deck with 1 Rank higher, using Assembly as an Xyz Material!"

"WHAT? How did you learn it!?" The LDS goons wondered.

"Rank-Up Xyz Change! Fly up high, Rank 2, Lyrical Luscinia - Revolting Nightingale!"

 **Lyrical Luscinia - Revolting Nightingale** WIND Winged Beast Xyz Effect R2 **0** /0

"For each Overlay Units attached to it, it gains 200 ATK!"

 **Lyrical Luscinia - Revolting Nightingale** ATK 0 - 200

"And by banishing Amber Warbler, Luscinia Force can be attached as an overlay unit for Revolting!" The card flew from an opening portal and turned into a green Overlay Unit, circling around the Xyz monster.

 **Lyrical Luscinia - Revolting Nightingale** ATK 200 - 400

"But it only has 400 ATK! Battle! Raijin, attack Revolting Nightingale!"

"Revolting Nightingale has the same effect as Assembly Nightingale!" Ruri said as the Xyz monster detached one of its Overlay Units to protect itself.

"Which means it can only do that one more time! Go! Shimizu!"

"I end my turn! Finish them now, Takeda! I'm getting annoyed!"

"Uh! Ore no turn!" Takeda drew his card. He had a huge grin on his face after seeing it. "It's here! It's here! The card that will finish you two annoying ants!"

"What?"

"What did you draw?" They became nervous.

"Magic Card, Thunder Bolt!" He slid the card to the Magic/Trap slot, activating it. A large thunder suddenly struck the top of the warehouse and went through it, striking the ground. Dream Shark and Revolting Nightingale were destroyed.

"Dammit! Our monsters..."

* * *

"What is that?" Nakajima wondered.

Reiji simply said. "It means that the duel would be over soon... These two people fought really well, but it seems to be futile..."

* * *

After crossing the bridge, Shun and Yuto suddenly see a thunder strike. It struck at a warehouse.

"What the hell is that?" Kurosaki said in shock.

"It's a thunder bolt! It hit a warehouse at the pier! Ryoga is probably near there!"

"Hurry Yuto! We cannot lose him!" They ran faster at that location.

"President! We got information from the control room that two individuals are approaching the pier fast!" Nakajima informed his boss, showing him a holographic image of Shun and Yuto running.

"What do we do now?"

"No time to waste anymore!" Reiji said before taking off his glassed and donning a black mask. "Get ready!"

Reiji then got out of his limousine and walked to the warehouse number 52.

* * *

"Hahahahahaha! Now you have nothing to defend yourself! This is real despair, the despair that will pain you forever!"

"We already got enough back home! This is nothing!"

"Then let's make it something! Battle!"

"Fujin, Ryoga direct attack!"

Ryoga said while pointing at his set card "Trap Card, Zeus' Breath! Your attack is negated!"

"Shimizu's effect activate!" Makoto interrupted.

"What?"

"It can negate the activation of a Normal Magic or Normal Trap Card and destroy it!"

"NO!" The monster thrust its stick at Ryoga, making him scream in pain and sending him flying. He hit his head on the wall, knocking him unconscious.

"RYOGA!"

 **Ryoga** : 100 - 0 [0]

Ruri attempted to wake him up, but to no avail.

"Hahahahhaha! One down, one to go!"

"Finish that girl Takeda!" The goons cheered. Ruri could not do anything to prevent herself anymore with that powerful effect of Shimizu. She thought back of the people she had known in her life in shame. Her parents, her brother Shun, her friends Rio, Ryoga, Kaito, Mizael, and Yuto in shame. She did not know what would happen to her after losing this duel anymore.

"Battle! Shimizu, Ruri direct attack-"

"Trap Card, DD Bomb! I can activate this card from my hand if my opponent control three more cards than I do!"

The people in the warehouse all turned to see a man in black mask. But the voice and the name of the trap pretty much confirmed to them who he was.

"Akaba... Reiji?" They all thought out loud.

"I banish Hell Armageddon from my hand to destroy all monster with ATK equal or lower than it and inflict damage to all player equal to half of the combined original ATK!" Hell Armageddon suddenly appeared, hitting the attack and exploded, creating a huge explosion. All of the people in the warehouse was blown away, all hitting the wall and losing consciousness. Reiji stood besides the wall to avoid the blast.

 **Ruri** : 1400 - 0 [1]

 **Ken** : 1200 - 0 [0]

 **Takeda** : 800 - 0 [1]

"Hurry Nakajima!" Both Reiji and Ryoga quickly dragged Ruri, Ryoga, Ken, Takeda and the three LDS members to the back of the limousine and quickly rode off. The car nearly hit Shun and Yuto on its way. They both looked in the limousine and saw Ryoga being in there. Ruri was not seen because she was laying down.

"Dammit! It's Ryoga!"

"Ryoga!"

Shun and Yuto attempted to give chase, but the car rode off too fast for them to catch up. They reluctantly stopped to catch their breath.

"My god... we... we lost him... we lost him..."

"NOOOO!" Shun growled. They have lost too much during the war, now they lost Ryoga too. What would they do, when they could not even protect their closet friends...

* * *

"Well, that was a close call there..." Nakajima commented while driving.

"Now we know one thing for sure... Ruri and Ryoga is not from here."

"Yes?"

"In that duel, they ranked their Xyz Monsters up, a technique not used by LDS. That confirmed my suspicion that they are not from this dimension. Probably the Xyz dimension."

"And those two guys chasing us back there, they are probably their comrades. But why are they here?"

"They probably came from the Xyz Dimension. I think that Abaka Leo attacked that dimension..." He said while clenching his fist. "And somehow his men captured these two."

"But why are they here?"

"They probably ran into here to escape Academia. Anyway, we will handle the three LDS members, the Ryozanpaku Duel School ones, Ruri and Ryoga later." Reiji said as they went back to LDS.

* * *

Still scared from that near experience, she covered her breasts and curled back to the corner of the wall, crying. Her messy hair failed to hide her fear.

Barrett sadly looked on. Seeing Rin crying like this reminded him of Selena, the girl with the same face as Rin. He cared about them and the weak in general despite being an Academia soldier. He could not bear to look at this sight anymore. He dragged the body out of the room and handled it to Apollo, who took it away. He then turned back to Rin.

"I know you're scared, but I'm not here to hurt you, I never want to. I only called you because the Professor ordered me to get you to him."

"NO! I will not!"

Barrett sighed heavily before trying the harder way. "I only follow orders little girl. You reminded me of someone."

This managed to bring Rin out of her nerves. She looked up at him curiously. "Who?"

"You will know soon. Now, do you want to follow me voluntarily or by force with the guards out there?"

Rin did not know why, but this man at least managed to give her safety and ease despite his intimidating appearance. She relented and got up, following him, her hand still cuffed. They got out of the prison tower and slowly walked into the Academia headquarters.

Along the way, they went across a room. It seemed like a hospital one. In there, they saw a comatose woman under some kind of machine, the man in purple robes known as the Professor and a teenager with tan skin, red eyes, and black and red spiked hair that points out and upward. He wore a red sleeveless vest and long white pants. He looked at the sick woman in sadness. The Professor touched his shoulders to confront him.

"Who are those three?" Rin wondered.

"The one in purple is the Professor, the leader of Academia. The woman in bed had cancer stage four."

"What? Cancer?" Rin became shocked.

"Yes. Academia has a cancer machine that slowly destroys dead organs to heal people with cancer, but it takes a long time to do it. And we are not even sure if this works or not."

Rin sadly looked at her. There were many more people whose life is even more miserable than her. Losing parents is one thing, but seeing parents in the brink of death like this is even worse.

"And the teenager there is her son right?"

"Yes."

"You know what his name is?"

Barrett looked at her, then the room, before answering.

"His name... is Tsukumo Yuma..."

* * *

 **Fanfic OC Cards**

 **Card of Current (Magic Card)**

Banish 2 WATER monsters in the graveyard that have no effects that activate from the graveyard; draw 2 cards.

 **Star Power (Trap Card)**

When you would take battle damage or effect damage from a card effect, negate that damage, and if you do, special summon 1 "Star" monster from your Deck.

 **Fire Thunder Star Kajima**

FIRE Warrior LV4 1800/0

 **Water Thunder Star Shimizu**

WATER Warrior Effect LV4 1800/0

When a "Star" monster battles, your opponent cannot activate any Magic/Trap cards until the end of the Damage Step.

 **Star Duplicate (Trap Card)**

Activate this card by targeting a "Star" monster you control. Special summon this card as a Normal Monster with the same ATK as one "Star" monster you control (Warrior-Type/LIGHT/LV4/ATK?/DEF?).

 **Lyrcial Luscinia - Avenge (Trap Card)**

When you take effect damage from a card effect, gain 300 LP for each "Lyrical Luscinia" monsters in your hand, field and graveyard. And if you do, inflict the same amount as damage to your opponent. Then you can destroy an opponent's monster on the field.

 **Bull Shark**

WATER Fish Effect LV4 800/800

You can attach this card from your hand or graveyard to a WATER Xyz Monster you control as an Xyz Material. If this card activate its effect from the graveyard and is sent to the graveyard, banish it.

 **Summon Lock (Continuous Trap Card)**

Activate this card by targeting a level 1 monster you control, this turn, no players can special summon any level 1 monsters. Destroy this card during the End Phase.

 **Rank-Up-Magic Luscinia Force (Quick-Play Magic Card)**

Target 1 "Lyrical Luscinia" Xyz monster you control; Special Summon from your Extra Deck, 1 "Lyrical Luscinia" monster that is 1 Rank higher than that target, by using that target as the Xyz Material (This Special Summon is treated as an Xyz Summon, Attached Xyz Materials also become Xyz Materials on the Summoned monster). You can banish 1 "Lyrical Luscinia" monster from your graveyard, attach this card to a "Lyrical Luscinia" Xyz monster you control as an Xyz Material.

 **DD Bomb (Trap Card)**

Banish one "DD" monster from your hand; destroy all monsters on the field with ATK less than or equal to the ATK of the banished monsters, and if you do, inflict damage to both players equal to half of the combined original ATK of the destroyed monsters.

 **(I'll add other cards later)**

* * *

 **Changed effect of anime cards**

 **Heaven Thunder Star Senkou** LIGHT Warrior Effect LV7 2300/0

If you control 2 "Star" monsters, you can normal summon this card without tributing.

 **Earthly Wind Star Tsumuji** EARTH Warrior Effect LV6 2200/0

If you control no monsters, you can normal summon this card without tributing. If summoned this way, you can special summon another "Star" monster from your hand.

 **Great Storm Star Fujin** WIND Warrior Fusion Effect LV10 3000/2200

If this card is Fusion Summoned, change the ATK and DEF of all of your opponent's monsters to 0, and for each monsters on the field that has 0 DEF, your opponent takes 500 damage.

 **Supreme Thunder Star Raijin** WIND Warrior Fusion Effect LV10 3000/2200

When this card is Fusion Summoned, you can destroy up to two of your opponent's cards on the field.

* * *

 **Finished! And... I do not know how you guys will react so I will not drag you guys any longer! The duels are not that great though. Anyway, I hope you like the chapter and the twist, also please review.**

 **Next Chapter Preview**

 **Academia**

A day of the place which attacked Heartland through the eyes of two estranged individuals.

 **This is matrixnis, out!**


	15. Scale 15

**Welcome back guys!**

 **And now the time for my most favorite couple that thanks to Moonlight Sorrow, my dream came true: Yuri x Selena! (By the way, I recommend you guys read that story, it's the fanfic story that got me to this site!).** **Besides Yuto x Ruri and Yuya x Yuzu, this is the couple that everyone wanted to have a proper conclusion, but thanks to the rushed ending, we sadly never had!**

 **By the way, I will do something a little different since I write both Selena and Yuri this time. Let me know what you think.**

 **To Gentyman, thanks man. I noticed that I could use Ken and Takeda for the duel, fitting since Ryoga and Ruri are survivors, soldiers vs normal life ruthless martial arts practitioners would be good.**

 **To Playerhood18 and Yuka Kuroshiro, I don't have any plan to include legendary characters beside Yuma and I probably will not. There are too much now: Ryoga, Rio, Yuma, Yusei, Aki.**

 **There is one sad thing that I will have to tell you guys though: Crow Hogan will NOT appear in my story. Yes, he will NOT. Sorry Crow fans, please don't judge me. The main reason is that I hated him for stealing the chance to Aki to shine in 5D's.**

 **Putting aside all of those, I hope you guys enjoy the backstory of Selena and Yuri that I imagined! Let's go, and I do not own Yu-Gi-Oh ARC-V!**

* * *

 **Chapter 15: Academia**

"Battle! Moonlight Cat Dancer, attack Dragon Djinn - King Dragoon!" A female, young voice could be heard. After receiving the order, a female monster in a teal dress with long pink purple hair, black long socks and teal ballet strings did a flying kick to the half dragon half human creature, destroying it. The opponent was blown back several meters, screaming in pain.

 **Yellow** : 1200 - 0 [1]

The monster disintegrated. The onlookers eyed the girl in fear. Indigo hair tied into a ponytail with a large yellow button, two light blue bangs, green eyes, red skirts, black shorts, black boots and white skin. These features usually force people, especially boys to look on in awe, right now however, the owner of those traits scared them a lot. The dress she wore was an Osiris Red one, the clothes of the lowest rank in Academia, and although it was supposed to tell other teenagers that the Dueling skill of this girl was mediocre, what she just did there was a complete opposite.

"Is there anyone want to duel me?"

No reply.

"Nobody? Humph… you are all worthless… cannot defeat an Osiris Red like me… what pride of a Duelist do you keep?"

She then angrily pointed at a boy in yellow uniform, making him flinch. "You! Duel me! Show me your skill and your pride!"

"That's enough Selena!"

A voice spoke up from her left. She looked at him hatefully. A middle-aged man with a grey mustache and short black hair. He wore a black outfit, a red stick in his hand.

"It's not enough Sanders! I want to prove myself more!"

"I said this is enough for today!" He growled before turning to the spectators. "Soldiers, you are dismissed!" They slowly got out of the training room.

"What the hell is wrong with you Sanders? You always kept me down, not giving me a chance to prove myself in the battlefield! You stole away my honor! How long are you going to keep me like this anymore!?"

"It's simple! You are not worthy enough!"

"The hell with it! I have been prepared for the chance to fight for the last two years!"

"But your skills are nothing compared to Yuri!"

Hearing the name made her temper boil up. Who did he think he was when he brought out that name to her? She just wanted to split on his face, but she knew better not to do anything stupid. This man's temper is pretty unstable. He was obsessed with creating perfect Duel Soldiers that he left out other potential candidates like her. And he was the man who took Yuri away from her. Selena never forgave him for this, and herself for causing it.

"I can beat him easily if I duel him! Remember that! And don't mention him again in front of me!" Selena angrily said before walking off.

Despite being an Osiris Red, for some reason, Akaba Leo had given her a special room. It had very good accommodation compared to usual rooms that Ra Yellow and Osiris Red members had. She wondered why the Professor gave her such good care like this and she did ask him, but he shrugged it off every time, and she could see that this subject was uncomfortable to him thanks to the slight angered face he made while telling her. She decided to keep this question to herself, not caring about it, even the whisperings from other teenagers about her apparent 'relationship' with him.

"Huh… "relationship"… They did not understand a thing… unlike him…"

She cut herself out of that thought, keeping it from hurting her soul further. She opened the door of her room and got in, not forgetting to close it. The room was pretty elegant to be honest. The bed at the corner near the windows got made up nicely and the floor was tidied as well. Forgetting the good accommodation, she immediately went to the bathroom and splashed water on her face, trying to clean up the dirt made by the continuous Duels against Academia students and calm down her anger. Feeling her mood becoming a little calmer, she made a deep sigh and took off her clothes, relishing the warm feel of the hot water pouring down her body. After finishing the showering, she went out and donned in her new clothes, or rather, her only other clothes, which, thankfully, she never forgot to wash them up. She looked at herself in the mirror on the door of the closet. A plain purple shirt and white shorts, very comfortable.

" _Hair needs some work as always though…"_

She dried her hair out with a hair dryer, looking at the sunset. She remembered how fast time had gone, along with a cruel twist of fate…

* * *

" _Oi Selena!"_

" _Yes mommy?"_

" _You ready to go to the movie theater with our friends?"_

" _Yes mom!"_

" _Well, let's go!" The woman said as her husband took Selena's hand and they went to the Toyota car parked in front of their house._

" _Wait! Selena, why are you having your Duel Disk with you? You're not gonna use it anyway!" The father complained._

" _I want to Dad! I may get to duel him somehow! I have not seen him for a while and I'm sure he wants the same thing when he sees me too!"_

" _Well… that can't be helped though honey." The mother told her husband. "It's been a while…"_

" _Whatever… hope you two could get to duel!" The father smiled at Selena, who did the same in return._

 _They drove off to their friend's house with smiles on their faces, Selena particularly, for she would see her close friend again._

…

…

" _Hey! We're here!"_

" _Oh! It's good to see you three!"_

" _Yo! Selena!"_

" _Hey! Yuri!" She said as the boy ran to her, smiling brightly. "Good to see you!" He could not hide his happiness._

" _So am I Yuri! Haven't seen you for a while!"_

" _Ok you two, remember where will we go right?" Yuri's father said._

" _Yes dad~~" Yuri pouted. "But after watching the movie, can we go to the park? I want to duel with her!"_

 _He sighed before smiling at him. "Of course son! But after seeing the movie, got it?"_

" _Yes!" Yuri yelled in joy._

" _Well you can use our car! You don't have to drive your own!"_

" _Good idea honey!" Yuri's mother said._

" _Good!"_

" _Ok plan's set! Let's go!" With that, all of them got into the car to go to the theater._

…

…

 _They were crossing the busy intersection. The adults were talking, Yuri and Selena were watching the street._

 _After crossing the intersection, they drove to the next one…_

 _When a large truck was recklessly driving from their right unknown to them…_

* * *

Selena forced herself to return to reality, not wanting to remember it again. The unforgettable day, the day she wished it would never have happened. She was that lost in her world that when she looked at the window, the moon was already there.

" _Dammit… come on Selena… you're strong… why are you getting distracted…"_

With nothing to do tonight, she decided to go out of her room, walking to the garden near the Osiris Red dorm room. Academia allowed their students to have their time doing what they wanted as long as they did not attempt to run away. Despite being the lowest-ranked dorm in Academia, it actually had a pretty decent garden. A large one with several paths, each with different types of flowers like rose, narcissus, orchid, tulip, carnation. However, Selena only went to one path though, the rightmost path right ahead of her. She stopped, admiring the "loyal beauty" of the epiphyllum flower. She did not know why, but its characteristic of only blooming at night before withering seemed very similar to her, with a certain someone. She smiled, looked and touch the petal with sadness and grief for how much pain she had caused to him.

"Hey! Who's there?"

Selena gasped when she heard a voice from behind. She quickly hid herself behind the plants.

" _Haizzz… just an Obelisk Blue…"_

The Obelisk Blue is the second-highest-ranking division of Academia. They personally guarded the fortress and the Professor himself. Every night, some members stayed awake to walk around the hall, guarding this place. Seeing him coming near with the flashlight pointed dangerously close, Selena held her breath and looked cautiously at the space in front of her, ready to strangle the guard if he saw her. Luckily, more on the guard's side, he did not care any further and simply walked back to the hall, returning to his usual duty. Sighing in relief, she carefully walked out and, in a moment of desiring for freedom, decided to walk to the Obelisk Blue section and scouted around it.

It took a short while to walk to there, an oval structure with a blue roof, fitting for the division, with many large rooms indicated by big windows with some having lights on. She took notice of one room in particular, an empty room on the third floor on the rightmost. That room used to be occupied by an Honor Student, the most popular student, the most beautiful one in here.

" _Tenjoin Asuka…"_

The Diva of Academia, as the boys said. A beautiful female teenager with long yellow hair, blue eyes and white skin, whiter than hers. Ever since she set foot on the place nearly two years ago, every boy's attention, expect Yuri, was on her. The skill, the beauty she possessed were the main reasons. Selena was jealous of her. Frankly speaking, despite herself being good-looking, Asuka is more beautiful than her, she was taller and her body had more curves than her too. She wondered if those attractive features took away her chance to prove herself to the Professor. Due to this, Selena and Asuka were barely in good terms, worsen after she put Yuri into the talking subject.

" _But it all changed…"_

A year ago, Asuka suddenly escaped the island with an Osiris Red girl. The guards chased them and managed to card the Osiris Red, but they could not catch Asuka and she had not been seen since. She wondered what had happened to her at that moment. She had a good feeling that she was helped by someone. Thinking about it, she berated herself for not having a good relationship with her. If she had had, she would have escaped with her and things would have been different…

But she could not leave him…

" _No! Stop it! You promised to yourself that you would never think about Yuri anymore!"_

" _Dammit! Why am I thinking about him again?"_

" _Why?"_

The question remained no matter how much she wanted to forget. It seemed that she could not do anything about it no matter what.

" _Stupid Selena…"_

Berating herself would not solve the problem, and she knew it very well, so she came up with the closet solution, slowly going back to her own dorm, her own room and carefully avoiding the guards during the way. Finally getting back, she opened the room and after turning on the fan, she threw herself to the bed in the freefall position. Under the wind of the fan and the warm light of the moon that she took inspiration from, Selena quickly fell into a deep sleep…

The next morning, instead of the alarm clock, the knocking on the door woke her up. Selena knew who did that. She tiredly called him.

"Barretttt… What is this…"

"Selena, you got orders from the Professor!" Barrett spoke from outside the room.

Selena jotted up in surprise. "What? Are you sure?"

"Yes!"

"Finally!"

"Not really Selena…"

"What do you mean Barrett?"

"Just the preparation."

"What the… Preparation…" She sighed.

"More like a preparation duel!"

"Preparation duel?"

"Academia intends to invade the Synchro Dimension as well, but our soldiers have never fought a Synchro user before, besides Yuri."

"Yuri? How?"

"You already know…"

"Huh… Yeah, of course it must be Yuri… but why me?"

"The Professor wants someone to duel a Synchro user while other students watch to gain knowledge and experience."

"And for some stupid reason, he wanted ME, to do the deed?" Selena said.

"Yes Selena."

" _What does he want? He never used me for important missions before… whatever…"_ She sighed, not finding any benefits of attempting to answer the question. "So who am I going to duel with Barrett?"

"You will know soon. Follow me."

Selena opened the door and followed the one-eyed man. After a while, they came across a large duel room. She also saw Yuri looking at the other room to. She attempted to speak to him, but the harsh look of him was enough to shut her up.

"Battle! Wind Witch - Winter Bell, attack Antique Gear Triple Bite Hound Dog! Freezing Storm!"

"This is a Synchro citizen we took as prisoner. Her name is Rin. She is really good. She had won against twelve Red and Yellow students!"

"Well… which means I'm next!"

"Yes!"

"Fine…" With that she got in. She stood in front of the duel field for a while, waiting for the smoke to clear out. When it did, both Selena and Rin were shocked beyond belief.

They had the exact same faces.

" _What the hell?"_

Regaining composure, Selena spoke to Rin. "I don't know what is going on and why we have the same faces, but we have to duel now, or else the Professor will kill us both!" She readied her Duel Disk.

Rin also readied her own as well, and both girls began their forced Duel.

 **DUEL!**

 **Selena** : 4000 [5]

 **Rin** : 4000 [5]

* * *

"Squeak! Squeak! Squeak!"

The squeaking sound of the mouse erased the quietness of the room somewhat. The foreign sound, the sound that should not have been in this place, and it never was. It ruined the beauty of the room that the strongest Duel soldier had. And as if I was not enough, it was also responsible for the open hole at the corner of the room, the part where a beautiful Christian picture is carved in. He hated it. He hated the mouse for destroying the beauty of the picture he liked so much. He decided to repay what it did. Slowly going to the bed, he crouched down under the bed. Bingo. He had found the culprit.

"Let's see how long you are going to run any longer…"

In an instant, he threw himself further under the bed and used his left hand to catch the prey. A sadistic smile came after as the boy grabbed the rat, pulled it out and got rid of it. He looked at the window in sadistic joy, further confirmed by the image of him in that window. Violet hair with pink underneath, his fringes extending to frame his face, with two pointing upwards and a smile, a cruel smile. While technically it was animal cruelty, this action managed to calm him down a bit. As the strongest Academia Duelist, the finest Duel Soldier here, he was entrusted by the Professor to do the special mission. That was consisted of capturing the three girls with the same faces, as someone that he would not want to remember. Despite managing to capture Rin and immediately bring her back, he failed with Ruri, whose bracelet suddenly lit up blue, enveloping him and banishing him back to Academia. To make it worse, he ended up teleporting back into the Professor's hall, in surprise of the man himself. Yuri had to hastily explain why. Luckily, the Professor forgave him this time. To him, the Professor is the only man Yuri truly feared. His deep, baritone voice, along with the emotionless look on his face scared him deeply, not counting the apparent heartlessness when he used the Human Sealing Technology to seal people in cards, technically killing them. But he did not care, for the Professor was the one who introduced him to the project, the four dimensions, along with the permission to card whoever he pleased. Yuri realized that this was the chance to prove his usefulness to him and the chance to be really strong.

He did wonder what he would do after finishing the project. He honestly had no idea. After losing his parents, he lost everything. He was put in an orphanage for a year, separating from Selena… before being recruited by the Professor to Academia, where he became the most powerful duelist, and the most feared one. He did not need anyone close in his life anymore, especially after that incident, and another caused by her... " _Momma… Papa… did I do the right thing?"_

Snapping himself out of that thought, he lay down on the ground and did push up to exercise himself. After a good while, he changed to sit up and continued until he truly felt tired, sweat pouring down all over his body. Being forced in discipline did have benefits like increased determination, tolerance to pain, which were important for a man, or a male teenager in his case. He got up, looking at the picture of him, Selena, her parents and his on the table. He looked at it with a mixture of sadness - from the parents, hatred – from the girl and…

And…

Emptiness?

No! No way! The Professor gave him the mission! His life is complete! His life has meaning! He doesn't need anything to hold him back!

Especially her!

For some unknown reason, he could not destroy the part of the picture with Selena on it. He wondered why. " _My parents?"_

He took out a notebook. A small purple one. His diary. He wrote on it.

"Still thinking about her… don't know why… why papa, mama? You taught me to be strong, and I managed to do it… yet she still bothered me, even though she was not in my life anymore…"

And then he got lost.

* * *

 _Slowly regaining conscious after the car was hit by the truck which had fled the scene, Yuri opened his eyes to realize that the car was turned upside down. He released the safety bet and tried to look at others, all the time trying to keep his worry under control. He saw Selena next to him. Despite having blood, it was only a cut. He breathed out in relief and turned to the back, only to find out that Selena's parents were heavily wounded, blood running down from their heads. He began to panic. He quickly turned to the front to see a pool of blood. It was from his parents! Yuri quickly crawled and shake his parents._

 _"Papa! Mama! Wake up! Please!"_

 _His mother woke up. She weakly looked at her son. She attempted to release the belt but suddenly pain crept over her body. She realized a sharp piece of metal had pierced her chest. Yuri looked on in horror._

 _"No! Mom! No!"_

 _The mother also noticed that her husband had got an even worse fate than her: a debris had stabbed him to the seat by his neck... Luckily, her son had not seen it yet. Desperately trying not to cry and ignoring the pain, along with the hysterical breathing, she touched the face of her crying son and talked to him._

 _"Yuri... Listen... It seemed that we cannot stay with you any longer... We're truly sorry... But hey, don't cry okay? Be strong my son!_ _"_

 _She knew it failed. Yuri began to cry and hiccup._

 _"You are strong! You are truly strong! And you always will be, even without us! Be strong! Be strong! I know you can do it!"_

 _"Don't say anything mom... I'll get you and dad to hospital..." Yuri weakly protested. The mother shook her head before weakly taking off her yellow bandana and gave it to Yuri. She held it from the hand of the dying mother._

 _"If you miss us, and I know you will, just look at this bandana. Me and father is in there, we always watch you! We always do!"_

 _"Be strong... Yuri... Your father loves you... And I love you... a lot... we always... love... you..."_

 _And she could not see him anymore..._

 _At that moment, Yuri realized_

 _"Mom?" Yuri touched her face. "Mom..."_

 _He turned to the driver seat. "No..." He realized that his father had died as well..._

 _Yuri could not hold himself together anymore..._

 _"NOOOOO!"_

* * *

He did not realize he was crying until he saw the stained circle mark on the paper. He immediately wiped the tears away, closed the diary and looked at the picture again. This time, he barely kept his body from trembling.

" _I need to know why papa… mama…"_

Sighing heavily, he took the shower and stayed in there for about thirty minutes, unusually long for a boy like him. A shower of angst, or maybe just from tiredness. After that, he donned in his more informal clothes, consisting a white pants and a plain buttoned purple shirt. It was time for dinner, not that he cared. He got out of his room to walk to the kitchen. He requested the cook to let him cook himself, which was a piece of cake thanks to his reputation. After finishing it, he turned off the lights and brought the food to the table, eating while watching the sunset. It was just like everyday, when he made the dinner for himself and ate it alone, no one talking to him. At first he nearly cried, but eventually he got used to it. He actually felt very easy to be like this.

" _A predator is supposed to be alone… forever… it is being strong… just like you taught me…"_

The quietness around the room usually would creep anybody, giving them the sensation of someone might be stalking them from behind and kill them when they are distracted. But not for Yuri. Not for a predator like him, who is meant to be alone for forever.

The dinner was done, and when Yuri looked up, he nearly freaked out when he realized just how much time had gone by. The full moon was in his view, night already. Getting lost in his inner world clearly took him a lot of time. He had done this many times over, but it seemed that he could not help it. At least no one was there to witness the stupidity the strongest predator of Academia had just displayed. Chuckling, he took the dishes to the sink and washed them himself. A short while later, he got back to his room and walked to the balcony, enjoying the view of the beautifully clear sky. The stars were sparkling, the waves of the sea were crawling gently to the shore, albelt seldom getting high enough to hit the shore of the island, and the moon was shining brightly in the sky, adding to the beauty of the nighttime usually found in drawings of artists or pictures of professional photographers. This sight alone made up for the awful flashback he had just experienced nearly two hours ago. And the moon always reminded him of Selena, his childhood friend, his only friend in Academia but also his greatest betrayer in his life. He was so in need of emotional support to get past his dark childhood times that he was totally broken when Selena shunned him for her jealousy that the Professor somehow valued him more than her although he always confronted her that as long as she had him, she would be okay and they would both be fine. As a result, he was put into probably the worst training system that people would go through. That training took away his remaining childhood, his last bit of innocence and his chance to be a good boy. But in return, he had become a lot stronger, like what his mother told him during her last words, he had become the most powerful duelist in Academia, feared by many. He no longer had to fear anymore, and he liked it when others feared him. He was not a weak and scared boy anymore.

Suddenly something on Yuri's left got attention. He looked and realized that it was Selena in the garden. Just the sight of that traitorous bitch alone sent his temper through the roof. He tried to avoid looking at her but for some reason, he could not. Yuri became angry. He just wanted to beat her up as revenge for what she did to him. But he could not, not because it was stupid to jump down, but because of something...

Something that made him a lot calmer...

 _"Ridiculous..."_

He decided to get back to his bed and sleep right away although it was pretty early.

* * *

Light hitting his face. The next morning had come. Yuri woke up and did morning exercises before something made his Duel Disk beep.

 _"An order from the Professor? What is it? An exciting hunt for me?"_ Yuri hoped. He turned on the Duel Disk and a holographic image of the Professor showed up.

"Yuri!"

"Yes Professor? What do you want me to do?" He could not keep his excitement.

"Remember the Numbers Duelist from the Xyz Dimension that we brought to here six months ago?"

"Tsukumo Yuma? Yes sir!" He immediately answered.

"We are planning to deploy more troops to Xyz, but they have not have any experience fighting the duelists there yet. With you being the strongest duelist here and that Numbers Duelist being very strong, I want you two to have a duel to demonstrate to our students. Got it?"

"Whatever Professor. Just give me a chance to serve you is enough!" Despite feeling rather sad at not being able to card anyone, this duel seemed good to him.

"Go to the Duel Room number 1 and do your best. Everyone will be watching!"

"Yes Professor!" Yuri nodded respectfully as always. He put on his uniform, a purple and light blue waistcoat, pink cravat, a purple and red cape, a purple abbreviated coat with thick cuffs and gold shoulder bands with an amber-colored setting, fastened at the collar bone, and light blue pants tucked into silver-tinted leather boots. The elegant uniform as he called it, the uniform that made others respect and fear him. Yuri put on his Duel Disk and went out of his room to walk to the Duel Room. The Duel Rooms were a set of large rooms with sound-proof walls to avoid distraction. They were very strong and durable, being able to hold Chaos Giant and withstand its attack. After a while, Yuri got to the Duel Room he was supposed to get in. At the same time, Selena and Barrett showed up on the opposite end of the hall. Yuri ignored them, especially the girl and got into the room. In there he saw the duelist he would duel soon, Tsukumo Yuma.

"The Professor ordered me to duel you. Better feel lucky that I would not card you, even though you have done it many times over!"

"You're over talkative Yuri! Try to tolerate the fact that I will beat you soon! But remember, show me your best before that!"

"Huh! I will not lose against you!"

No need to say anymore, they both knew what they had to do. Yuma and Yuri swung their hands, activating their Academia Duel Disks at the same time.

 **DUEL!**

 **Tsukumo Yuma** : 4000 [5]

 **Yuri** : 4000 [5]

* * *

 **So yeah, we got two duels on the way! Rin vs Selena and Yuma vs Yuri! Sorry if the chapter was short and I focused on Selena more than Yuri. I love both of them but I prefer Selena more and being a non-duel chapter, I actually managed to write this long in the limited time and mood I got to have.**

 **The reason I did chapters focusing on Yugo and Yuri like this is, as I put the name of the story, "The Tainted Sidelines", I would give other main characters of the 8 Boys and Girls more focus, unlike the harsh treatment they got in the show (Rin, Yuto, Ruri are obvious and Selena because of lack of sufficient backstory). Besides, I will skip the qualification duels that Yuya did to save time, as there are more character to focus on now.**

 **I hope you guys like this chapter, especially the way I oriented the point of view of Selena and Yuri, and don't forget to review.**

 **No Next Chapter Preview because you already knew what would happen.**

 **This is matrixnis, out!**


	16. Scale 16

**Welcome back guys! I hope you liked the story of Yuri and Selena in my last chapter along with the massive twist of Yuma and that Yuri and Selena had known each other since childhood.**

 **I never liked how the writers of Yu-Gi-Oh ARC-V ignored those two and never developed their backstory, there is so much potential there that I took a chance to do the one that you guys had read in my last chapter.**

 **And now the two duels are on the way, Yuma vs Yuri and Selena vs Rin. I will do these two duels in the way that is similar to Yugo vs Apollo and Kaito vs Diana in Ep 116, with the structure being turn to turn. Let me know what you think, I am ready for comments and advices.**

 **I do not own Yu-Gi-Oh ARC-V by the way. Let's go!**

* * *

 **Chapter 16: The best and the unrecognized**

"Oh! Professor!" Barrett noticed Leo approaching. He bowed, the others followed.

"I came here to personally watch the two duels. I wanna see how well they will fight, especially Yuma and Rin!"

"Rin had won four times Professor!" A student reported. "But Yuma had not shown how he could do yet!"

"Well, we will know today!" He said. They decided to stand outside of the two rooms.

* * *

"I take the first turn!" Yuma declared and slapped a card. "Gagaga Magician summon!" A human monster in dark blue robes with orange shoulder plates, orange left leg armor appeared. It had long bangs, along with a long chain around its right leg.

 **Gagaga Magician** DARK Magician Effect LV4 **1500** /1000

"When I control a "Gagaga" monster, Gagaga Child special summon!" Yuma slapped another card to the blade. A small version of Gagaga Magician appeared. It had red hair, a blue wizard hat, a blue coat cape in a student costume.

 **Gagaga Child** DARK Magician Effect LV2 **800** /1200

"Using its effect, I can change Child's level to 4!"

 **Gagaga Child** LV2 – 4

" _Oh… level manipulation…"_ Yuri thought.

"I, using the level 4 Gagaga Magician and Gagaga Child, overlay!" The two monsters turned into two swirls of light and ran to the Overlay Network opening below. A large pillar of light shot out.

"Xyz Shōkan! Appear now, Rank 4!" A white orb flew down, glowing in white light. The shelter opened, allowing the metal wings to expand. The parts inside it slowly came out, first the arms, then the legs, two yellow shoulders plates came out, positioning themselves upward with the left one having a red number "39" on it. The front part of the orb opened and eventually the mask, revealing a faceless figure with red eyes. Two yellow Overlay Units orbiting around it, acting as power source. It arched its arms and stretched them out in a powerful manner. The signature monster of Tsukumo Yuma had come out.

"Numbers 39! King of Wishes, Hope!"

 **Numbers 39: King of Wishes, Hope** LIGHT Warrior Xyz Effect R4 **2500** /2000

"What the? Numbers? He's a Numbers Duelist?" The onlookers wondered.

"I set down two cards from my hand, turn end!"

"Finally a Numbers Duelist!" Yuri became excited. "Boku no turn, draw!" He showed three cards.

"Magic Card, Fusion, activate!" Unlike other Resistance members, Yuma did not flinch when he saw that card.

Or he wasn't belong in the first place…

"From my hand, Predator Plants - Drosophyllum Hydra and Predator Plants - Squid Drosera Fusion!"

"Appear now, level 7, Predator Plants - Chimerafflesia!" Yuri's trusty carnivorous plant-animal hybrid appeared.

 **Predator Plants - Chimerafflesia** DARK Plant Fusion Effect LV7 **2500** /2000

"Battle! Chimerafflesia, attack King of Wishes, Hope!"

"I activate the effect of Hope! Moon Barrier!" Yuma suddenly said. The warrior absorbed an Overlay Unit and swung its left arm, turning it into a shield, blocking the advance of Yuri's monster.

"What the?"

"Such a powerful effect!"

"It's good to have him on our side!"

"Well, that monster has an attack negation ability, a powerful effect! But it would not last long against my deck!" Yuri commented confidently before setting down two cards. "Turn end!"

"Ore no turn…" Yuma touched the desk. "Draw!"

* * *

"Who's gonna take the first turn?" Rin eyed at Selena, who did not reply.

"Well I will. Magic Card, Gust Gift activate!" Rin slid the card. "I send a WIND monster from my hand to the grave…" She showed the monster to Selena before sending it. "…and draw two cards!" Rin looked at them and immediately summoned a monster. "I summon Wind Witch - Freeze Bell!" A small bell encased in ice appeared after bursting out ice needles.

 **Wind Witch - Freeze Bell** WIND Magician Effect LV3 **1000** /1000

"And I can special summon Glass Bell due to having one Wind Witch on the field!" Rin called out a cute wizard in white costume riding an ice broomstick.

 **Wind Witch - Glass Bell** WIND Magician Tuner Effect LV4 **1500** /1500

"After showing up, Glass Bell allows me to add Snow Bell to my hand!" She showed the card before summoning it. A bell with angel wings on its top appeared, ringing.

 **Wind Witch - Snow Bell** WIND Magician Tuner Effect LV1 **100** /100

Selena looked at Rin's field on her Duel Disk. _"Two Tuner monsters…Two Synchro ones will show up?"_

"Freeze Bell, deal Selena some damage!" Rin declared. The monster fired ice needles at Selena, who quickly rolled sideways to avoid them.

 **Selena** : 4000 - 3500 [5]

"Up to twice per turn, Freeze Bell can increase the level of a "Wind Witch" monster by 1!"

 **Wind Witch - Freeze Bell** LV3 - 4

 **Wind Witch - Snow Bell** LV1 - 2

"I, using the level 2 Snow Bell and the level 4 Freeze Bell, tuning!" Snow Bell turned into two Synchro rings, sweeping Freeze Bell.

"Synchro Shōkan! Appear now, level 6, Wind Witch - Thermal Bell!"

 **Wind Witch - Thermal Bell** WIND Magician Synchro Effect LV6 **2200** /1800

"Thermal Bell, do it!" The monster created wind and blasted at Selena.

 **Selena** : 3500 - 2900 [5]

"What happened?" Selena wondered.

"Thermal Bell can target a "Wind Witch" monster I control and inflict damage to you equal to 100 times its level, in this case, itself!"

"Thermal is level 6 so… 600 damage!" Selena noted.

"Yes! And now Cold Bell normal summon!" A monster similar to Glass Bell but with a white hat and light blue bodysuit appeared.

 **Wind Witch - Cold Bell** WIND Magician Effect LV1 **100** /500

"It will inflict another 500 damage!"

 **Selena** : 2900 - 2400 [5]

" _She has already inflicted nearly 2000 damage before I got a chance to do anything… such a strong duelist…"_ Selena thought.

"I, using the level 4 Glass Bell and the level 1 Cold Bell, tuning!"

"Synchro Shōkan! Appear now! Level 5! Zero Bell!"

 **Wind Witch - Zero Bell** WIND Magician Synchro Effect LV5 **2200** /1900

"I set down a card and end my turn!" A card materialized in face-down position.

"Such a complex move, but I will break it easily! Watashi no turn, draw!" Selena drew her card. "Magic Card, Fusion activate!" Rin hardened her face in preparation.

"The materials I will use are Moonlight Crimson Fox and Moonlight Purple Butterfly!" The two monsters materialized, turned into energy and joined together in the Fusion spiral.

"Blue cat that prowls through the darkness! Butterfly with violet poison! Spiral into the moon's gravity and become a new power!"

Selena did the Fusion pose. "Yugō Shōkan! Come to me! Beautiful beast that dances in the moonlight!" Selena's monster had come out dancing. It wore a teal dress, high black socks with yellow rings around its legs and arms. It had long light red hair, a purple headwear in half moon shape. It also carried two white daggers on its hands. It danced a little bit as a fancy entrance.

"Moonlight Cat Dancer!"

 **Moonlight Cat Dancer** DARK Beast Warrior Fusion Effect LV7 **2400** /2000

" _A level 7 monster… just like my Winter Bell…"_ Rin thought.

"After being sent to the graveyard, Crimson Fox will take away the power of Thermal Bell!"

"What? No! Thunder Bell!" She exclaimed as the monster lost its attack points.

 **Wind Witch - Thermal Bell** ATK 2200 - 0

"And now I banish Purple Butterfly to call out Blue Cat from my hand!" Selena summoned a female humanoid monster in blue skin suit. It worn a brown eye patch with the middle part being red and shaped in an eye.

 **Moonlight Blue Cat** DARK Beast Warrior Effect LV4 **1600** /1200

"It will double the attack power of Cat Dancer!"

 **Moonlight Cat Dancer** ATK 2400 - 4800

" _A battle-oriented deck? So straightforward…"_ Rin thought about Selena's deck. It was a pretty simple strategy actually.

"By releasing Cat Dancer!" The monster disappeared. "Cat Dancer can attack twice per turn on all of your monsters!"

"What?" Rin was surprised. "But how can you attack the destroyed monster a second time?"

"Because the first battle will not destroy them!"

"No! Which means more damage!"

"Right!" Selena confirmed. "Battle! Cat Dancer, attack the weakened Thermal Bell!"

Rin quickly acted. "From my hand, I special summon Wind Witch - Flake Bell to force your Battle Phase to end!" Rin slapped a card. A white bell sitting in the middle of a beautiful snowflake appeared, hitting the attack.

 **Wind Witch - Flake Bell** WIND Magician Tuner Effect LV2 **0** /0

 **Moonlight Cat Dancer** ATK 4800 - 2400

" _So lucky… If I did not have that card in my hand, I would lose…"_ Luck was on Rin's side today.

"Shit… I set down two cards and end my turn!"

Rin touched the desk tiredly due to previous duels before declaring. "Watashi no turn… draw!"

* * *

"Equip Magic, Axe of Fools! Your Chimerafflesia gains 1000 ATK!"

"What? What are you doing?" Yuri wondered.

 **Predator Plants - Chimerafflesia** ATK 2500 - 3500

"But its effects are negated!" Yuma explained.

"Huh… but now you cannot destroy it with your Hope!"

"Battle!" Yuma declared attack, ignoring Yuri's taunt. "I order Hope to attack Chimerafflesia!" And now I will negate the attack! Moon Barier!" Hope detached its last Overlay Unit, stopping its own advance.

"What the hell is that guy doing?" A student wondered.

Yuri noticed Yuma looking down at one of his set cards. "Is that…"

"Right! Quick-Play Magic, Double-Up Chance activate!" The card with an image of a slot machine turned to purple energy, flying to Hope, powering it up.

 **Numbers 39: King of Wishes, Hope** ATK 2500 - 5000

"What? It doubles the ATK?" Sander's jaw opened so wide at the ability of that card.

"Thanks to negating its own attack, Hope got a chance to beat you a second time!" Yuma told Yuri who did not show any emotion. "Battle again! Hope! Hope Sword Slash!" The bright warrior slashed the plant twice using its sword, destroying it. Yuri simply stood sideways to avoid the ensuring smoke.

 **Yuri** : 4000 - 2500 [1]

"Turn end!"

Yuri suddenly smiled. "Thanks for sending it to the graveyard Yuma! That is where it will show its true power! The power of me!" Yuma readied himself.

"Boku no turn, draw! During my Standby Phase, Chimerafflesia will let me add a "Fusion' card to my hand!"

"What!?" Yuma exclaimed as Yuri took out Fusion Recovery and activated it. "I add "Fusion" and Squid Drosera back to my hand." He slapped Drosera to the blade. "Come out, Squid Drosera!" A dark monster resembling a cross between the Drosera chrysolepis and a squid appeared. The petals were hungry for the flesh of the white warrior, or more correctly, the shining armor.

 **Predator Plants - Squid Drosera** DARK Plant Effect LV2 **800** /1400

" _A level 2 monster in attack position… what is he planning?"_

"Trap Card, Predator Planet!" The card rose up. Yuma read the lore. _"Predator Counter… can't be…"_

"And now I activate Fusion! I will use Spino Dionaea in my hand and Squid Drosera on the field!" The Fusion vortex appeared, the two monsters joining in.

"Two beautiful flower with an insect-alluring fragrance. Now become one, and from a hell under your petals, give birth to another terror! Yugō Shōkan! Appear now, poisonous dragon with hungering fangs! Level 8! Starve Venom Fusion Dragon!" Yuri's signature monster, the most terrifying weapon in his arsenal appeared. The sight of his dragon alone brought Yuma slightly over the edge. It was so full of anger, desire for domination and pure destruction.

 **Starve Venom Fusion Dragon** DARK Dragon Fusion Effect LV8 **2800** /2000

"It's here! Yuri's ace monster!" A Ra Yellow commented.

"The duel will end soon…" An Osiris Red said.

"Nah… I don't think so…" An Obelisk Blue disagreed. "The traitor there is very strong… in just one turn, he destroyed Chimerafflesia and dealt 1500 damage to Yuri!"

"If you had read the lore of Planet and Drosera, you know what I will do right?" Yuma hardened his eyes as a green Predator Counter flew towards Hope after materializing, biting the warrior.

"Since your Xyz monster does not have level, the level-changing effect of Predator Counter doesn't work, but don't think it's useless! By releasing your Hope, I can special summon Drosophyllum Hydra from my graveyard!" Hope disintegrated and from Yuri's field, a new monster appeared.

 **Predator Plants - Drosophyllum Hydra** DARK Plant Effect LV5 **800** /2300

"And since a monster with a Predator Counter has left the field, Predator Planet allows me to add a "Predator" card from my deck to my hand!" Yuri took out Predator Plants - Heliamphora Caroliensis.

"Your field is wide open now Yuma! Battle! Starve Venom Fusion Dragon, direct attack! Starving Carnivorous Blast!" The dragon fired a blue blast at Yuma, who slapped his Duel Disk, activating his set card.

"Quick-Play Magic, Rank-Up-Magic Hope Hell Force activate!"

"What?" Rank-Up-Magic?" The students exclaimed in surprise. Some of them had never been in battle before.

"I special summon Hope from my graveyard, and rank it up by one rank!" Hope rose up from the portal in the sealed form and immediately flew up into the Overlay Network.

"With this monster, Overlay Network reconstructing! Chaos Xyz Change!" The overlay network exploded in dark green energy.

"Appear now, Rank 5! Chaos Number 39!" A sharper and darker seal flew down, shaped like a sword. "Crimson conqueror who unifies chaos, release the eternal seal, and in one flash blow away the darkness!" From the seal's sides, two hands came out, so did two legs from its lower part. The seal eventually opened completely, revealing a new monster resembling Hope but with a darker color scheme and red energy flowing through its shoulders and knees. The number "39" was located on its left shoulder armor plate. Its usual white wings were now black, signifying its more wrathful intention of punishing its opponents.

"Descend, King of Wishes - Hope Ray V!"

 **Chaos Numbers 39: King of Wishes, Hope Ray V** LIGHT Warrior Xyz Effect R5 **2600** /2000

"Fantastic…"

"Xyz Change… and Rank-Up…"

" _Finally an exciting hunt! Even though it is not a hunt anyway…"_ After seeing the Rank 5 monster, Yuri finally got fired up in excitement.

"Hope Hell Force protect Hope Ray V from battle this turn!"

"But you will still take the damage!" The blast hit the dark warrior, who managed to resist. Yuma covered himself from the blast.

 **Yuma** : 4000 - 3800 [1]

Smiling, Yuri activated another card. "Magic Card Allure of Darkness! I draw two cards and banish Heliamphora Caroliensis, which will allow me to draw one more card!" He drew three cards in succession. He looked at one card in particular, deciding to set it down just in case. Yuma was a truly powerful opponent for him even though he was not showing his best yet. "I set down a card and end my turn!"

"What the hell is Yuri doing?" A student wondered. He did not do his usual move with his dragon.

"Probably just joking around…" The Professor said.

" _He's clearly toying with me…"_ Yuma took a deep breath before drawing his card. "Ore no turn… DRAW!"

* * *

"I banish Gust Gift to draw one card! And now Thermal will blast you!" Rin declared as Thermal Bell once again hurt Selena. Rin felt sorry for her. She knew Selena would not want to duel her just as much as she, but there was no choice.

 **Selena** : 2400 - 1800 [0]

" _Selena is at a disadvantage situation now…"_ Barrett commented in his mind while Leo simply looked on, showing no emotion.

Selena countered. "Trap Card, Moonlight Tango! When you inflict effect damage to me, I can special summon Moonlight Pink Panther from my deck!" A female monster in a cute panther suit with a long tail showed up. Selena rarely used defensive tactics due to favoring a straightforward approach.

 **Moonlight Pink Panther** DARK Beast Warrior Effect LV4 **1800** /1000

"It will power all of my "Moonlight" monsters up!"

 **Moonlight Cat Dancer** ATK 2400 - 2900

 **Moonlight Pink Panther** ATK 1800 - 2300

Rin quickly responded. "Once per Chain, Flake Bell will allow me to conduct a Synchro Summon!"

"The hell?" The onlooker, including the high-ranking members and Professor, could not hide their genuine surprise.

"The cards that created this chain are Thermal Bell and Moonlight Tango!" Rin explained. "I, using the level 2 Flake Bell and the level 5 Zero Bell, tuning!"

"Winds of winter, snow and ice! Become my power to blow everything away!" A stream of light erupted behind Rin.

"Synchro Shōkan! Appear now, level 7, Wind Witch - Winter Bell!" Rin's ace monster had shown up, its appearance alone was enough to tell Selena that Rin had become serious.

 **Wind Witch – Winter Bell** WIND Magician Synchro Effect LV7 **2400** /2000

"And now I will activate the effect of Winter Bell! Once per turn, I can target a level 4 or lower "Wind Witch" monster in my graveyard and activate its effects! I chose Freeze Bell!" Winter Bell blasted a small wind at Selena, wounding her further.

 **Selena** : 1800 - 1300 [0]

"Battle!" Rin declared attack. "Thermal Bell, attack Cat Dancer! And I will banish Glass Bell to make Thermal gains 1500 ATK!"

 **Wind Witch - Thermal Bell** ATK 2200 - 3700

"What?" Selena was shocked, but quickly regained composure. "So sorry but Pink Panther reflects the damage from this battle back to you! And it will protect Cat Dancer as well!" She said as the blast was returned to Rin, making her scream in pain. The duels she did before this had drained her strength greatly.

 **Rin** : 4000 - 3200 [2]

 **Wind Witch - Thermal Bell** ATK 3700 - 2200

"Finally that Osiris Red girl inflicted some damage!" A Ra Yellow student mocked. Barrett gave him a death glare, which shut him up effectively.

"Get up! The duel is not finished yet!" Selena told Rin, who slowly got up due to the pain. She felt pity for her. Being a prisoner and forced to duel continuously like this… what else the Professor would do? "You are a duelist, you duel with pride! Show me your pride now Rin!"

"Win… Winter Bell, attack… Pink Panther! Your Pink Panther cannot reflect damage and protect itself this time!" She weakly declared. The monster did its job as usual though.

 **Selena** : 1300 - 1200 [0]

Finally getting back to her feet, Rin set down a card and ended her turn.

Selena drew her card. "Watashi no turn, draw!" Unknown to everyone, the card was lit up dimly and Selena's eyes were glowing slight purple as well before returning to normal again.

"Trap activate! Bewildering Wind!" Rin interrupted. "It will negate your Cat Dancer's effects and make its ATK halved!" Streams of purple smoke engulfed the dancer, making it scream in pain.

"Cat Dancer! Shit!"

 **Moonlight Cat Dancer** ATK 2400 – 1200

"However, when an effect is activated, I can special summon Moonlight Red Sheep from my hand!" Selena summoned a female monster in a red skin suit.

 **Moonlight Red Sheep** DARK Beast Warrior Effect LV1 300/ **0**

"Once per turn, I can conduct a Fusion Summon without a Fusion Magic!"

"What the hell?" Rin widened her eyes. "It's similar to Flake!"

"The fusion materials are Red Sheep and Cat Dancer! Beautiful beast that dances in the moonlight! The seemingly weak but strong red animal! Spiral into the moon's gravity and become a new power! Yugō Shōkan! Come to me! Supple beast that dances through moonlit fields! Moonlight Panther Dancer!" A female warrior with tan skin, dark purple revealing dress, purple and light blue gloves, pink piece of dress and long purple socks appeared.

 **Moonlight Panther Dancer** DARK Beast Warrior Fusion Effect LV8 **2800** /2500

"Panther Dancer, attack Thermal Bell! And it can attack all of your monsters twice with the first attack not destroying them!"

"Again? Shit!"

 **Rin** : 3200 - 2600 - 2000 [1]

"After destroying a monster, Panther Dancer gains 200 ATK till the end of the Battle Phase!"

 **Moonlight Panther Dancer** ATK 2800 - 3000

"Panther Dancer, slash Winter Bell!"

 **Rin** : 2000 - 1400 - 800 [1]

"And now Counter Trap, Moonlight Battle Assist! It will allow me to draw two cards since a "Moonlight" Fusion Monster had attacked four times! Now your ace monster is lost, what would you do?" Selena asked.

"Of course I will revive it! Trap Card, Wind Witch - Reborn! I special summon back Winter Bell along with a Tuner monster, this case Snow Bell!" On cue, the two monsters returned to the field.

"And I gain LP equal to Winter Bell's original ATK!"

 **Rin** : 800 - 3200 [1]

"Damn… I will set down a card and end my turn!" Selena concluded her turn.

"Watashi no turn…" Rin felt her body wanted to give up, but she could not do it right now, she knew she would be punished, or even worse, tortured if she passed out now. "Draw…"

* * *

Yuma pointed his hand at Starve Venom. "By detaching an Overlay Unit..." The warrior absorbed its only Overlay Unit to its palm. "Hope Ray V can destroy your dragon and inflict its 2800 ATK as damage to you!"

"You kidding? Starve Venom will destroy your Hope Ray V after being destroyed, and you take its 2600 ATK as damage!"

"If it would really happen!" Yuma said, earning a bewildered look from Yuri. "Ever since Hope Hell Force was activated, your dragon had lost its effects!"

"What the hell?" Yuri became shocked, but his apparent surprise turned into a slasher smile. "Just… kidding…"

"Nani?"

"Quick-Play Magic, Fusion Cancel!" Starve Venom disappeared, dodging the punch of V at the last second. In its place, Spino Dionaea and Squid Drosera, the two materials used to summon it showed up. "Since the target of Hope Ray V had lost, you cannot activate its effects anymore!"

"Humph… as expected from Academia's strongest fighter, you surely had planned this far…"

"So are you. You actually forced me to use Fusion Cancel, which I haven't used for a long time. Congratulations!" Yuri said back. While still seemingly mocking, he actually respected this traitor of Xyz. He was really strong.

"Thank you. Anyway, let's get back to the duel shall we?" Yuma requested, turning serious, unlike his previous hot-blooded personality. _"With Squid Drosera on the field, I cannot recklessly attack it, lest he will put Predator Counters on my monsters…"_ Yuma then looked at the cards. _"But the cards in my hand will help!"_

"Equip Magic, Gagagarevenge! I special summon Gagaga Magician from the grave and equip this card to it!" The level-changing monster returned to Yuma's side of field. Yuma immediately changed its level to 5.

 **Gagaga Magician** LV4 - 5

"And I normal summon Gagaga Sister!" Yuma summoned a small female monster wielding a gold wand in Gothic-like white and black dress, yellow hair with a wizard hat above it.

 **Gagaga Sister** DARK Magician Effect LV2 **200** /800

"When this card is summoned, I can add a "Gagaga" magic or trap card!" Yuma added Gagagadraw and pointed at Sister. Thanks to Gagaga Sister, it and Magician will all have level 7!"

 **Gagaga Sister** LV2 - 7

 **Gagaga Magician** LV5 - 7

"Now he has…" Barrett noted.

"Two level 7 monsters…" Sanders said.

"What will be summoned?" Yuri said to himself.

"I, using the level 7 Gagaga Magician and Gagaga Sister, overlay!" The two monsters flew to the Overlay Network opening above them, a large pillar of light shot down, blinding everyone on the stage.

"Xyz Shōkan! Appear now, Rank 7! Numbers 11: Big Eye!" Yuma summoned an upside-down silvery conical monster with a literally big eye in a hole on its upper part and a yellow ring having the number "11" around the monster.

 **Numbers 11: Big Eye** DARK Magician Xyz Effect R7 **2600** /2000

Yuri admired the Xyz monster for a bit, all without changing his predator-like expression. _"Numbers 11… what will it do…"_

"I activate its effects! Once per turn, I can detach an Overlay Unit to take control of an opponent's monster!" An Overlay Unit went into the eye, releasing a shockwave, making Dionaea disappear and reappear on Yuma's field.

"Taking control? Quite salvage!" Yuri commented.

Ignoring his words, Yuma continued. "And by banishing Hope Hell Force, I can Rank-Up again!"

"What? Another Rank-Up?" A student exclaimed. Hope Ray V returned to its seal form, rising up to the Overlay Network. A big explosion occurred shortly after.

"Rank-Up Xyz Change! Appear now! Numbers 39!" Coming out of the Overlay Network, Hope Ray V now had a similar appearance to Hope, but the wings on its back got replaced with a larger one, the parts of the wings got more spread out. It now had shoulder armor plates with the number "39" on the left one, along with two bigger armors on its hands.

"Rank 6! King of Wishes, Beyond the Hope!"

 **Numbers 39: King of Wishes, Beyond the Hope** LIGHT Warrior Xyz Effect R6 **3000** /2500

"After appearing, Beyond the Hope will make all of your monster's ATK become 0!"

Yuri was shocked for sure. "What the hell!?"

 **Predator Plants – Drosophyllum Hydra** ATK 800 - 0

 **Predator Plants - Squid Drosera** ATK 800 - 0

"They all lost ATK!"

"If Yuma attacks either one of them now, he will win!"

"Surely is! Battle! Beyond the Hope, attack Squid Drosera!" The monster created three yellow bars on each hand, joining them to form an energy blade, ready to slash Yuri's Drosera. "Hope Sword Beyond the Slash!"

"Continuous Trap, Dark Seed Planter! All of your monsters on the field now will become DARK attribute! And when you attack my DARK monster with a DARK monster, I can negate it!" Purple seeds flying out of the trap, blocking the sword of Beyond the Hope.

"If so, I activate Gagagadraw! I can banish three "Gagaga" monsters in my graveyard to draw 2 cards!" After drawing them, he immediately took one and slid it to the Duel Disk. "Magic Card, Xyz Treasure! Since I have 2 Xyz monsters on the field, I can draw 2 cards!"

"Magic Card, Cosmic Cyclone activate! Your Dark Seed Planter is banished!" The card did its job, getting rid of Dark Seed Planter.

 **Yuma** : 3800 - 2800 [3]

"Now you cannot negate my attacks anymore Yuri!" Yuri gritted his teeth in slight anger while Yuma changed Spino Dionaea to Defense Position, set down two cards and finished his turn. _"Dammit… I cannot get rid of Drosera…"_

"It's starting to get annoying…" Yuri whispered, feeling angry for having his pride tainted because of Yuma. "Boku no turn, draw! Chimerafflesia's effect! I add Fusion Substitute to my hand!"

Yuma interrupted "I activate Beyond the Hope's effect! By detaching an Overlay Unit, I banish this card and special summon Hope from my graveyard!" Beyond the Hope vanished, Hope appeared in its place. "And I gain 1250 LP!"

 **Yuma** : 2800 - 4050 [1]

"Fusion Substitute works similar to Fusion!" Yuri said before activating it, using Drosophyllum Hydra and Drosera as materials.

"Appear again! Starve Venom!" The dragon returned to the field, roaring.

"And now Squid Drosera will infect your monsters!" Two Predator Counters bit Big Eye and Hope.

"By banishing Substitute, I can return Chimerafflesia to the Extra Deck and draw a card! And I normal summon Predator Plants - Sundew Kingii!" Yuri called out another hybrid monster.

 **Predator Plants - Sundew Kingii** DARK Plant Effect LV2 **600** /200

"That monster…" A student noted.

"Drosophyllum Hydra, replace Hope!" Yuri did one of his deadly moves.

"And Predator Planet will allow me to add a "Predator" card!" Yuri brought his hand size to four again.

Yuri then taunt Yuma. "Just to let you know, Sundew Kingii can conduct a Fusion Summon without a Fusion Magic using it and my cards as materials, but I can use your monsters with Predator Counters if I like!"

"Dammit…"

"But I don't plan to do it yet! I will use Kingii and Starve Venom Fusion Dragon!" The two monsters turned into two orbs of energy, flying to the Fusion spiral.

"Poisonous dragon with hungry fangs! Sweet smelling flower that invites the abyss! Become one at this moment, and indulges everything as you desire to! Yugō Shōkan! Come forth! Level 10! Greedy Venom Fusion Dragon!" This new dragon was similar to Starve Venom, but its body was whiter and more streamlined. It had multiple yellow orbs on its body, its two petal-like wings opened, waiting to creep everything on Yuri's command.

 **Greedy Venom Fusion Dragon** DARK Dragon Fusion Effect LV10 **3300** /2500

"Greedy Venom Fusion Dragon will negate the effect of Big Eye and change its ATK to 0!" The dragon fired its wings towards the silver monster, biting it, draining its strength away.

 **Numbers 11: Big Eye** ATK 2600 - 0

"Dammit!" Yuma exclaimed.

"Humph… Only Greedy and Hydra alone are pretty sad, don't you think?" Yuri mocked. "That's why I will use Resurrection of the Dead to bring back Starve Venom!" Yuri's ace came back. The two dragons roared loudly at Big Eyes, sending shivers to Yuma, who tensed.

"Finally got scared? I like it a lot!" The sheer joy in his voice showed Yuma how much Yuri liked this and how insane he truly was. He had heard of him from the Professor, his predator personality nearly crept him out just form hearing it. And now he had faced it, he wondered how hellish Academia was. But he had no choice, he could not leave this place.

For the sake of his mother…

"Battle!" Yuri took him out of his thoughts. "Starve Venom Fusion Dragon, attack Big Eye!" The dragon gather purple energy on its mouth before blasting it to the monster. A huge explosion occurred. Yuri and the others looked on.

"Now Greedy will finish you off Yuma…"

They were sure that Yuma would lost when suddenly, they heard a footstep sound. From the smoke, Yuma looked on, pained but still standing. And to make things worse, Big Eye was still there.

 **Yuma** : 4050 - 2650 [1]

"H… how?"

"Trap Card, Half Unbreak!" Yuma explained. "Big Eye is not destroyed and battle damage involving it is halved this turn!"

"Tsk! But I can still inflict battle damage! Go! Greedy Venom! Drosophyllum!" The two monsters attack the eye, dealing huge damage to Yuma, who was flown backwards in pain.

 **Yuma** : 2650 - 600 [1]

Yuri looked at his trap card. _"It was a waste to set this... but it may save me from his next turn..."_

Yuma slowly got up and looked at Yuri fiercely "That was very close Yuri… but now I will win on my next turn! Ore no turn, draw!"

* * *

"Magic Card, Upstart Goblin! I can draw a card and you gain 1000 LP!"

 **Selena** : 1200 - 2200 [2]

"And now Winter Bell's effect!" The monster blasted Selena, who had shielded herself.

 **Selena** : 2200 - 1700 [2]

" _These annoying damages…"_ Selena thought.

"I, using the level 7 Winter Bell and the level 1 Snow Bell, tuning!" Snow Bell rang before turning into a Synchro ring and together with Winter Bell, creating a Synchro Summon.

"Synchro Shōkan! Appear now, level 8! Wind Witch - Blizzard Bell!" From the Synchro light, a monster similar to Winter Bell came out but with some changes. The mask was no longer there, revealing a face of a beautiful woman with porcelain skin and blue eyes. The bell was now worn in front of it instead of being a literal stomach like Winter Bell and it was also bigger and completely white with a picture of Mother Maria usually found in citadels, the sharp ice part under the bell was changed to legs as well. In short, the Winter Bell had come out of its shell to reveal a beautiful and strong woman underneath.

 **Wind Witch - Blizzard Bell** WIND Magician Synchro Effect LV8 **2800** /2400

Selena, Barrett and other students were completely speechless by the radiance of the monster Rin had just summoned.

"When Blizzard Bell is Synchro Summoned, it negates the effects of all of your monsters on the field!"

"What?"

"Blizzard Freezing!" The monster rang its bell, sending a very large shockwave at Selena's field, crippling her monsters.

"And this card gains 200 ATK for each "Wind Witch" monsters in my graveyard! I have 6!"

 **Wind Witch - Blizzard Bell** ATK 2800 - 4000

"I activate the other effect of Blizzard Bell! Once per turn, it can banish a monster you control and inflict damage equal to its original ATK! Hell Encasing!" The monster pointed at Panther Dancer, who was slowly encased in ice.

"The hell?"

"If this happens, Selena will lose!" Barrett noted.

"As if I would let it happen! Trap Card, Moonlight Death Dance!" The trap showed up. "The effect activation of Blizzard Bell is negated and you take 1000 damage!" Panther Dancer broke free of the ice and they flew back to Rin, who barely avoided it. Due to the pain, she had a hard time getting up.

 **Rin** : 3200 - 2200 [2]

"And your Blizzard Bell is destroyed as well!" Selena revealed as Panther Dancer threw its blades towards the female ice monster.

"Argh... But it will not be destroyed..." A barrier formed around Blizzard Bell, blocking the throwing blades. "Since it used Snow Bell as a Synchro Material!"

"Tsk..."

"And now, Blizzard Bell, attack Panther Dancer!" Rin said.

"Not gonna happen Rin! I can banish Pink Panther to negate the attack!" The pink monster materialized, kicking Rin's evolved monster away, protecting its comrade.

"Well... During the turn when I activated the effect of Blizzard Bell, other monsters I control cannot attack, so I will first change Thermal Bell to defense, and then I will set down a card and end my turn..."

"Watashi no turn!" Selena drew her card. "Draw!"

 _"Damn... my hand is pretty bad... gotta buy some time..._ Magic Card, Moonlight Perfume! I special summon Blue Cat back to the field!" Blue Cat returned to the field in defense postition, meowing. "And it will power Panther Dancer up!" The tan skin monster glowed a yellow aura.

 **Moonlight Panther Dancer** ATK 2800 - 5600

"The ATK... is 5600...?" Rin exclaimed.

"Even though its effects are negated it can still battle! Now, Panther Dancer! Send Thermal Bell to oblivion!" Panther Dancer charged at Blizzard Bell, ready to slash it using its blades.

"Trap activate! Wind Witch - Wind Barrier! By banishing Zero Bell from my graveyard, Blizzard Bell will not be sent to the graveyard!"

 **Wind Witch - Blizzard Bell** ATK 4000 - 3800

 **Rin** : 2200 - 400 [2]

"Dammit!" Selena cursed. The cards in her hand did not help her one bit. "I end my turn..."

"Selena, we all know we do not want to duel like this, but as you said, there is no choice! I have to fight to survive, just like what you said!"

"Watashi no turn! DRAW!"

* * *

 **(Recommendation: Play OST Summon! Tachyon Dragon during this part)**

"Numbers 11, take control of Greedy Venom Fusion Dragon!" The Overlay Unit enveloped the purple and light blue dragon, turning it to Yuma's field. _"Dammit… I don't want to do this… but…!"_

"It's sad that you could not destroy Big Eye during your last turn, since I could not have activated this card!" Yuma showed a card. "Rank-Up-Magic - Astral Force activate!"

"With this card, I can target Big Eye and special summon from the Extra Deck one Xyz monster with 1 or 2 Ranks higher!" The monster flew to the Overlay Unit. "With this monster, Overlay Network reconstructing! Rank-Up Xyz Change!" A large explosion occurred.

"Roar throughout the entire universe. Revive from the source of all galaxies that flows from far back in time! Manifest yourself, and lead me to victory!"

"Numbers 107!" A black upside-down pyramid with blue and red panels on opposite triangle sides descended down. A mechanical tail went out of one of the panels, then more bars came out, joining together to form two wings. From another two panels, two machine-like legs came out, assembling themselves. Finally the seal opened, revealing a head of the dragon creature with the number "107" on its right head side. Its eyes glowed purple and it roared, sending fear to everyone present, including Yuri, who found it to be more fun instead.

"Galaxy-Eyes Tachyon Dragon!"

 **Numbers 107: Galaxy-Eyes Tachyon Dragon** LIGHT Dragon Xyz Effect R8 **3000** /2500

"Such a powerful monster… but… Trap Card open! Dragon Creeping Plant! I take control of Tachyon Dragon!"

Yuma quickly countered. "Quick-Play Magic, Tachyon Drive! Your backrow does not work on Tachyon this turn!"

"Battle! Galaxy-Eyes Tachyon Dragon, attack Predator Plants - Drosophyllum Hydra!" The dragon charged energy.

Yuma quickly activated his set card "Reverse Card open! Poison of the Old Man! I gain 1200 LP!" Yuma glowed a blue aura as Tachyon Dragon destroyed Yuri's monster.

 **Yuma** : 600 - 1800 [0]

 **Yuri** : 2500 - 300 [3]

Emerging from the ensuring smoke, Yuri taunted Yuma. "Humph! But your attack is now over!"

"Not done yet!" Yuma said, cutting Yuri off while pointing towards the black dragon. "By detaching an Overlay Unit…" Tachyon Dragon absorbed an Overlay Unit to its front body. "It can negate the effects of all other face-up monsters on the field and change their ATK and DEF to their original values! Tachyon Transmigration!" The dragon reassembled itself to the closed from in a seal, releasing light in a full spectrum. The powerful light derived Starve Venom Fusion Dragon of its special abilities.

"And then, for each card effects resolved during this Battle Phase, Galaxy-Eyes Tachyon Dragon gains 1000 ATK!" The Quick-Play Magic Card turned into energy, flying to the seal, making it open again, the black dragon showed up, roaring.

"Transcend through time and space and be reborn! Galaxy-Eyes Tachyon Dragon!"

 **Numbers 107: Galaxy-Eyes Tachyon Dragon** ATK 3000 - 4000

"Now it has…" Sander said.

"4000 ATK!" Leo finished.

"And when this effect is used during my turn, I can attack one more time!"

"What the hell?" Yuri could not hide his shock anymore. He was too reckless in this duel.

"This is the end Yuri! Galaxy-Eyes Tachyon Dragon, attack Starve Venom Fusion Dragon!"

"Semmetsu no Tachyon… Spiral!" The dragon fired a purple energy burst from its mouth towards Yuri's ace monster, whose owner furiously declared. "Trap Card, Predator Creep! By banishing Squid Drosera, battle damage I receive is also inflicted to you!"

"What?" A huge explosion occurred, Yuri and Yuma were both knocked back.

 **Yuma** : 1800 - 0 [0]

 **Yuri** : 300 - 0 [3]

The onlookers were speechless, Yuri was forced to make a draw against Yuma. "He's so powerful..."

"No... Yuri was not his usual self..." Sanders commented, earning questionable looks on his students. "He did not use the ATK gaining effect of Starve Venom Fusion Dragon the entire time. He clearly held himself back all the time."

"What the? If Yuri had activated that effect, Yuma would have lost!"

The Professor then proceeded. "Of course, but as I said, he wanted to test Yuma out, so Yuri did not use his full strength! To be honest though, Yuma did fare pretty well, nearly costing Yuri the duel."

After taking the information, they turned back to Selena's duel.

* * *

"The duel will end now Selena!"

"How can you be so sure when I have more LP than you?"

"I will show! Blizzard, banish Panther Dancer!"

"Not gonna happen! By banishing Crimson Fox from my graveyard, the activation is negated and we both gain 1000 LP!"

 **Rin** : 400 - 1400 [3]

 **Selena** : 1700 - 2700 [1]

"It will only slow down your inevitable loss Selena! From my graveyard, I activate the effect of Wind Witch - Lance Bell!"

"What? Lance Bell?"

"Is that..." Barrett wondered.

"Yes! It was the card sent by the effect of Gust Gift earlier! By banishing it, your Panther Dancer is banished!" Rin took out Lance Bell form the graveyard slot. The monster materialized as a small bell with a sharp ice lance underneath, stabbing Selena's Fusion Monster and making it disintegrate.

"Panther Dancer!" Selena could only watch in shock as her Fusion Monster was encased in ice before disappearing.

 **Wind Witch - Blizzard Bell** ATK 3800 - 3600

"Battle! Blizzard Bell, Selena direct attack!"

"I will not lose! By banishing Red Sheep, battle damage is halved!" Selena said loudly as she took out the card and shielded herself from the attack, screaming in pain.

 **Selena** : 2700 - 900 [1]

After receiving the massive LP loss, she painfully looked at the blue-haired duelist. "See, you cannot win this turn Rin!"

"No! I will WIN!" Rin confirmed by activating her last set card. "Trap Card, Miracle Locus! You can draw a card and Blizzard Bell can attack once more with an additional 1000 ATK to boost!"

"No way!" Selena was surprised. She reluctantly drew a card from her deck.

 **Wind Witch - Blizzard Bell** ATK 3600 - 4600

"Battle! Blizzard Bell!" Rin took all of her might on the attack order. The monster flew up high, gathering energy into a very large sphere.

"Direct attack!" Blizzard Bell released the sphere. It fired itself towards Selena and hit her, who screamed in massive pain and was knocked back. She slammed her back to the wall and hit the ground on her face, losing consciousness.

"Selena!" Barrett became worried.

 **Selena** : 900 - 0 [2]

Despite being very tired and Selena being her enemy, she could not help but worry for her well-being, she knew that that purple-haired girl would not want to duel this duel as much as her. Rin attempted to run to her. "Selena!" But the massive pain from her previous duels finally caught up. She slipped and hit the ground painfully, losing consciousness after that as well. Barrett and other students immediately went to the room and picked the two up. The Professor was also worried and got to the room as well.

"Selena! Selena!" Barrett shook her, attempting to wake her up, but she did not respond. He turned to the Professor. "She got wounded pretty badly, and the girl Rin over there was too tired to continue dueling, Professor! They are unable to continue dueling anymore today!"

Akaba Leo became somewhat saddened at the news. He told Barrett. "All right. Bring them to the patient room for treatment. We will not conduct duels like this to Rin anymore. As for you..." He turned to the students. "You have watched how capable the residents of the Synchro Dimesion can be! Call this your lesson today! I hope that when you are sent to the Synchro Dimesion, you can perform better than Selena! Now you are dismissed!" The students moved out of the room.

He then turned to Yuma and Yuri, who had come out of their dueling room. Unknown to the Professor, Yuri made sure so that he could not see Selena before going out. "You two did well today! Things are done now, you are dismissed!"

"Thank you Professor!" Yuri bowed and left first. The Professor then told to Yuma after Yuri had gone from view. "The healing process is still very slow, but at least it is still working. I'm sure your mother will be fine eventually."

Yuma frowned, but managed to give a sad smile. "Yeah…" He got serious again. "But remember the deal, I got here because of my mother, and I don't know why you agreed but I respected that private information for now. I gotta go to my mom now, do you want me to do anything else?"

"No… Wait, how about your duel with Yuri? And what do you think about him?" Akaba Leo said.

"He's really strong to be honest. He did not use Starve Venom's first effect, yet he still nearly crushed me like nothing. I had to show a lot of my strength, having to bring out Tachyon Dragon, yet I could not win against him. But I find his behavior rather disgusting!"

"What do you mean?"

"He clearly enjoyed inflicting pain to me. He's like a psychopath. And he's even worse than your soldiers!"

"Well it can't be helped. I know that he is really dangerous, but at the same time, he is also the best in here, and I cannot waste any potential in helping me do my plan."

"Taking about plan, what is it? Why is it important that you invaded my hometown?" Yuma raised his voice, slowly losing his temper. While he technically betrayed Heartland City, he did that because of his dying mother. He forced himself not to cry when he carded Mizael, Chris, Yuto's father and when Yuto, Kaito, Shun and others looked at him with hatred. It surely would pain him for the rest of his already poor life.

The Professor gave him a cryptic answer. "You do not need to know. Besides if we talk for too much, it may spread rumors around here."

"Fine then… but they will find out eventually…" Yuma then slowly went back to the room where his dying mother was. The man in purple robes looked at him sadly, thinking about the patient.

" _So sad… I have left you like this… How could I…"_

* * *

"Tick… tok… tick… tok… tick… tok… tick… tok…"

The sound of the clock hanging on the ceiling was starting to annoy Reiji. For some reason, the ticking sound of the clock always put his temper on jeopardy, but as the President of LDS, he could not show it. He tried his best to hide this bad habit, and it mostly worked. Between running this company, dealing with an unknown threat attacking it and finding potential leads to the fight, he could not allow himself to have a rest, even for a few minutes. Thankfully, the groaning sound of a female individual broke the awfully quiet sound of the clock in the room. The girl slowly got up, wondering how she was in the bed in an unfamiliar room. He decided to creepily introduce himself while still standing in the dark.

"Konnichiwa… watashi wa…"

"Akaba Reiji…desu."

And it worked wonders.

* * *

 **Fanfic OC Cards**

 **Wind Witch - Freeze Bell**

WIND Magician Effect LV3 1000/1000

When this card is Summoned or Special Summoned, you can Special Summon 1 "Wind Witch" monster from your hand. Up to twice per turn, you can target 1 WIND monster you control, increase or decrease its level by 1 until the end of this turn. You cannot summon any monsters the turn you activate this effect, expect WIND monsters. Once per turn, you can inflict 500 damage to your opponent.

 **Wind Witch - Thermal Bell**

WIND Magician Synchro Effect LV6 2200/1800

Once per turn, you can target 1 "Wind Witch" monster you control, inflict 100 damage to your opponent for each level it has. When this card attacks, you can banish 1 "Wind Witch" monster from your graveyard; it gains ATK equal to the target's ATK during damage calculation only.

 **Wind Witch - Cold Bell**

WIND Magician Effect LV1 100/500

Once per turn, you can inflict 500 damage to your opponent. Once per turn, you can declare a level from 1 to 4, this card's level become the declared level until the end of the turn. You cannot summon any monsters, expect WIND monsters the turn you activate this effect.

 **Wind Witch - Flake Bell**

WIND Magician Tuner Effect LV2 0/0

When an opponent's monster declares an attack involving a "Wind Witch" monster you control, you can special summon this card from your hand, and if you do, end the Battle Phase. Once per Chain, you can, immediately after this effect resolves, Synchro Summon 1 "Wind Witch" Synchro Monster, using monsters you control, including this card. If this card is Special Summoned by its effect and leaves the field, banish it.

 **Predator Plants – Heliamphora Caroliensis**

DARK Plant Effect LV4 1800/1000

If this card is banished, draw 1 card.

 **Rank-Up-Magic Hope Hell Force (Quick-Play-Magic Card)**

During either player's turn, target 1 "Hope" monster you control or in the graveyard; special summon it (if it was in the graveyard), and if you do, regardless, special summon 1 "Hope" Xyz monster in your Extra Deck with 1 Rank higher than the target, using the target as an Xyz Material (this Special Summon is treated as an Xyz Summon, attached Xyz Materials from the target also become Xyz Material on the Summoned monster). Then, if you do any of these, target 1 monster your opponent controls, it has its effects negated. During your turn, expect the turn the summoned monster was summoned, you can banish this card from your graveyard, apply the first effect.

 **Gust Gift (Magic Card)**

Discard 1 WIND monster from your hand; draw 2 cards. During your turn expect the turn this card was sent to the graveyard, you can banish this card from your graveyard; draw 1 card.

 **Moonlight Tango (Trap Card)**

When your opponent activates a card effect that inflicts damage to you; Special Summon 1 "Moonlight" monster from your Deck.

 **Moonlight Pink Panther**

DARK Beast Warrior Effect LV4 1800/1000

All "Moonlight" monster you control gain 500 ATK. Once per turn, when your opponent declares an attack involving a "Moonlight" monster you control, your opponent take any battle damage you would have taken, also your "Moonlight" monsters cannot be destroyed by that battle.

 **Moonlight Red Sheep**

DARK Beast Warrior Effect LV1 300/0

When your opponent activates a monster effect, you can special summon this card from your hand. Once per turn, you can Fusion Summon 1 DARK Fusion monster in your Extra Deck, using DARK monsters you control as Fusion Materials, including this card. You cannot summon any monsters the turn you activated this effect, expect DARK Fusion monsters.

 **Moonlight Battle Assist (Counter Trap Card)**

Activate when a "Moonlight" Fusion monster attacked four times or more during this turn; draw 2 cards, and if you do, destroy one monster your opponent controls.

 **Wind Witch - Reborn (Trap Card)**

At the end of the Battle Phase when a "Wind Witch" monster(s) was destroyed by battle and sent to the graveyard, special summon it and one "Wind Witch" tuner monster in your graveyard, and if you do, gain LP equal to the original ATK of the destroyed monster.

 **Wind Witch - Blizzard Bell**

WIND Magician Synchro Effect LV8 2800/2400

When this card is Special Summoned, negate the effects of all of your opponent's monsters currently on the field. This card gains 200 ATK for each "Wind Witch" monster in your graveyard. Once per turn, you can target one monster your opponent controls; banish it, and if you do, inflict damage to your opponent equal to its original ATK. Other monsters you control cannot declare an attack this turn.

 **Moonlight Death Dance (Counter Trap Card)**

When an opponent's card effect(s) is activated while you control a "Moonlight" Fusion monster, negate the activation, and if you do, inflict 1000 damage to your opponent, also destroy that card.

 **Predator Creep (Trap Card)**

When you are about to take battle damage from battles involving a "Predator Plants" monster(s) you control, banish 1 "Predator Plants" monster from your graveyard; both players take any battle damage from this attack.

 **Wind Witch - Lance Bell**

WIND Magician Effect LV3 0/0

If you control a "Wind Witch" monster, you can special summon this card (from your hand). You cannot summon any monsters the turn you activated this effect, expect WIND monsters. You can banish this card from your graveyard; then target 1 monster your opponent controls; banish it.

* * *

 **Wooh!**

 **Turned out I finished the chapter rather quickly but I needed to add some conversation to the duel. I guess the result is not that good though, but my concentration got pretty low recently.**

 **So yeah, we got more information about Yuma and Leo as you guys knew during the last part of this chapter. And I think that you guys may have a pretty good guess.**

 **Also one more thing, for card effects, I can use either anime or OCG/TCG or combine them for convenience. I will try not to use the latter two too much. And I have changed a bit about the Bracelet Girls, if you do not know, just read the part of Selena again.**

 **Of course I hope every readers liked this chapter and don't forget to review!**

 **Next Chapter Preview**

 **Separation**

Waking up at LDS, Ruri and Ryoga are interrogated by Reiji for information, leaving Yuto and Shun in distress. Meanwhile, Yuzu begs someone to help her and something happens.

 **This is matrixnis, out!**


	17. Scale 17

**Welcome back everyone!**

 **I hope you guys liked the duels, it was pretty tiring to write a long one while still keeping the anime style. I will try to do it better next time. Now after enough time with the Fusion couple and Yuma, we will go back to the main plot.**

 **Just a warning, this chapter will be pretty depressing, especially at the end. And the second part of this chapter will contain some sci-fi elements, threatening and implied torture. If you are offended by these, please skip that part. I have warned.**

 **To Guest, remember that Yuma betrayed his friends because of his mother, he would never tell Akaba Leo his friendship with Ruri even if he asked him, and I want to expand Leo's potential as a character more, unlike the anime which made him a very boring and hated character (although Leo in my story will still be the same for the most part anyway).**

 **To Gentyman, The Professor does that for a reason which you will have to wait for a long time until I tell you why. Yuma will still have the Emperor's Key but he will not wear these often, and it is not called the Emperor's Key in this story. Astral will obviously not appear (lol).**

 **Let's get started!**

* * *

 **Chapter 17: Separation**

"Argh! Son of a… Damn!" Shun slammed his fists to the ground. Yuto could only look at him in sadness. They have lost another comrade again, this time their friend, Kamishiro Ryoga. "I cannot wait anymore! I will go after him!"

"No Shun!"

"Yuto stop! I have to!"

"And we'll die! And the chance to our freedom will never come! Think Shun! Please!"

"What do you want us to do Yuto? Too many people have gone, and I will not allow it to happen anymore!"

"By doing the same to others? The soldiers back in Heartland is one thing, but here, they are just innocent people! They do not know anything about the war-"

"The hell are you talking Yuto? We have suffered too much! I don't care about innocent people anymore! I just want the people that I know back! I want my friends back! I want my parents back! I want Ruri back!" Shun roared. "Is that what you want right, Yuto?"

Yuto shook his head, sighing heavily. "Right… I want it just as much as you… but please… don't be too reckless… I don't wanna fight anymore… I'm tired Shun… I'm tired… I'm tired of losing people… I'm tired… And I don't wanna lose you Shun! I don't want to lose you because of your recklessness!" Yuto was on the verge of letting out tears. "Losing you, I will be lost forever. You are the only person who keeps me sane now… So please…"

Shun was shocked. He did not know what to say. He was too lost in his sorrow that he forgot that his friend was just as lost as him, and he might be like that for forever because of him. Shun gave out a deep sigh, managing to calm down somewhat.

"All right Yuto… I will not do anything for now… But… what will we do?"

"Right now we head back to the hideout and have some rest. Ryoga would not be foolish enough to be captured by some low-key punks. If he was kidnapped, it means that the kidnapper had planned for some time, wanting to bait us out for something."

"What you mean is that the person who captured him must know something about us right?"

"Right. Remember when their car passed through us. I'm sure that they knew we were heading here, I noticed two of them getting out of the car when we were running. They could have run us over and kill us to destroy any evidence, but no, they kept us alive. And there is one possibility, even though they hid their faces with masks, it could have been Akaba Reiji who kidnapped Ryoga!"

"Which means sooner or later, we will get a ransom or something similar from them, or Akaba Reiji as you think!" Shun said what Yuto meant.

"Yes, and we will find a way in to rescue him. They may be goons, but our war experience will top them."

"Fine… But only for a day Yuto. After that I will go out looking for him whatever you want or not. We both want the same thing anyway, and this is the breaking point for both of us!"

"Good enough… Oh, and about the map, did you manage?" Yuto asked him.

"Good! I managed to get the map of this place. It's called… Miami City." They both checked the map on their Duel Disks. "Eisuke is really helpful!"

"All thanks to him!" Yuto agreed. The map-finding program is pretty slow, but it would avoid them getting trouble with the government there and probably Interpol as well. "Okay, let's get back!"

"For now…" Shun quietly growled. Yuto and Shun then slowly walked back to the used motel room. After getting to there, they each sit down on opposite ends of the room, looking down blankly, not having any sleep due to the trauma they just went through. They did not know what to do or what to say anymore. They were just lost, in an invisibly black vortex of despair.

"Yuto… get some sleep…" Shun managed, not looking at him.

"You should Shun… I can't…"

"You know I can't… either…"

"Damn you… I just want to care about you asshole…"

"You freaking nuts…" Shun cracked a small smile. Yuto could not help but smile as well. At least it helped, even only for a tiny bit.

The night went by with the two Resistance members staying in the same positions. They thought they could not sleep anymore, they were too broken to do anything, or so they thought. Or more specially, Yuto thought, because eventually, Yuto could not fight back the sleepiness any longer and closed his eyes in a deep sleep. Shun looked at his sleeping friend sadly. After losing his parents and seeing Yuma betray everyone, Yuto, Ruri, Ryoga, Kaito were the only person who made him keep going. Now, Ruri was kidnapped, Kaito was no longer here, Ryoga was captured probably by Reiji and Yuto was on the verge of complete despair. He hated this. He hated this a lot. He hated losing people around him, and today, he learned that he nearly lost his best friend because of his actions.

He realized…

He hated himself a lot…

" _Yuto…"_ Shun looked at his friend. _"I'm sorry… I nearly lost you for forever, but now I have to take those feelings away, in favor for the bigger goal, for the noble goal our comrades back there entrusted to us. Freedom. So now I have to do this… I have to hunt him, getting rid of anyone in my way to capture Reiji, bring back Ruri, Ryoga, and bring back the smiles of Heartland. I will do it. You don't have to do this Yuto. I would rather be lost than see you do the same. You are too kind and gentle to have blood in your hand Yuto. Please… understand me…"_ Shun stood up and walked to Yuto. He put the blanket around his sleeping form and went off the hideout on his own, doing the grand mission for his people.

" _The price of freedom is always high… Some people will be lost… probably for eternity… And I am willing to be that person… I am willing to be that only person… It is worth it Yuto. I will do whatever I want to return what we used to know back… I will bring Ruri and Ryoga back… And the precious smiles of the people in Heartland back…"_ Shun walked away in the dark, the wind circling behind him as if it did not want him to do this…

* * *

"Haizzz… how am I going to meet the qualifications…" Yuya growled tiredly as he went back to his house from school with Yuzu. They did not go with the kids today.

"Don't be that depressed Yuya, you only need to duel four people and you are good to go!" Yuzu tried to encourage her friend. She had to see Yuya trying to find opponents in Miami Senior School all the morning and failing due to having won against Strong Ishijima even though it was not an official duel.

"But how am I going to find four more?" Yuya protested. "No one in the school would duel me!"

"How about Gongenzaka?" Yuzu said. This somehow brought Yuya out of his slumbering. "Most of your recent 50 duels this year, it was all thanks to him introducing you to duel the people of the Gongenzaka Dojo."

"I own him a lot… He always helps me every time I need help, I even want to be a Pro because of him as well." Yuya turned to look at Yuzu, who was touched by his words. "That is why I don't want to depend on him anymore. I want to be a person who Gongenzaka can depend on! I will be stronger by my own strength!"

" _By your own strength…"_ Yuzu thought. She realized that she needed to become stronger too. "That's right!" She suddenly ran off.

"Oi! What are you doing?"

"Don't worry about me! I just thought I need to be stronger as well, just like you!"

"Become stronger? Wait, how about school?"

"Tell my dad I will not come!" With that she was out of Yuya's view. _"It's true that I can't be like this any longer! I have to be stronger as well! I have to, to protect You Show Duel School!"_ Yuzu excitedly thought while running. _"Sora would probably help me with this. And I know where to find him!"_

" _Yuzu…"_ Yuya decided it was best to keep things this way. _"She immediately knew how to become stronger, while I…"_ Yuya thought as he slowly walked back to You Show to inform her father.

* * *

"Nakajima! How is their condition?" Reiji spoke in the control room.

"Mr. President, they have not woken up yet!" He informed. "You surely went a little bit over the edge with that card!"

"At that time two men were running to the pier. I could not risk the chance of getting those two, so I had no choice. At least for now they did not know us yet thanks to the masks."

"Well it can't be helped though…"

"I am free for now, my mom will take care the business stuff for some time. I will go to the room."

"Yes Mr. President. The "White Room" is sure as depressing as hell!"

"Whatever…" Reiji then walked out of the room and went to the elevator. Using it he went down to the basement of the LDS building. During the time he took over the position, he found out that his father had made a secret laboratory in the basement floor. The floor was completely white, like it just literally came out from a sci-fi movie or something. Reiji then re-decorated the room with some rooms; he only shared this knowledge to his mother and his personal bodyguard Nakajima. Walking to the hostage room, he found Nakajima standing outside.

"Sorry for making you guard the room like this Nakajima!"

"You're welcome President. You're my boss after all."

"You have always served the Akaba family well, yet I have not returned in kind in any way. I am sorry about that."

"Don't be so sentimental like that. We have erased the memories of the five assholes."

"Why don't you punish those five President?" Nakajima was honestly surprised by Reiji's response to the situation.

"Because the plan is near, I cannot afford to risk any potential members. We set it aside for now. I have handled the Ryozanpaku Duel School as well, telling them that their students went rogue and I've managed to bring them back. By the way, Ruri and Ryoga, how're they doing?"

"They have not woken up yet. If they had, they would have banged the door already."

"That's good. Now I will go in. Stay outside."

"Yes Mr. President!" Nakajima opened the door, allowing his boss to go inside. The room was dark due to having no lights turning on expect a green neon light on a stand next to him. He looked at the two unconscious teenagers.

" _So these two are soldiers of the Xyz Dimension… how did they get here in first place…"_

The girl suddenly stirred, wiping her eyes and slowly turned around. Reiji decided to creepily introduce himself while still standing in the dark.

"Konnichiwa… watashi wa…"

"Akaba Reiji…desu."

And it worked wonders.

* * *

Shivers sent down to Ruri's spine after realizing who the owner of that voice was. She worriedly looked at him.

"Akaba Reiji…" She managed. She frantically looked around and realized she was in a dark room with only a neon light, her Duel Disk was no longer on her arm and her hands were cuffed as well. She saw Ryoga was still sleeping on the bed opposite to her in the same condition as hers. Immediately, she threw herself towards Ryoga and shook him, waking him up. The boy weakly woke up.

"What the hell… Ruri?"

"Uh! And this is not good Ryoga!" She pointed at Reiji, prompting Ryoga to look at him. He was shocked. "Reiji…" Overcoming his initial shock, he bombarded the young President with questions. "What the hell is going on? Why are we here? And why did you do this?"

"Calm down, I will explain…" Reiji calmly said on his chair.

"Calm down? Calm down?" Ryoga lost his control and attempted to punch Reiji when suddenly he was electrocuted. He screamed in pain, dropping down to the ground.

"Ryoga!" She went to him and angrily looked at Reiji. "Akaba Reiji! What the hell are you doing to him?"

"Just a safety precaution girl… I knew he would do it…"

"Dammit… what the hell is that?" Ryoga said in pain, slowly standing up.

"You two wanna know? Fine… Allow me to tell you… Yesterday, you two were captured by five men, three in LDS costumes and two member of the Ryozanpaku Duel School and were taken to the Miami Pier."

"Wait!" Ruri interrupted. "How do you know?"

Reiji adjusted his glasses. "It's simple… I was watching you two the whole time…"

"The hell?" Ryoga roared. "Watching us? If you did, why didn't you save us from those assholes!?"

"I did rescue you two. When the girl Ruri over there was about to lose."

"Then you should have saved us earlier!" Ryoga attempted to punch him again but Ruri managed to hold him back.

"Ryoga! Don't!"

"What?"

"You wanna be electrocuted again?" She pleaded. Ryoga realized and turned to Reiji. "By the way, why am I electrocuted? Why?"

"This…" Reiji pulled out a small device with two separate buttons on it. "...When you two were unconscious, we injected a nano substance to your bodies."

"What?"

"Nano substance?"

"Don't worry, they will not kill you two, but that substance is connected to this button over here, which we can push either one of these two buttons or both to electrocute you two every time we want!" He took out the device. A black square piece of plastic with two buttons, red and blue. Of course, Ruri and Ryoga were completely shocked by this. They were basically servants for Reiji now.

"What… what are you saying?"

"Electrocute us whatever you want?"

"Yes…" Reiji calmly yet creepily said.

"What the… what the hell do you want from us?" Ruri lost her temper, yelling at Reiji. She now could not hold herself anymore, she charged at Reiji and attempted to do the same thing that Ryoga did earlier and of course it failed due to Reiji simply pushing the button, sending Ruri to unbearable pain. Ryoga immediately came to her and help her sit up.

"Damn you Reiji! We are not your toys! Just what the hell do you want from us, say it! You did not have to do this shit!"

"What do I want?" Reiji slowly stood up. "Well… what I want is… tell me everything about the Xyz Dimension and why you two are here, or else…" Reiji threatened them with the button.

"Okay okay! We will, just please… put it down…" Ruri pleaded. Reiji put the button back to his pocket.

"Then follow me…" Reiji opened the door, revealing a white corridor outside with some cameras set on the ceiling. Ruri and Ryoga had no choice but to go outside with him. Nakajima was standing outside the door, after receiving orders from Reiji, he followed behind the two Resistance members to make sure they would not escape by any means. A short while later, they went to another room. A completely white one, like the corridor, along with a white table with three bottles of water on it and three white chairs. They wondered how a gaming company like LDS had these kind of rooms like this. This was like an interrogation room.

"Sit!" Reiji pointed at the two chairs on his left. Ruri and Ryoga nervously sat down, Reiji also sit down and looked fiercely at them before speaking.

"Unlike what you and your people may think… I am not helping my father in any way, I want to stop him no matter how far I have to go." Reijij let that information sink in before proceeding. "Surprise? Now, it's time to talk, shall we?"

Ryoga eyed Ruri, who could only reluctantly nodded.

"Well… it seems there is no other choice…"

Ryoga turned back to Reiji and told him everything that had happened six months ago...

* * *

Yuto slowly woke up from the hard sleep. He noted that it was afternoon and there was a blanket around him. _"Shun…"_ He knew the only person who could do this. He looked around only to find his friend Shun was gone. _"Probably going out looking for Shark…"_

The situation was too dire now. He had no other choice but to let Shun find Ryoga, which means potentially carding anyone standing in his way. He hoped that Shun would keep true to his words though, he hoped that as friends, his words would at least remind him who he targeted for his quest. He knew he had to find him as well, so he went out of the hideout, looking for his friend.

The entire morning was without success, he could not find any potential leads to where Ryoga was. He suddenly thought back to the pier. If Ryoga was captured there, which means that the people who did that may wait for him at that location. It was dangerous, but doing this would at least gave him a shot at finding him.

" _I'm very stupid… right, Mom?"_ He joked to himself and thought carefully again. He speculated that the culprit was Akaba Reiji, therefore the best way to find him would be at the LDS building. Noting to himself, he bit the bread that Ryoga bought to him and Shun for late breakfast, drank some water in his black military bottle and walked off to the LDS headquarters. He chose to hide himself at the small alley between the two adjacent buildings at the east side of LDS. He peeked to his right to see something irregular happening…

* * *

During the conversation, Reiji noted that both Ryoga and Ruri did not want to say this, evidenced by the hardened and pained faces they made. The peaceful Heartland was attacked by Academia, turned into a colossal waste, many people being carded, others in hopelessness, and most of all, the madman who caused this was no one other than his old man himself. While stoicism and coldness was required for a man like him, Akaba Reiji had a hard time keeping them during the conversation. His cupped hands holding his chin were tightened in pure anger, his eyebrows were narrowing, barely concealing the complete disgust and shame. Ruri took notice of this and became somewhat sad, a child ruined by his very own father, a hard feeling even for an asshole like him.

" _Maybe this is why he had become like this…"_ Ruri speculated.

"So this is the whole story…" Reiji briefly looked down, not knowing what to say to this whole mess anymore, before looking at them again. "I know I am not in a position to say this, especially right now… but I am sorry. I am sorry for your hometown Heartland, I am sorry for the situation your comrades are in now, and I am sorry for being the son of the madman who caused this."

"You wanna say sorry after causing us to be like this?" Ryoga said in anger.

"What I said before was the truth, from all of my heart, believe it or not is your choice. But now, let's get back to business. You said that your comrades are in here, hunting the son of Akaba Leo for ransom. Who are they?"

Ryoga wanted to roar at him, but he knew Reiji would simply push that button to remind them, so he relented. "We have three people, Yuto, Shun and myself."

" _Yuto…Brother…"_ Ruri was overwhelmed in happiness. She only wanted to see them again. After losing parents, those two are the only close people Ruri had right now.

"So this is a deal!" Ryoga said. "I will convince them to go to LDS and talk to you, making an alliance, and we will plan what to do next!"

"Yeah!" Ruri chimed in. "The more the merrier, you wanted to stop Akaba Leo right?"

"Of course! But…"

"What?"

"Who said I would do it?" Reiji said, confusing the teenagers.

"What you mean by that?" Ruri wondered. This man's words seemed to suggest something bad.

Reiji leaned back on his chair and said. "I got another plan!"

"The…"

"The plan, is to do nothing!"

"What? Do nothing?"

"Your comrades will come to me eventually, and I will let them be!"

"What the hell you think you're doing Reiji? You don't care about the lives of your staffs hunted by Shun?"

"Listen dammit!" Reiji roared, slamming the table, forcing Ruri and Ryoga to keep silent. "In about a week from now, LDS is holding a Duel Tournament, the Miami Championship. The news has been broadcasted worldwide, and delaying the tournament will make LDS' reputation at risk!"

"But you can simply find another reason!" Ruri said.

"There is another secret behind this tournament…" Reiji revealed, shocking the two teens.

"Secret?"

"Yes, and I will obviously not tell. But this secret is linked to the Miami Championship, in turn linked to this Dimensional War. If the people know about this, they will be shocked and will not join in the tournament, in turn putting my plan at risk! And in turn, your homeland will be in despair for forever! Is that what you want? I just want to end this war just as much as you two and your people!"

As much as they hate to admit it, it was true. If Akaba Reiji had a plan to stop this war and bring piece back to Heartland, then no matter how much they hate him, they have to follow his plan.

"About your friend Shun, his another friend Yuto, according to what you two said, will keep him in check. I'm sure he will only aim at LDS members. And I've arranged the members of LDS to train more."

"So you're gambling?" Ruri realized.

"You can say that. But people like Shun while reckless and full of anger, will not do anything further if they have someone they trust control them, in this case, your friend Yuto. And if he does get too far, which means Yuto has failed, and we will handle him… probably kill him if he cannot be swayed…"

"No! You're not gonna do anything to my brother!" Ruri roared, standing off her chair.

"The hell is wrong with you? You're just like him!" Ryoga said.

"I can… I am the president of LDS after all…" He pulled out his button again as a sign of not joking around. "For now, I will release you two to avoid confusion from Yuya and his people. Do not go to where your comrades are or I will do it the hard way. I will be watching you two…" Reiji stared as them as counter to their death stares. He then turned to his left. "Nakajima, take them out of here!" Reiji ordered his bodyguard, who was standing outside. "By the way, he will return your belongings to you two! Don't worry, I did not steal anything or do anything to them!"

"As if we would believe it!" Ruri and Ryoga stood up and got out of the room with Nakajima following them until they got out of the building. Reiji looked at the white wall in front of him, losing himself in his stream of thoughts.

" _No matter how far I will go, I will do it. I will go to Academia, and I will stop you… Maybe I will have to destroy some of my morals, but I will stop you and your genocidal plan…"_

" _Akaba Leo…"_

In truth, it was the opposite…

* * *

"So… we cannot go to Yuto and my brother…" Ruri sadly noted in the dark alley. They got there after getting out of the west side of the building to avoid suspicion.

"Yeah…"

"Wait! I can stay in Yuzu's house, but you can't because you said to them that you have a family here!"

"Then I will play the orphan game, sleeping outside the street!"

"No! There's no way I would do that!" Ruri protested. "I will find a way!"

"By renting a motel room? Ruri please! We have been in worse situations than this. I can handle this shit easily. Just believe me okay? And try not to think about them too much. You need to be strong now, just like I do! You need to be strong for your friends, for your family, and for your boyfriend too!"

"Ryoga!" She blushed massively and punched Ryoga multiple times. "Do not tell anything to Shun! He will kill us three!"

"Which means I can tell to your parents freely?" He continued to play along. Ruri's face was extremely red now.

"RYOGA!" She kicked him who simply dodged. He laughed at Ruri's reaction too hard that made she laughed as well and just as hard. Honestly, after what they went through, being able to smile freely like this was very heartwarming.

After the smiles faded, Ruri became moody again. "Yeah… It just… Ryoga… we have lied to Yuzu, Yuya and their friends a lot, and I have lied even more… I even got to have new clothes from them as you can see! I don't know what I will say to them if they find out!"

"If that happens, I will support you! Two people are better than one!" Ryoga smiled at her to help her calm down. "By the way, check your stuffs. I cannot trust that asshole! After what he did to us!"

"Yeah!" They both checked their possessions. Luckily, they were there safe and sound, including Ryoga's money and their Duel Disks, but they were sure that Reiji must have tampered with them. However, there was no proof as they had no time.

"The nano substance he injected us must have some more functions than just torturing us!" Ryoga noted.

"Probably, and to be honest, I never expected him to do it…"

"He's the son of that asshole after all…"

"Maybe… but don't tell him that in front of his face okay? For now, let's go back to Yuzu's house!" Ruri suggested. They began to walk to there without realizing that Sora was looking at LDS on the other side of the street, looking for Reiji.

* * *

"As Yuzu said I need to find four more people to win, but how can I?" Yuya thought. Suddenly he realized that he could find them himself and began to search the Internet using his Duel Disk. _"Good! These duelists are pretty popular around here! I just have to find them and use my talking skill to persuade them to duel me!"_ Eventually he found four people.

"Yossa! I can do it! I can do it!" He happily yelled and got back to You Show. When he got back, he saw Shuzo there.

"Oi Yuya! Finally! But… where's Yuzu?"

"Yuzu said she got something to handle. She left without me!

"What! My sweet daughter!?" Shuzo was surprised.

"Yeah… She said she wanted to become stronger…"

"I see…" Shuzo realized what she wanted to do after hearing what Yuya said. Father instinct. "Just pick her up in the afternoon if she did not come back after 5 PM, got it?"

"I got it!" Yuya then helped him with the housework.

It was 5 PM and Yuzu had not come back yet. Even worse, there was no call from her even though Yuya tried to contact her all the afternoon.

"President! It's 5! I have to go looking for her!"

"Okay! Bring her back!"

"I got it!" Yuya then ran off, looking for his best friend.

" _Can't believe that he is the President of Leo Corporation…"_ Sora thought while looking at the entrance. _"Whatever it is… the security is very tight. Even if I said that I want to see the President, it would not work"_

He decided to play. He pouted. "Argh~~ I want to duel him so bad~~"

"I knew you would be here!" A female voice from behind him caught his attention. He turned around to see Yuzu running at him. "You're not at school today because you're aiming for Akaba Reiji right?"

Sora immediately protected. "No! I did not aim at him! It just…"

"It was just like what you did to Yuya two days ago!" Yuzu noted. "When you get sight of someone, you will stalk them until you managed to persuade him!"

Sora blushed, rubbing the back of his head with his left hand. "Aahh… Because he is really interesting! Fusion, Synchro, Xyz, and even Pendulum too!"

"But he is not an easy target!"

"Because he is the President of Leo Corporation right?"

"You seem to know a lot! Whatever… just follow me!" She held his hands and dragged him, smiling.

"Uh-uh! Wait! Where to?"

"Just follow me!"

"Oi! Just tell me!"

"Hurry!" Yuzu denied his protest.

Unknown to both of them, Yuto was looking at that scene the entire time. This girl Yuzu for some reasons, besides sharing the same face of his girlfriend Ruri, sparked some fire within him, a desire to protect. He immediately went after them.

* * *

"It had happened here!" Matsumi noted.

"Must be something secret that they had to put this "Keep out" line here!" Yaiba said.

"Something they don't wanna let us see?" Hokuto said. They were standing outside of the alley where the attack on Professor Marco happened. Matsumi decided to cross the safety line to get inside the alley, ignoring the protests of her two friends. Suddenly, LDS members went out, questioning them why they had been here. They had to explain that they are LDS representatives of the Fusion, Synchro and Xyz courses.

"So, has anyone told you what happened here?" One of them, Tio, asked.

"No… we just got informed that Professor Marco was attacked. The secretariat said that we could not see him yet!" Matsumi said.

"Was he really attacked in a Duel?" Yaiba wondered.

"I heard that the culprit used Xyz… I use Xyz as well so I can't forgive him!" Hokuto said with some selfish pride, although he was worried for Marco as well.

"Sorry that we could not say anything yet. We are investigating!"

"How about Marco-sensei? Is he okay?" Matsumi became worried.

"Can't say it as well… sorry little girl…" She froze at that. Tio held her left shoulder. "You don't have to worry. The higher-ups of LDS will handle this! Just train your skills more! Marco-sensei would be proud if he knew you were doing that while he was not there! Got it? If so then leave this to us and go back to school." Tio then went back to the alley.

"The costume is cool!" Yaiba noted at Tio's uniform.

"Because that was the Super Elite who went through the Pro Test with the record tying the Top Class!" Hokuto said. "Argh~~ I want to get that uniform so bad~~"

Matsumi was instead lost in her thoughts. She only wanted to find who was responsible and bring back her teacher Marco as soon as possible. She went off to a place where that culprit would be.

"Oi! Where are you going?" Hokuto wondered.

"Just go back! I will continue searching!" She waved her hand and ran off.

"Searching…"

"She is such a… whatever… let's go back Hokuto! We will tell them that Matsumi got some stuff to handle!"

"Fine! It can't be helped though, Marco-sensei was her teacher. He helped her a lot to make her in this position today."

"Yeah…" The two boys then walked back to LDS.

* * *

Yuto knew that they would head to the pier since not too many people was there after his attack on Sawatari. He managed to get into the warehouse first and climbed up, hiding behind some containers. He watched as Yuzu pushed Sora inside the warehouse.

"Why did you bring me here?"

Yuzu closed the door and walked to Sora with her hands behind her back. She looked at him seriously, as if she wanted something from him. Then to his shock, she bowed in front of him!

"Please! Teach me Fusion Summon!"

" _What?"_ Yuto did not know what to say at this.

"Eh? In here?" Sora was shocked as well.

"Yeah!"

"Why…"

"Because I want to be stronger! I cannot be like this any longer!" She put her face closer to Sora, forcing him to shield himself with his lollipop.

"Etou… you're still sad because of losing to her?"

"Yeah…" Yuzu confirmed, closing her eyes in distress, her hands clenching tighter. "Akaba Reiji did not count that duel as a loss to me! I want to be stronger to protect You Show Duel School! To win Kotsu Masumi! So…"

" _No…"_ Yuto thought.

"You wanna find a Fusion user like me to teach you Fusion Summon, right?"

"Right! So please, teach me! Please!" There was clear pleading in her voice as she bowed again.

Yuto was truly shocked at this. A girl with the face of Ruri, who would never use Fusion, want a Fusion user, in this case, an Academia soldier, to teach her? He knew that Sora was from Academia from Ryoga despite not wearing the Academia costume. _"Man, he is really smart…"_

"Haizzz~~ What to do…" Sora whispered.

"You can't?" Yuzu thought she failed.

"No, not impossible but… is that good? If it is me, you will definitely become stronger…"

"Then it's not bad! If I become stronger, I will not lose anyone!"

"Yes! But… is it alright…"

" _Never going to be…"_ Yuto thought while looking at them.

Sora gave Yuzu a card with the image of two orange monsters joining in a dark blue and light blue spiral.

Fusion.

"Here! This is the card "Fusion"! You use this magic card to fuse the Fusion Material monsters. That's the basis of Fusion Summon, you got it?"

Yuzu took a card and nodded to Sora. "Yeah! I got it."

Sora thought to himself. _"Damn… I agreed… being too kind is my only weakness right…"_

"The Fusion Materials can either be in the field or the hand right?"

"Yeah! The most important thing is that whether you get enough Fusion Materials or not. Of course there are some expections."

"Uhm! After activating the card Fusion, the Fusion Materials will go to the graveyard, and the Fusion Monster will be called out from the Extra Deck."

" _Dammit! I cannot wait any longer!"_ Yuto decided to interfere.

"Right." Sora suddenly noticed Yuto spying on them. Yuto quickly jumped off and Sora ran after him. They both activated their Duel Disks and clashed with each other using the energy blades, creating sparkles. Yuzu looked on in shock. The two boys eventually got off and jumped to opposite directions of the warehouse with Sora near Yuzu and Yuto on the opposite end.

"Who are you?" Sora questioned him. Yuto did not say anything.

"Not from here right?"

"Just like you asshole…"

"Ahh! You were that person!" Yuzu noted.

"Eh? You knew him?"

"Uh! When I was here with Sawatari… Is this incident was you responsible as well?"

Yuto looked at her, still keeping silent. _"Dammit Shun…"_

"The incident?" Sora wondered.

"A teacher of LDS was attacked!"

"Oh! That's why there is security in LDS!" Sora realized. He pointed at Yuto. "So… were you the suspect?"

"Who are you anyway? Did you duel Sawatari to save me? Did you hold any grudges against LDS?"

"That's…" Yuto attempted but was cut off when someone opened the door of the warehouse.

"Is that you?" They both turned around to see an angry Kotsu Matsumi. "What did you do to Marco-sensei? Answer me!"

"Why… why are you here?" Yuzu asked.

"I thought if I went to where the first incident happened I would find something…" She slowly put her dark blue Duel Disk on her left arm. "If you are still here then things will be much easier to handle!"

"Wait! I have not asked him all yet!"

"The one to get to do it is me!" Matsumi raised her voice.

"What are you talking about? We have not known whether he was responsible this time!"

"Just see if he uses Xyz or not then it will be clear!"

"Xyz…" Sora became interested for some reason. "Eh~~ So that how it is~~"

Yuto stared at them, especially Sora. _"Finally I got you… Academia…"_

"I will find out on my own!" Matsumi activated her Duel Disk. "Come duel me!"

Yuzu stepped in her way. "Wait up! Calm down!" Suddenly, her bracelet shone up brightly, blinding all the people in the warehouse. After that, they were shocked to find Yuto was no longer there.

"Oh… Disappear…" Matsumi managed.

"Just like last time…"

"Oi~~ Yuzu! Are you there? Answer me!"

"Yuya!"

"Ah! Yuzu! Thanks God! Shuzo-san asked me to find you! What the hell are you doing here? You did not even answer the phone!"

"Sakaki Yuya? You are really his partner?" Matsumi accused. His face was exactly the same as Yuto.

"Huh? You're… oh, Sora too…"

Matsumi yanked his shirt, demanding an answer from him. "Where the hell did that guy go?"

"That guy?"

"Don't lie to me! Call him out now!"

"I don't know who "that guy" is!"

"Wait!" Yuzu pushed Yuya and Matsumi out. "You really did not know?"

"Yuzu? What do you mean?"

Yuzu looked at her bracelet. "Just like last time… when Yuya comes, he is gone."

"Huh? Who?"

"Whatever!" Matsumi said. "Bring him out!"

"Oh! Over there! I saw him running over there! Quick! He will escpae!" Sora pointed on his left, prompting Matsumi to go after.

"Was somebody there?" Yuya asked.

"Course not! Just wanna get you out of trouble!" Sora innocently answered. "If she wondered around here longer, it would ruin the practicing!"

"What practicing?" Yuya turned to his friend. "Here? With Yuzu?"

"Uh! Yuzu told me she must… ah!" Sora reazlied. 'You wanna keep this learning how to Fusion Summon a secret to him?" The sad look on her face confirmed it all.

"Yuzu learning Fusion? Is that for the Miami Championship?" He turned to the girl. "Yeah Yuzu! I have found out the other four opponents! I found out on my own!"

"Oh! It's good!"

"Yeah! Just win those four is good! I will participate in the championship!"

"Eh eh! What championship are you talking about?" Sora wondered. "Can I join in?"

"Eh? Uh… can you… Since you came here, you did not finish 50 duels right? Gotta win at least 30 out of 50!"

"Gotta do that? No~~ I want to participate with Yuya~~" Sora pouted.

"Or just managing to make six consecutive wins is enough!" Yuya corrected.

"Really? Good! It is easy!"

"I will handle it Sora!" Yuzu said, earning Yuzu a happy face from Sora.

Yuya looked at Yuzu in happiness. _"So she had planned how to become stronger! I must become stronger as well!"_

"Okay! Let's head back! It's nearly night!" Sora reminded them.

"Yeah!" Yuya said and took Yuzu's hand with him, earning a small blush from her. During the way though, Yuzu could not take her mind of Yuto, looking frowned at her bracelet.

" _What's the hell is wrong with me…"_

* * *

Yuya and Sora got back to Yuya's house with Yoko making them dinner. They happily ate them as Yoko looked at the boys proudly. She then looked at the picture of her family and thought about her husband.

" _See! Your son is very strong! He is fine even though you're not here with him! But where are you Yusho-san… I don't know if I could fight this anymore… I need you darling… Please… come back from your stupid reason of abandoning us and bring true smiles to Yuya…"_

Unlike the happiness feeling in the Sakaki residence, the Hiragi residence was filled with intense feeling as the people there ate dinner with no one talking to each other. Ryoga said that he had gone back to his house and would come back to You Show tomorrow. Right now, Shuzo had to deal with the unusual silence from the two girls. Yuzu was due to thinking about Yuto, Ruri was due to having her freedom stolen away by Reiji, having to separate from Ryoga and even worse, knowing that Yuto and her brother was there yet not being able to reunite with them, lest they put their own lives at risk thanks to Reiji's injection of a nano substance to their bodies. Everything about Ruri now was a complete mess. Lying, missing, separating from her close people. She did not know what to do anymore. After dinner, they got back to their own rooms quietly, but not without Ruri asking Yuzu what was happening with her.

"Tell me Yuzu, what is wrong with you?"

Yuzu worriedly look at her, then the bracelet. "I don't know what to say Ruri… so much things happened… too fast… may we talk tomorrow?"

"Of course… just please, don't hide from me and your father, we are here to help! I am your friend after all, and friends help each other!" Ruri said, feeling disgust at herself for doing the exact same thing all the time since she had known them.

"Okay… Good night Ruri…"

"Good night Yuzu." With that the two girls got back to their own rooms. Yuzu slammed her body to the bed, not bothering to put the blanket over her body.

" _She's clearly hiding something from me! Yet I am doing the same thing to her… can I talk to her tomorrow like normal?"_ Yuzu sadly thought, only managing to sleep after a while.

Meanwhile, Ruri was taking a bath and quietly crying. Too much things happened to her, her parents, Yuma, Ryoga, Shun, Yuto… and now another mess came as well. She was truly alone now. She missed them, she missed them a lot. She missed her parents, she missed her friends, she missed her brother, she missed Yuto and his warm body and her close moments with him too.

" _Everyone… I'm sorry…"_

* * *

Outside the street, Ryoga was lying down at the corner of a closed shop, trying to sleep in the coldness of the weather like a true homeless person. At the very least, this is much better than the depressing war as he could still see Ruri during the day, but he could not see his comrades Yuto and Shun anymore in fear of putting all of their lives in danger thanks to Reiji. He did not know what the hell that man was planning anymore. Coupling with what Yuma did, he was forced to stay awake.

" _I will kill you for this Reiji… The Professor... Yuma…"_

* * *

After being teleported by Yuzu's bracelet, Yuto went back to the hideout, deciding to let Shun do what he wants for some time. Strange things happened: seeing Yuzu begging Sora, the guy from Academia, to learn Fusion Summon, having a brief fight with him, Matsumi accusing him for carding Marco even though it was Shun. He was too tired. He needs time. To think straight again. He missed the old times. He missed how Heartland used to be, he missed how the people he knew used to be. He missed everyone, and he missed her. Ruri. He missed her kind, her gentleness, her warm love to him and her alluring beauty that he could not resist. He missed them all, and there was a chance that he would truly lose it all.

" _Can I go back to who I used to be?"_

* * *

Standing at the rooftop of a three-story house, Shun was scanning the LDS using the heat-seeking feature on his Duel Disk. There were a lot of people in there, so he knew he could not risk his own life charging right to the place.

" _It's been a full day… Nothing happened… I can be 100% sure that Reiji captured Ryoga! I cannot run to there…"_ A plan formed in his head. _"I will bait him out! Please wait for me Ryoga!"_

" _And Reiji… The Professor… Yuma… I will kill all of you!"_

* * *

 **Well that was pretty depressing wasn't it?**

 **I wanted to finish this chapter quickly for some reason so this will not be as good as other chapters, the ending clearly says what I meant but I had no time to wait. I'm sorry for that.**

 **I tried to justify Shun and Reiji's reasons for acting like nuts, hope it was good. Let me know in the review. And I know that I was pretty cruel for making Ruri and Ryoga like that, but that was for the sake of the story.**

 **One thing, I will not have Nico Smiley helping Yuya and Sora find opponents. I thought this change may cement Yuya as a strong and independent character I want him to be. Besides, usually you guys don't want the easy way of making the living even though you may use that help anyway do you?**

 **One last thing: I will skip Yuya's four qualifications duels. It would be a waste of time to include them in this story as it would be exactly the same as in the anime.**

 **With that out of the way, here's the (equally depressing) Next Chapter Preview:**

 **Broken Ace**

Academia launched an attack on the Resistance camp, taking the lives of many people. Kaito, Rio and Allen tried to defend the place but something horrible happened that took their old ways of thinking for forever.

 **Don't forget to review! This is matrixnis, see you next time! Out!**


	18. Scale 18

**Hello everyone! I am back with a new chapter! And just a warning, the angst level while not as depressing as the last chapter, will be pushed to maximum this time.**

 **I had a lot of fun writing duels for this chapter, especially Rio and Allen. You will know what I mean when you read them. And about Kaito, I decided to make him use "Galaxy", "Photon" and "Cipher" as they do match up pretty well and Kaito is simply amazing.**

 **Also, there is real character death this time at the near end, so please don't read it if you are offended. You have been warned.**

 **To thetiger39, thanks man. Yuya this time is much more mature, so naturally, he would not need help from Nico. Besides, I want my characters to generally be more serious overall and I don't want good adults like Shuzo to have a bad image like the anime.**

 **To Gentyman, I honestly did not plan to explore Shun and Yuto like that. I simply wrote what I thought and that was the result. Thanks for pointing out, I was really surprised. I guess zoning out is not good though. And yeah, Reiji is pretty cruel this time, forcing Ryoga to sleep outside the streets and Ruri to hate herself a lot more.**

 **To Guest, since it may reveal plot, all I can say is that the Professor would never harm her and he would not inquire Yuma, at least for now.**

 **To Playerhood18 and jason, there you go… (lol).**

 **All right, let's ride!**

* * *

 **Chapter 18: Broken Ace**

The grim feeling of the ruined Heartland always existed in his eyes, in his formerly sweet dreams. It scared him a lot, it was like a video tape that automatically play in his head every time he closed his eyes to get himself a quiet sleep. He would always end up jotting up screaming, sweating all over and breathing heavily. He hated it a lot. He hated Academia for causing all of this, and if he was older, he would join the Resistance with his older brother and many others and fight them, fight till they could not do the same anymore. Trying to quit thinking about those depressing thoughts was his main priority though, so he took a comic book and read it. It was the same book that he read many times over. He never found it to be repetitive as this was the first book he had read and during the war, he had lost other books in the raging fire caused by those Chaos Giants. Besides, the main character was similar to him in some way, a young boy with some issues but he managed to find a way to smile, to make him feel truly good inside and to make himself a better man. The boy took inspiration from this amazing character. He realized that if he kept being optimistic during this harsh time, he would make his older brother, his father and other people feel good and smile, in turn make him smile as well.

The fabric of the tent he was staying suddenly opened, revealing a tall young man with blue-gray eyes and blonde hair, dark green bangs. He was smiling at him and he appeared to hide something behind his back as he kept his hands behind him. He instantly realized who that man was.

"Nii-san!" He smiled brightly.

"Hey Haruto! Guess what… I got a surprise for you!" Kaito excitedly told his younger brother while his hands were hidden behind his back.

"What is it brother?"

"Here!" Kaito pulled out a small blue teddy bear from behind his back, making Haruto smile happily. Even though it was slightly tainted with dirt since Kaito picked it up from the warzone outside, the kid was clearly loving it. He took it and hugged it tightly.

"It's good Haruto!" Akio spoke from behind Kaito. "You got a cute friend to play with!"

"Oh Akio-chan! You came here too?" Haruto said back and resumed playing.

"Of course! Who doesn't want to spend time playing with a cute boy like you Haruto-kun?"

"Thank you Akio-chan!" His bright smile warmed Akio and Kaito a lot.

Akio spoke to Kaito. "Really, seeing him still being able to smile in real joy like this warmed me a lot! It's hard to keep one's own smile in this war."

"Yeah… It's like a gift from heaven Akio-chan! He is still sweet and innocent like this for the most part!" Kaito smiled back at her. They continued to watch Haruto playing with his new friend.

Kaito suddenly remembered something and looked at his clock. "Oh! It's shifting time! I have to go to the gates and take the night shift!"

"Well… will it be long?"

"Just a night Akio-chan! After that I will be back to play with you two!"

"Haruto! I will be going outside to protect this place, you play with our father and Akio-chan over there and have a deep sleep! I promise I will be OK and probably will bring you some more fun stuffs to play with!" Kaito gently stroked his younger brother's cheek.

"Just be safe brother! I don't want to lose you!"

"I will! I will call my father to go to here, just stay here okay?" Kaito turned to Akio. "Goodbye Akio-san, I'll be back tomorrow!"

"Be careful!"

"Yeah!" Kaito then got out of the room and went to the laboratory underground, where his father Tenjo Eisuke was working with the programming and hacking.

He spoke to his workaholic father. "Hey dad! I will take the night shift tonight! Can you have a rest from your work and play with Haruto?"

"Of course!" He stood up from his chair and walked to his older son. "Be careful son! You and Haruto are the most important people to me now!"

"I will take care of myself!" Kaito hugged his father and walked out of the room. He slowly went out of the building and walked to the gate, where Rio and Allen were guarding.

"Hey! Rio! Allen!"

"Kaito!" They noticed him coming. "Taking the shift now?"

"Uh!" Kaito said. "Take some rest!"

"Nah, we will stay here a bit longer, maybe some talking?"

"Fine…" Kaito relented.

"Hey Kaito! Can I ask you something?" Rio spoke up.

Kaito got interested. "Yeah?"

"About your deck! Why did you use three groups of decks like that? You have "Galaxy", "Photon" and "Cipher" right? Why not stick to one?"

" _No one has ever talked about my deck!"_ Kaito thought. "You wanna know my deck so that you will find a way to beat me some time later right? Not gonna be tricked~"

"Come on Kaito! You clearly know that Cipher controls the field better than Photon, you use it to fight those Academia bastards all the time! Why don't you just use only Cipher?"

"Well…" This subjects was actually quite sensitive to him, but Kaito thought that since his friends Rio and Allen asked him about this, he should at least tell him why. Kaito took out his deck and looked at the cards. "Before Academia attacked Heartland and we knew about Fusion and Synchro, I only had to fight Xyz users like you two. Photon and Galaxy were enough. My deck also focuses on anti-Xyz so I don't need the "Numbers" cards as much as others!"

"Numbers…" Allen noted. "Rio, you have "Numbers" cards right?"

"Yeah!" Rio confirmed.

Kaito continued. "When things happened, my deck is practically unable to counter the Fusion technique Academia used, so my father and I decided to create the "Cipher" cards for me to counter them."

"If "Cipher" is better against Academia, why are you still keeping your old deck?" Rio wondered.

Kaito froze for a bit before answering. "Uh… Because… uh… because of…" He shook his head.

"Yuma right?" Allen finished for him.

"Uh…" Kaito confirmed with a sad whisper.

Rio realized why and she felt bad for him. "Sorry Kaito… I did not mean to…"

"It's fine Rio! I keep "Photon" in order to duel against him one day, to question him why he betrayed us and carded Mizael, Chris, Shun's father like that. Besides, the three groups do work well, I can switch among them if the situation calls it."

"So that's why!" Rio nodded.

"Yes…"

Suddenly, a loud alarm was heard, destroying the quiet atmosphere of the peaceful Resistance camp.

"Dammit! They're here!" Allen knew why.

"Academia!" Rio said.

"All right! We will now split up, I take the front gate! Rio, you take the west wing! And Allen, handle the east wing!"

"Roger!" They immediately ran off to protect the places Kaito ordered.

Kaito contacted his father using his Duel Disk. "Father! Akio-chan! Take Haruto to the laboratory and stay there! I will come to pick you up after we beat the invaders!"

"Dammit!" Eisuke cursed. He wanted to go out and protect the base and his son, but he was old and he was not a duelist. Luckily, Akio was. "Akio, take your Duel Disk and come with us! We will protect Haruto!"

"Got it! Be careful Kaito!" Akio said.

"Be careful brother!" Haruto was concerned about his older brother, who gave him a quick warm smile to reassure him. "I will! Just be careful!" With that, he cut off the connection and went outside of the gate to join his comrades out there. When Kaito got to the front, numerous Academia soldiers and Resistance members were busily fighting. After winning, they immediately carded the losers and intruded in the other duels. Suddenly, two Obelisk Force soldiers threw two red energy anchor from their Duel Disks and attached them to Kaito's Duel Disk, forcing him to duel them.

"Humph! So I cannot leave huh… Whatever, I will beat all of you!"

 **DUEL!**

 **Red** : 4000 [5]

 **Blue** : 4000 [5]

 **Kaito** : 4000 [5]

* * *

"Everyone! Are you okay?" Rio ran to three members trying to hold the west wing of the base.

"We're fine but very critical! Four of us are gone and they still have reinforcements!"

"A girl…" An Obelisk Force member with a green gem on his mask commented. He and the Yellow teammate of his who were watching Rio's comrades dueling immediately fired

"You will suffer the same fate as those weaklings!" Green mocked while waving the four cards with images of her comrades.

"Never! I will avenge them assholes!" Rio spatted and activated her purple Duel Disk. The two masked men activated their own as well. Rio turned to her comrades. "Don't worry about me! I can handle them alone!"

 **DUEL!**

 **Green** : 4000 [5]

 **Yellow** : 4000 [5]

 **Rio** : 4000 [5]

"Ore no turn!" Green declared. "Magic Card, Fusion activate! I fuse the two Hound Dogs in my hand!"

" _It's coming!"_ Rio commented in her mind.

"Appear now, level 5! Antique Gear Double Bite Hound Dog!"

 **Antique Gear Double Bite Hound Dog** EARTH Machine Effect LV5 **1400** /1000

"Turn end with these two cards!" He set down two cards.

"Watashi no turn, draw!" Rio proceeded. "Since my field does not have any monsters, I can special summon Blizzard Eagle!" Rio slapped a card to the blue blade. A blue and white eagle materialized.

 **Blizzard Eagle** WIND Winged Beast Effect LV5 **2000** /1800

"And now I normal summon Blizzard Falcon!" A blue falcon with ice wings appeared, creating a small wind.

 **Blizzard Falcon** WIND Winged Beast Effect LV4 **1500** /1500

"Blizzard Vulture special summon!" Rio called out a dark blue vulture.

 **Blizzard Vulture** WIND Winged Beast Effect LV4 **1000** /1000

"It will power my monsters up! Ice Empowering!" The summoned monster glowed a blue aura, creating a gust of wind all over Rio's field.

 **Blizzard Eagle** ATK 2000 - 2300

 **Blizzard Falcon** ATK 1500 - 1800

 **Blizzard Vulture** ATK 1000 - 1300

"The change in ATK will allow Falcon to inflict 1500 damage!"

"That much?" The two opponents gasped in shock.

"And the bastard who will receive this pleasure is…" Rio pointed at the man on the left. "You!" Falcon flew towards Green and slashed him, making him grasp in pain.

 **Green** : 4000 - 2500 [0]

"Now Eagle will lose 1000!" The monster gained a red aura.

"What use is it for?" Green wondered.

"To destroy your two-headed dog!" Rio finished. The dog blew up.

"I have prepared for that girl!" Green revealed, waving his hand up, a trap rose up immediately after. "Continuous Trap, Antique Gear Reborn!" The dog reappeared.

 **Antique Gear Double Bite Hound Dog** ATK 1400 - 1600

"And then trap card, Fusion Trench!" The trap rose up, shining.

"Avoid losing that monster so bad?" Rio mocked. "I, using the level 4 Blizzard Falcon and Blizzard Vulture, overlay!" The two monsters turned into blue energy before joining in the Overlay Network, creating a pillar of light.

"Xyz Shōkan! Appear now, Rank 4! Sub-Zero Bird Beast Sylphine!" A monster came out from the light. It was a feminine creature with an ice theme. It had dark crystallized wings on its back, it wore a dark ice dress and a black mask.

 **Sub-Zero Bird Beast Sylphine** WATER Winged Beast Xyz Effect R4 **2000** /2200

 **Blizzard Eagle** ATK 2300 - 2000

"Sadly, my Double Bite will put a Gear Acid Counter on it!" A big rusty gear flew towards the monster. It rested above it.

 **Sub-Zero Bird Beast Sylphine** 1 Gear Acid Counter

"But it will not stop Sylphine from activating its effects! By detaching an Overlay Unit, it negates the effects of all of your face-up cards until my next Standby Phase! Perfect Freeze!" Sylphine fired a stream of energy from its wings at the dog and the trap card, partially encasing them in ice.

 **Sub-Zero Bird Beast Sylphine** ATK 2000 - 2600

"I set down 2 cards and end my turn!" Rio set down two cards, her nervousness began to creep over her. She prayed Ryoga to help her. _"Please Ryoga… Please help me get over this…"_

"Ore no turn!" Yellow drew his card. "I summon Antique Gear Hound Dog!" The mechanical dog appeared.

 **Antique Gear Hound Dog** EARTH Machine Effect LV3 **1000** /1000

"And activate its effect!" The dog blasted at Rio, who covered herself.

 **Rio** : 4000 - 3400 [1]

"Magic Card, Antique Gear Double Imitate! From my partner's grave, I special summon two Hound Dogs with their effects negated!" The two dogs identical to the one he summoned jumped out from behind.

"Now… ready for the hunting game?"

" _What? Why did he say that?"_ Rio suspected something unusual was about to happen. "He has four monsters… Wait!"

"Yes!"

"No way! It needs at least 10 monsters!"

"We have upgraded our arsenal to the new level! Now it just need any four "Antique Gear" monsters to summon!" Rio and her comrades gasped.

"Magic Card, Fusion activate! I fuse the three Hound Dogs on the field and one Hound Dogs in my hand!" The four dogs joined in the Fusion spiral.

"Mechanized hound dogs that inherit the ancient soul! Merge those ten heads unleash chaos and become tremendous strength!" Rio froze on her tracks.

"Yugō Shōkan! Appear! Level 10! Antique Gear Chaos Giant!" The eldritch abomination once again crushed the ground, sending a huge shockwave at the Resistance members. Rio and her comrades were knocked back painfully.

 **Antique Gear Chaos Giant** DARK Machine Fusion Effect LV10 **4500** /3000

The Obelisk Force soldiers laughed manically at the shaking opponents, gaining pleasure from the fear they made, just like preys for predators. The feeling they always relished, learning from the lessons their beloved Professor taught them back in Academia.

"Hahahaha! Fools! Now your fate will be settled! Antique Gear Chaos Giant, attack Sylphine! Crush of Darkness!" The mechanical giant curled its large left hand and delivered it to the small monster, shattering it to pieces. Rio painfully screamed, somehow managing to stand still despite the massive trauma.

 **Rio** : 3400 - 1500 [1]

"Rio! Hold on!"

"I… I... will! Just focus on your fights!"

"A curb-stomp one as you say?" Yellow said. "Anyway, let's battle again! Chaos Giant, finish Blizzard Eagle!"

"Rio!"

"Trap Card, Blizzard Ice Block! By banishing two "Blizzard" monsters in my graveyard…" An ice block materialized, blocking the punch. "The Battle Phase ends and I special summon Blizzard Thunderbird from my deck!" The ice block shattered, revealing an armored bird with yellow wings.

 **Blizzard Thunderbird** WATER Winged Beast Effect LV4 **1600** /1400

"Tsk… Such futile resistance… turn end!" Yellow angrily ended his turn.

"Which means it is my turn!" Rio put her right hand on her deck, closing her eyes. This would be her final draw, the draw that would decide whether she would live or not. _"Ryoga! Please help me! Please help me so that I can help others!"_

…

"Draw!" Rio drew her card with all of her might and looked at it, eyes widening. She looked at the two opponents.

"You two will be gone this turn!"

"What? Hahahahah! I have Chaos Giant on the field, and the effects of Sylphine will be gone during your turn, which means I can put Gear Acid Counters on your monsters again! How can you be so sure?"

"We'll see!" Rio hardened her face. "By decreasing 1000 ATK from Eagle, your Fusion Trench is destroyed!" Eagle slashed the trap card, destroying it.

"Huh! But you still cannot attack yet!" Green said.

"I, using the level 5 Blizzard Eagle and Blizzard Vulture, overlay!"

"Xyz Shōkan! Appear now, Rank 5! Sub-Zero Bird Princess Reort Harpyria!" A monster similar to Sylphine appeared, but her wings and her armor were now blue, her body was now blue and her ice dress was now blue as well.

 **Sub-Zero Bird Princess Reort Harpyria** WATER Winged Beast Xyz Effect R5 **2500** /2100

"Double Bite!" The dog flung a counter on Harpyria, whose owner did not care about one bit.

"I normal summon Blizzard Falcon!" Another ice falcon showed up.

"Magic Card, Blizzard Jet! It increase Falcon's ATK by 1500!"

 **Blizzard Falcon** ATK 1500 - 1800

"What? No!"

"Yes!" The moment Rio finished, a large snowstorm swept through Yellow, knocking him backwards.

 **Yellow** : 4000 - 2500 [3]

"I, using the level 4 Blizzard Falcon and Blizzard Thunderbird, overlay! Xyz Shōkan!" A large beam of blue light came out.

"Appear now, Numbers 103!"

"What? Numbers!?"

"Rank 4! Funerary Sub-Zero Maiden Ragna Zero!" One of Rio's ace monsters appeared. It wore a white and violet dress with five yellow ornaments tied below the dress. It had wings on its back, it wore a grey mask, a yellow crown and it wielded two ice scythes on its hands.

 **Numbers 103: Funerary Sub-Zero Maiden Ragna Zero** WATER Angel Xyz Effect R4 **2400** /1200

"Now with these two monsters on the field, the fight is set! Harpyria will reduce the ATK of Chaos Giant to 0!"

 **Antique Gear Chaos Giant** ATK 4500 - 0

"No! Chaos Giant!" Yellow screamed.

"Ragna Zero, destroy it! Guidance to Funeral!" The blue maiden swung its two scythes across the giant, destroying it and knocking Yellow back. Rio drew one card from her deck due to Zero's effect. _"Good! It will be done!"_

"Huh… but I will still be standing!" Green reassured himself.

"No no no! Harpyria can activate its effects again as long as it has Overlay Units!"

"What?" Green could only look at his monster being weakened by the storm Harpyria created.

 **Antique Gear Double Bite Hound Dog** ATK 1600 - 0

"Sadly Ragna Zero can only activate its effects once per turn unlike Harpyria, but it is already enough! Magic Card, Xyz Unit! Ragna Zero will gain ATK!"

 **Funerary Sub-Zero Maiden Ragna Zero** ATK 2400 - 3200

"No!"

"Go Rio!" Her comrades cheered.

"Battle! Ragna Zero, attack Double Bite Hound Dog!" The monster threw its scythes at the two-headed dog, destroying it and costing Green the duel.

 **Green** : 2500 - 0 [0]

"And you will suffer the same fate! Harpyria! Attack that abomination!" The monster complied. It flew over to the giant and encased it in ice. It then rammed its head to the ice block, shattering it to pieces. Yellow was welcomed with a rain of ice crushing his head, knocking him down.

 **Yellow** : 2500 - 0 [3]

Rio then quickly carded the two downed enemies. The two cards flew out from the front of her Duel Disk. Rio tossed them away, re-arranged her deck and immediately intruded in the other duels. "Now you guys will not get a chance anymore! We will protect this place!"

"Hoorah!" All of them roared.

* * *

"I take the first turn! Magic Card Fusion activate! Appear now, level 5! Antique Gear Double Bite Hound Dog!"

 **Antique Gear Double Bite Hound Dog** EARTH Machine Effect LV5 **1400** /1000

"Turn end! Finish him quickly!" Red told Blue, who complied and drew his card.

"Another Fusion is on the way!" He activated the card and sent the two Hound Dogs in his hand to the graveyard, another two-headed mechanical dog appeared, roaring.

"Double Bite Hound Dog, direct attack!" He immediately ordered. Kaito braced himself for the impact.

 **Kaito** : 4000 - 2600 [3]

"Kaito! You okay?" Two Resistance members near him said.

"I'm fine… don't worry. Just focus on beating them! We have lost many men already!" Kaito got up, brushing the dirt on his black jacket.

" _So that's it… Putting counters on my monsters by using those two dogs to destroy them before damage calculation, but it will not work!_ Ore no turn, draw!" Kaito drew his card. He then looked at his hand. _"Good, just need to replace some stuffs and I will win! I need to protect others!"_

"Magic Card, Photon Veil! By returning these three cards to the Deck…" Kaito slid Photon Bringer, Photon Thrasher and Photon Dragon back to the Deck and pulled out three new cards. "I add three Cipher Wings to my hand! Since Photon Bringer was no longer in my hand, I special summon it!" A small and big monster in black suit and was glowing in light appeared.

 **Photon Bringer** LIGHT Machine Effect LV4 **2000** /0

"And I can draw a card!" Kaito drew one card. Ignoring the Gear Shift Counter being put on his monster, he slapped another card to the blade. "Cipher Wing normal summon!" It also had another Gear Shift Counter on it.

 **Cipher Wing** LIGHT Machine Effect LV4 **1400** /1200

"Its effects allow me to special summon another "Cipher"! Come out! Another Cipher Wing and Cipher Electron!"

 **Cipher Electron** LIGHT Machine Effect LV4 **1400** /1000

"Now all of your monsters will have counters on them!" Red remind Kaito, but nothing happened.

"Wh… what happened?" Red wondered.

"Cipher Electron negates the effect of your Double Bite when it showed up!" Kaito explained. "I release a Cipher Wing…" One's of Kaito's Cipher Wings vanished. "To increase all of my "Cipher" monsters' levels by 4!"

 **Cipher Wing** LV4 - 8

 **Cipher Electron** LV4 - 8

"Dammit…" The two Obelisk Force members knew what would happen.

"I, using the level 8 Cipher Wing and Cipher Electron, overlay!" The two light monsters turned into yellow energy, flying to the Overlay Network.

"Galaxy shining in the darkness, descend as the light of revolution and become my very servant!"

"Xyz Shōkan! Come to me, Rank 8! Galaxy-Eyes Cipher Dragon!" From the Overlay Network, a loud roar of a creature could be heard, the monster immediately rose up. It was a very special dragon. Its skin were glowing in light blue similar to Kaito's other monsters, its two wings were made of energy with circuit board-esque patterns on them. It had some violet and dark blue armor plates on its head and its legs. It waved its long and strong tail as a mocking to the imminent loss to the enemies facing it.

 **Galaxy-Eyes Cipher Dragon** LIGHT Dragon Xyz Effect R8 **3000** /2500

"Now your Double Bite will be mine! Cipher Projection!" Kaito's signature monster sent a stream of light at Double Bite Hound Dog, covering it in blue wavelengths before making it disappear and reappear on Kaito's field. It then turned into a ghostly form of Cipher Dragon.

 **Antique Gear Double Bite Hound Dog 1400** /1000 - **Galaxy-Eyes Cipher Dragon 3000** /1000

"Now he has two Cipher Dragons! Damn!"

"But it will be not enough to win!"

"Are you sure about that?" Kaito said before activating his two Magic Cards. "Cipher Diffusion allows my Cipher Dragon to attack three times and Cipher Interfere will double the ATK of one of them during damage calculation!"

"What? No way!"

"Bye bye assholes! Are you ready to repent for your sins?" Kaito boasted at the Red and Blue, who trembled in fear.

"Semmetsu no Cipher Stream!" Galaxy-Eyes Cipher Dragon fired a blue blast of energy from its mouth, carving the ground in a straight line before running to the two fearful Obelisk Force members and swept through them, making them scream in pain and knocked them down to the ground.

 **Red** 4000 - 0

 **Blue** : 4000 - 0

Kaito immediately activated the Human Sealing technology of his Duel Disk, a blue stream of light emitted from the front of his Duel Disk, sealing the two fallen enemies into cards, the same type of prison that his people had been and were still in. He then immediately intruded in other duels to protect his comrades.

 **Kaito** : 4000 - 2000 [5]

"I will beat all of you for attacking the base and carding my comrades!" Kaito fiercely declared.

" _But why are they only coming in groups of two? I thought they would come in three?"_ Unknown to Kaito, some Osiris Red members were secretly sneaking in the base during the chaos, carrying a duffel bag with them and slowly advancing to the tent where the underground laboratory was located…

* * *

"You assholes cannot get into this place any further! I will make sure of that!" Allen declared. _"Strange… they only came in a group of two… why?"_ There was no time to question this though. _"I will interrogate them later!"_

"Let's see… how can a small piece of nut like you will do it…" Red and Yellow smiled before activating their Duel Disks.

 **DUEL!**

 **Allen** : 4000 [5]

 **Red** : 4000 [5]

 **Yellow** : 4000 [5]

"I summon Antique Gear Hound Dog!" The familiar dog jumped out, barking.

 **Antique Gear Hound Dog** EARTH Machine Effect LV3 **1000** /1000

"And two set cards will conclude my turn!"

"Ore no turn, draw!" Allen harshly declared his turn. He always hated those people who destroyed his hometown and taking away his family and his friends. Now this was a chance to avenge them.

"I summon Ruffian Express Train Battrain!" A red head train appeared.

 **Ruffian Express Train Battrain** EARTH Machine Effect LV4 **1800** /1000

"This guy will match that dog about dealing damage at the cost of the Battle Phase!" The dog fired a blast at Red, who simply shrugged it off.

 **Red** : 4000 - 3500 [2]

"Trap Card, Antique Gear Sparkling! When I take damage while I control an "Antique Gear" monster, I can special summon a level 4 or lower "Antique Gear" monster from my deck with its effects negated!" Another Hound Dog appeared.

"Humph… I set down two cards and end my turn!"

"Ore no turn, draw!" Yellow started his turn. "I summon another Hound Dog to the field! And it will inflict 600 damage to you!"

 **Allen** : 4000 - 3400 [3]

"When I control an "Antique Gear" monster, I can special summon Antique Gear Guard!" A purple shield in a shape of a gear appeared.

 **Antique Gear Guard** EARTH Machine Effect LV3 1000/ **1000**

"Reverse Card open!" Red suddenly declared. "Flash Fusion!" The two dogs on Red's field turned into energy and went to the Fusion spiral.

"Yugō Shōkan! Appear now! Level 5! Antique Gear Double Bite Hound Dog!"

 **Antique Gear Double Bite Hound Dog** EARTH Machine Effect LV5 **1400** /1000

"Magic Card, Fusion activate!" Yellow activated the infamous magic card.

"Another one?" Allen deadpannedly snarked.

"Yugō Shōkan! Appear now, level 7! Antique Gear Triple Bite Hound Dog!"

 **Antique Gear Triple Bite Hound Dog** EARTH Machine Effect LV7 **1800** /1000

"Battle!" Yellow declared. "Antique Gear Triple Bite Hound Dog, attack Ruffian Express Train Battrain!"

"I special summon Construction Train Signal Red and redirect the attack to it!"

"Useless, Double Bite will put a counter!"

"Of course I know!" Allen spatted. _"Just want to avoid further damage…"_ He looked as the counter exploded, destroying the newly summoned monster.

"Triple Bite, attack Battrain! Due to having Antique Gear Guard on the field, only that annoying train is destroyed!"

"Final attack!" The dog bit Allen's side, hurting him greatly but he still managed to get up.

 **Allen** : 3400 - 1600 [3]

"During the End Phase, Flash Fusion will destroy Double Bite but due to Guard, it is safe from effect destruction!"

"Ore no turn…" Allen painfully drew his card. "Draw!" Allen gasped at the sight of the card. _"Chris…"_ That was the card Chris entrusted to him during the beginning of the invasion. _"Chris… this is your card, the card you gave to me to protect myself and others… now you are gone… but I will not give up! I will win and protect the people I care about to honor you and many others who had fallen!"_

He turned back to the opponents. "This is the final turn assholes!"

"What?"

"Reverse Trap activate! Engine Cracking! I special summon Battrain!"

"And I will normal summon Midnight-Express Knight - Night Express Knight!"

 **Midnight-Express Knight - Night Express Knight** EARTH Machine Effect LV10 **3000** /3000

"What? How can you normal summon a level 10 monster without tributing?" Red panicked.

"Having to make its ATK 0…" Allen disinterestedly answered.

 **Midnight-Express Knight - Night Express Knight** ATK 3000 - 0

"After summoning Night Express Knight, I can special summon Heavy Freight Train Derricrane from my hand!" A yellow train appeared.

 **Heavy Freight Train Derricrane** EARTH Machine Effect LV10 **2800** /2000

"But summoning this way makes its ATK and DEF become halved."

 **Heavy Freight Train Derricrane** **2800** /2000 - **1400** /1000

"Dammit… a Rank 10 Xyz monster…"

"Feeling afraid now? I, using the level 10 Heavy Freight Train Derricrane and Night Express Knight, overlay!"

"Xyz Shōkan! Appear now, Rank 10! Superdreadnought Cannon Train, Gustav Max!" A long-barreled cannon showed up by crashing down, sending dust all over the field. The two Obelisk Force members caught smoke and coughed heavily.

 **Superdreadnought Cannon Train, Gustav Max** EARTH Machine Xyz Effect R10 **3000** /3000

"Humph… Just summoning a large monster, yet you two wanna lose so badly?"

"We will not lose!"

"Just joking! By detaching an Overlay Unit, it will deal 2000 damage to you!" The cannon slowly guided its long barrel down, aiming at Yellow before firing a very powerful shot at him, making Yellow fly backwards and hit the ground painfully.

 **Yellow** : 4000 - 2000 [1]

"What the…" Red could not believe what was happening.

"Since Derricane was detached, it would destroy one of your dogs but I know Guard will prevent it. But it wasn't necessary!" Allen roared. "Equip Magic, Gravity Blaster! Chris, give me your strength!"

 **Superdreadnought Cannon Train, Gustav Max** ATK 3000 - 3400

"ATK… 3400?"

"Not yet! Quick-Play Magic, Limiter Removal!"

"No!"

 **Superdreadnought Cannon Train, Gustav Max** ATK 3400 - 6800

"No! Even though its ATK is 6800 now, it will be destroyed during the End Phase, and one of us will still be standing…"

"By banishing Engine Cracking, Gustav Max can attack twice this turn!"

"What the?"

"This is the end for you two assholes! Gustav Max, blast the dogs away!" The cannon charged energy before releasing it in a very strong lane of fire, engulfing the two mechanical dogs in flame and burned them completely. The flame also went to the two Academia soldier, who screamed loudly and frantically ran away in an attempt to stop the fire.

 **Red** : 3400 - 0 [2]

 **Yellow** : 2000 - 0 [1]

"Not gonna happen!" Gustav Max fired a shot to the ground where the two was running, blasting them to the wall and stop the fire. They painfully turned to see Allen threatening them with his Duel Disk.

"Now, tell me one thing and I will let you two go free!"

"Wh… what… what is it?"

"Why do you only come in two, not three?"

"Be.. because…"

"WHY!?"

"Because… we want to card… someone…"

"WHO?"

"Ei… Eisuke…"

"What? Eisuke-san? Why?" Allen was completely shocked. How could they know the lead programmer of Academia was here?

"Because… this will be the important step to… to win the war…"

"Dammit…" A stroke of realization hit him. If Academia managed to card Eisuke, the Resistance will be in a huge loss. They managed to get a lot of information from him, those information helped them avoid the attack from Academia for a long amount of time and counterattack them several times as well.

"Is there any more places where Academia attacks as well?"

"There… there are others too… Academia swept through pretty much the entire Heartland to find him…"

"Shit… shit!" Allen cursed. He immediately carded those two and called Rio and Kaito.

"Rio! Kaito!"

"What Allen?" Rio wondered.

"Get to where your father is quickly?" Allen yelled.

"What? My dad and Haruto? Why?" Kaito became worried.

"The attack was for the purpose of finding Eisuke and eliminating him! They only came in two to distract us from fighting while they secretly assassinate your father!"

"NO! Not my family!" Kaito was struck with fear. "Dammit! No no no no! Not my father and Haruto!"

"All right. Kaito, please calm down! All of us will head there immediately! We will save them and Akio-san no matter what!"

"Got it!" Allen disconnected and ran to the underground.

* * *

"Hey father… Akio-san… I'm scared…" Haruto weakly whispered.

Akio faced him, smiling. She sweetly said to the boy. "Don't worry Haruto-kun! I am here with you now, and I will make sure that we all are going to be okay! You, are going to be okay!"

"Yeah! We are going to be fine kid! Just stay behind me and Akio-chan okay?"

"Okay…" Haruto agreed.

"I promise Haruto!" Akio reassured him. She watched Haruto hiding behind Eisuke, hands not leaving his jacket. Suddenly, they heard footsteps coming from above them.

"Sshh!" Eisuke immediately put his finger on his finger, noting all of them to keep quiet. "Haruto, hide behind the wall!" He whispered.

"No dad…"

"Just do it! I will stay with you okay?"

"Yes…"

"I will handle this! Hide!" Akio quietly put her Duel Disk on her left hand, waved her right hand as a sign to tell Haruto and Eisuke to hide and slowly move out to the staircase. She stood under it and readied herself for any incoming Academia soldiers. The footsteps was then heard louder and louder, indicating the fast approaching. It could not be the Resistance because if they were, they would yell to try to find anyone hiding in there.

"Academia!" Akio cautiously look at the door, sweat began to form on her face. The footsteps came closer and closer… till it suddenly stopped. Right at the door! "Dammit!" She turned to Haruto and Eisuke, who nervously peeked out. She immediately waved her hand to note them to keep hiding. She then turned back to the closed door. She heard some strange sounds of some kind of a bag opening, the assembling sound of a metal object on the door. Sensing the danger, she quietly began to move on her right, attempting to stay behind a pillar when the door suddenly exploded, sending a shockwave to the room. Akio was flung across the room, then a tall table before hitting the wall behind her. She slid down, slowly losing consciousness. She could feel her blood running down across her face. She weakly looked at the worried Eisuke and the crying Haruto.

"Eisuke-san… Haruto…" She weakly whispered before completely passing out.

"No! Akio-!" Haruto screamed, and despite Eisuke holding his mouth, it did not escape the ears of the soldiers.

"Ah~~ A rat!" One of them smiled and walked to where Haruto and Eisuke were hiding. "Oh! A kid! And… Tenjo Eisuke! The man we're looking for!"

"No! Do not do anything to him!" Eisuke stood up, hiding the scared Haruto behind him. "Please, just take me! Don't hurt my little boy!"

"Who said I would hurt him?" Another soldier in red jacket said. "We have orders from the Professor. And the order is…"

"What order?" Eisuke realized what they meant.

Two of them pulled out their Duel Disks, pointing at them. "This!" They activated them. A bright purple light shone up, creeping the screaming Eisuke and Haruto before dimming. A card went out from the front of one Duel Disk, with a picture of Haruto…

And another… with a picture of Eisuke…

"Hehehehehehehe! Another prize for this hunting game!" The female soldier in red shirt smiled. She then looked at her left and noticed the unconscious Akio. "Look! Another one!"

"Remove her Duel Disk and card her girl!" A boy said to her.

"With pleasure!" She instantly complied. She attempted to walk to Akio but a loud "NO!" from behind them forced her to stop. They looked at the door to notice Kaito, Rio and Allen running at them.

"Stop it right now! You are not doing anything to them!"

"We already did!" The soldier pulled out two cards of Haruto and Eisuke to them. The moment they looked at the pictures of the cards, something inside them broke. It seemed that their heart is shattered.

"No…" Rio widened her eyes, tears began to form.

"That's…" Allen said in shock.

"No… no… not my brother… and my father…" Kaito managed while frozen. He then completely lost control and yelled. "NO! Haruto! Father! No!"

"YOU! Give them back! Give them back to me!"

"Sorry but this is a hunting game, and they are awards for us!" The soldier nonchalantly said, enjoying the pained look of Kaito. Little did he realize that the moment he finished, he was met by a huge computer screen throwing right at his face. He gasped painfully, knocking down. The other two teammates of his was met with the same fate, losing consciousness from the head trauma immediately. Kaito charged at him and repeatedly punched him, growling in each punch.

"Damm… you! You… stole… my… town… Heartland… away… and… now!"

"You! Took! My! Father! AND! MY! BROTHER! AWAY FROM ME!"

Kaito punched him harder with every word, blood massively ran off of that bastard teenager in red shirt, all over his face, his mouth and his eyes. Rio and Allen looked in pure shock at the immense wrath their friend just displayed. Still in massive rage, Kaito destroyed their Duel Disks with his foot and activated his Duel Disk, sealing them in cards. The girl woke up to notice that Kaito was looking at her angrily, pointing his Duel Disk at her.

"No! Don't! Please!"

Kaito looked at her with the eyes of a raging inferno, confirming the fate he was about to put her in. "You killed my parents away… you stole the people closet to me away… I will never forgive you for this! And I will never forgive Academia for this! I will card all of you Academia assholes!" Kaito yelled and sealed her in a blue light. A card came out, slowly floating. He forcefully grabbed it and another two cards before tearing them in half, killing them for forever.

Rio and Allen gasped. They never thought Kaito would go this far.

"Kaito…" Rio weakly said. "What… have you… done…"

Kaito gave them a death glare. "Go away…"

"But Kaito…"

"GO AWAY! I WANT TO BE ALONE NOW!" He yelled. "Grab Akio-san and get outta here!"

"Understood…" There was no other choice. They have to leave him be…

After sensing that they have left, Kaito picked the card of his brother and his father up. He looked at them for probably forever, lost in his world of despair and emptiness.

"Father… Brother…" A single drop of tear hit the picture of Eisuke, then another one… this time in Haruto… "I… I am… I'm sorry…" He could not keep the overwhelming emotion anymore. He cried. He cried… curling his suddenly weak body to the ground.

* * *

"Why Rio? You should have brought Kaito! It's more important!" Akio protested while wiping the blood on her face.

"We have to leave him be Akio-san! He had just lost his father and his brother!" Rio answered while running to the ground.

"What? Kaito?"

"Yeah…" Allen sadly confirmed.

"No way…" Akio felt very sad for the poor Kaito.

"He will get out of here eventually! I know him! He will not die like this!" Allen said. "Right now we gotta take care of ourselves first!"

"Fine…" Akio relented. Running down to catch Kaito would be the very bad choice now, so she ran with them. When they got to the ground, they suddenly see several trucks ramming the door and running to several parts of the base hitting several Resistance members in the process. The soldiers got out, releasing smoke bombs and quickly ran off the base. They also saw two female soldiers in white uniforms guiding the drivers to run off as well.

"The Tyler Sisters!" Allen noted. "Dammit!"

"Forget about them for now, we need to keep quiet! And what are those trucks? What are they doing?"

"We'll know soon!" Rio said. They put on gas masks and carefully went to the closet car. When they got there, Allen gasped when he saw what was inside.

"What Allen?" Akio wondered.

"This… this is…" Allen managed. "Bomb!"

"WHAT?"

"They're planning to destroy this place!"

"SHIT! We need to get outta here ASAP!" Rio said.

"How about Kaito?" Akio asked.

"No time Akio-san! We gotta run!"

"Everyone!" Rio yelled. "This place is gonna blow! Get outta here quickly!" Luckily, they heard the warning and immediately ran off. Rio, Allen and Akio frantically ran to the breaching place and quickly got out of the base as far as possible, no one daring to look back now. After getting to a pretty far distance, the cars finally exploded, creating huge explosions all over the base, sending a huge shockwave all around. It hit the trio and knocked them down painfully. After the explosion, the base began to crumble. The wall were destroyed, the tents were burnt, the two-story theater slowly collapsed until it was not seen anymore, consumed by the wrathful fire. A lot of unlucky members who were too late to run out of the base was engulfed by the fire and disintegrated. They sadly looked on. Now their base was no longer functional, and probably other bases as well.

"Everyone… Kaito… I hope you got out safely…" Rio sadly wished.

"Now the base is gone… what do we do?" Allen wondered.

"Only one chance now…" Akio said. "The Duel Lodge…"

"Duel Lodge?"

"Yes. See over there!" Akio pointed at another fire far away from where they were standing. "That is another Resistance base! It seemed that Academia attacked all of our camps. The Duel Lodge is very well-hidden by the mountains, they probably have not found out yet. Hope it is not invaded."

"But it is pretty far away! Maybe take a whole day walking!"

"Then let's get going now! They may be looking for survivors!" Akio said.

"Yeah…" Rio answered. Before going with them, Rio turned her eyes to see the ruined base one last time.

" _It's gone now… the second home of me… I hope everyone is okay… Kaito, please be okay… and Ryoga… I don't know how you will react to this…"_

She tiredly turned around, joining Akio and Allen to the long and dangerous journey to the supposed last safe place on Earth…

Or rather, this dimension…

* * *

A long day had passed. After walking and evading Academia, they finally got into the Duel Lodge. Seeing the still intact temple, they were overjoyed. This was the wonderful scene to behold.

"It's still here! The Duel Lodge is still here!" Allen happily said.

"Yeah!" Rio joined in the fun.

"All right kids! Let's get inside!" They then walked up to the long staircase and finally got into the front of the lodge.

This was a real miracle to them, a place where everything was not lost yet. A place to believe, a place to hope…

And a place…

To smile…

...

...

...

...

"Batlle! Galaxy-Eyes Cipher Dragon, attack those three Antique Gear Soldiers! Semmetsu no Cipher Stream!" The dragon fired a blue stream of energy at the mechanical monster, destroying it, along with a yelling of the three defeated Ra Yellow soldiers. They weakly looked up at the victor, whose face was wrathful and emotionless, all emotions seemed to have been taken away from this young man.

The victor then immediately activated his Duel Disk, sending a stream of blue light at the three soldiers. He let the newly produced cards fall to the ground. He then looked at the scared Osiris Red members with full of hatred.

"I, Tenjo Kaito, will hunt all of you Academia down!"

* * *

 **Fanfic OC cards**

 **Blizzard Eagle**

WIND Winged Beast Effect LV5 2000/1800

When you control no monsters, you can special summon this card (form your hand). Once per turn, you can reduce this card's ATK by 1000, then target one card on the field, destroy it. You cannot special summon any monsters the turn you activate this effect, expect WATER monsters.

 **Blizzard Vulture**

WIND Winged Beast Effect LV4 1000/1000

If you control a "Blizzard" monster, you can special summon this card (from your hand). You can only activate that effect once per turn. All WATER monsters you control gains 300 ATK.

 **Blizzard Ice Block (Trap Card)**

If you are about to take battle damage, banish 2 "Blizzard" monsters from your graveyard; end the Battle Phase, and if you do, special summon 1 "Blizzard" monster from your Deck in Attack Position, but make its ATK 0 and it has it effects negated.

 **Photon Bringer**

LIGHT Machine Effect LV4 2000/0

This card cannot declare an attack. If this card is banished, sent to the graveyard or shuffled back to the Deck, you can special summon it. You can only activate this effect once per turn. You can only activate this effect once per Duel.

 **Cipher Electron**

LIGHT Machine Effect LV4 1400/1000

If this card is Summoned or Special Summoned, you can target one monster on the field, it has its effects negated.

 **Antique Gear Sparkling (Trap Card)**

If you take damage this turn, you can special summon one "Antique Gear" monster from your Deck, but it has its effects negated.

 **Antique Gear Guard**

EARTH Machine Effect LV3 1000/1000

If you summon an "Antique Gear" monster, you can special summon this card (from your hand). "Antique Gear" monsters on the field cannot be destroyed by card effects.

 **Engine Cracking (Trap Card)**

Target one EARTH Machine-Type monster in your graveyard, special summoned it, but it has its effects negated.

* * *

 **Okay. That was a pretty angst and action-heavy chapter.**

 **If you noticed, I change the summon chant of Galaxy-Eyes Cipher Dragon from "god of vengeance" (not sure) to "revolution" because Kaito did not lose his family yet, it would be more appropriate for him to say it before switching to the more "anger" summon chant as said in the anime.**

 **About what Kaito did, he was out of control of himself that time, so naturally he will go too far against the unspoken rule about carding. And for Rio, I decided to create the "Blizzard" archetype that focuses on ATK manipulation and effects using it. Thanks Romadrox8975 for the good idea.**

 **One thing I want to say is that I try to make the story more realistic, example is I made Ruri change clothes pretty frequently. And it will happen to someone else as well as you can see from this:**

 **Next Chapter Preview**

 **Heartbroken**

Yuto decides to blend in to find out about Akaba Reiji and try to enjoy the old days back in Heartland. Suddenly, he sees someone who will break his crumbling heart.

 **This is matrixnis, out!**


	19. Scale 19

**Welcome back everyone! Wish you had a good day! And here we are, the next chapter of my proud fanfic story!**

 **Recently I realized that I tried to upload too fast without much proofreading, even worse, I have lost one follower; I'm really paranoid that my story was really bad enough to deserve that. I can only say that I will try to slow down and resist the urge to upload as fast as possible to improve the quality of my story more.**

 **I know that the recent chapters are pretty depressing, and the latest next chapter preview is not any good either. In return, I will include some humor in this chapter to make up for it. Hope this is realistic enough because I am not expert on everything.**

 **If you did not notice, I did not include Sayaka in my story because in my opinion, she was just like Kotori, just… being there for the plot, not doing anything that leaves a strong impression on me; besides, being a traumatized war victim, she obviously cannot do much and since this is my first story, I don't really want to waste time for useless characters instead of more potential ones. If any writers can make her a good character, huge props for them; and if a character is not good enough for me to include, then I will not.**

 **With that out of the way, I hope you guys like this chapter behind your news feeds on your phones and enjoy!**

* * *

 **Chapter 19: Heartbroken**

The wooden door of the room opened, revealing a freshly bathed Hiragi Yuzu with a white towel on her shoulders. She wore a pink dress today. She made a deep breath and went to the window to absorb the warm morning sunlight. Yuzu then put the towel to the closet near her and did morning exercises. The early stretching and the yellow light of the morning sun helped Yuzu boot up fully.

"Oh! Hi Yuzu!"

'Humph?" Yuzu turned to her right to see Ruri standing there smiling at her. She seemed to have taken a bath as well indicated by the hair being wet and darker due to multiple strands of hair sticking together, along with the slightly wet purple shirt. "Hello Ruri!"

"Doing exercises?"

"Yep. And Ruri, I'm surprised!"

"What?" Ruri wondered.

"You finally wear shorts!" That was strange of Ruri.

"What?" She looked down and realized what she meant. She was wearing white shorts that Yuzu gave to her as bed-wear during her first day in the Hiragi residence. Even though she did not like wearing it, she could not deny that shorts were comfortable, so she decided to wear one last night.

"Yeah… Gotta change once in a while Yuzu. By the way, you feel better?" Ruri tried.

"Uh… pretty much…"

"I hope so…" Ruri knew Yuzu really wasn't but she decided not to pry.

"Ruri!"

"What Yuzu?"

"After eating breakfast, I want to ask you something. And it may hurt you a bit…"

"Hurt me?" Ruri did not know what she meant. "No! It's fine Yuzu. You can say whatever you want, I will not take it hard or anything!"

"I know. I'm just worried about you. You know what I mean right?"

Ruri finally realized what she probably meant. She quickly composed herself and smiled at Yuzu. "Yeah… I'll try."

"Hey Ruri! Sweety!" Shuzo said from the floor below. "Breakfast's ready! Get down here and enjoy!"

"Yeah dad!"

"We will come down soon Shuzo-san!" Ruri said and turned to Yuzu. "Let's go Yuzu, before your stomach rallies your mind like periods!"

The joke earned Ruri a playful smack from Yuzu to her side. "You're awful Ruri!"

"Just joking!" They then both came down to the kitchen and ate breakfast. They happily enjoy the food. Ruri really liked it because Shuzo was a rare kind of father, a househusband one and also he reminded her of her own father, who would go to the kitchen and cook dinner for his family at times.

" _Shuzo-san is amazing! He is just like my dad! He cooks really well!"_ Ruri happily thought back to her family before the war. Unknown to Ruri, she smiled very brightly, the smile that warmed her family every day and melted Yuto's heart and made them a happy couple. Yuzu took notice of that and was curious.

"Hey Ruri? What's wrong with you today that you smile like that?"

"Heh?" That was a pretty bad but fine return to reality.

"Thinking about your special someone?" Yuzu joked.

"What? No!" Ruri blushed. She waved her hand in denial.

"Yes! Just look at that face!" Yuzu teased, enjoying the massive protest from Ruri.

"I don't have anyone yet! And I'm just 16!"

"Kids these days loved to act early. They even kiss in public and "explore" each other as well!" Shuzo chimed in, which made Ruri blushed extremely red.

"Yeah I guess she had done that already!" Unknown to Yuzu, they already did the first thing…

Ruri frantically denied even though it was 50% false. "NO! Shuzo-san! I'm not THAT into a relationship! And as I say! I don't have anyone yet!" Ruri hid her face under her hands while Shuzo and Yuzu laughed very hard. "I hate all of you!" Ruri pouted while still hiding her face from them.

"It's all right Ruri!" Yuzu patted her, managing to make her look up again. "Call it revenge for earlier!"

"What revenge Yuzu?"

"She joked at me earlier!"

"Ah! I see… when two girls living together, their bickering increase like hell and their period cycles match!" Shuzo decided to push Yuzu over the edge as well. (If you do not know, this is a reference to Glenn Rhee of The Walking Dead). Ruri had to hold herself hard from laughing at the spot and spitting her food while Yuzu turned beet red in an instant.

"What… DAD! What the hell are you talking about!?" Yuzu blushed hard and hit him with her fan. Ruri sweatdropped at the hilarious scene just happened in front of her.

"Uh… Yuzu… You have knocked the pan of soup!" Ruri pointed.

"What?" She looked down to see what Ruri said was right… "GRAHH! No! Not the soup!"

"What the hell did you just do Yuzu?" Shuzo panicked. He jumped off of his chair and went to get a mop.

"I'm sorry dad! Sorry Ruri!" She frantically yelled. She immediately get a towel and swept the place where the soup was poured. After finishing, Shuzo cleaned it with a mop and they all washed the dishes.

"Yuzu… I really think you should take that fan away!"

"It was your fault too for angering me like that!" Yuzu denied.

"Hey! I was just joking there! And you knocked the pan! Right Ruri?"

"Yes Shuzo-san…" Ruri sheepishly said while cleaning the bowl.

"Ruri!"

"She's right Yuzu! And please, don't hit people with that fan too much!"

"Never dad! Especially you!" Yuzu denied the request. Shuzo sighed heavily at his still immature daughter.

After finishing the disastrous breakfast, Ruri and Yuzu sit at the sofa of the living room and turned on the TV. While the usual morning news was displayed as usual, there was also new of Yuya winning against Strong. Yuzu smiled proudly at the news and Ruri smiled as well.

"You must be proud Yuzu! To have a famous friend like that!"

"Yuya would rather not be famous like this Ruri! I like the real Yuya, the idiot but adorable Yuya!" She blushed.

"You don't want your boyfriend to be famous?"

"Boyfriend? No! We are not Ruri!" She denied and turned to the TV. "But yeah, I want him to succeed in life, but I like who he is as well. We have known each other since childhood!"

"That's good Yuzu!"

"And by the way, do you have anyone you like? I think you have one, don't lie to me!"

"Me?" Ruri stopped. Saying about Yuto right now would be good though, but she thought it was good to tell Yuzu.

Girl's talk anyway…

"Uh… promise that you don't spread this around okay?"

"I promise Ruri!" Yuzu assured her.

"Ok… Uh... Yes! I do have someone I like!" She revealed, slightly blushing.

"Oh!" Yuzu got sparked with interest. "Who is it?"

"His name is Yuto. He is very nice and gentle. I like him a lot!" She decided not to tell her about the fact that Yuto and Yuya were similar in appearance.

"Yuto… Wow! You're lucky Ruri! Having a boyfriend this early is not a blessing that anyone has!"

"Yeah, I thought like that too…" Ruri trailed off. Telling Yuzu that they had kissed would surely shock her and make her spill the beans. Furthermore, she suddenly thought back about the war time so she did not want to say anything anymore.

"But Ruri, you moved to here, which means you cannot see him anymore right?" Yuzu's question brought her back to real life.

" _Dammit… gotta lie to her again…"_ Ruri sadly thought. "Yes. But he respected my decision. When I get better, probably being adopted or something, I will see him again!"

"Good luck!" Yuzu hoped.

"Thanks! And hey, what about you Yuzu?"

"What?"

"You said that you have something to talk to me right? What is it?" She quickly changed the subject.

Yuzu carefully said, watching Ruri closely. "Uh Ruri… uh… what I want ot say is… you know about the Miami Championship right?"

"Yeah! I heard it from the news!" Lies.

"I got participated as well!"

"What? Congratulations!" Ruri congratulated her.

"But uh… I think…" Yuzu frowned.

"Think?"

"I think that I'm not strong enough yet!" She revealed.

Ruri was puzzled by her words. "Wh… what do you mean, "not strong enough yet"?"

"Two days ago I lost to Masumi remember?"

"Oh…" Ruri realized. "And you're planning to improve yourself so that you can win against Masumi next time you duel her at the Miami Championship right?"

"Right!"

"That's good! Do you need any help from me?"

"No thanks Ruri! I already got help!"

"From Yuya?"

"No…" Yuzu hesitated before eventually saying. "…Sora!"

"What? Sora?" Ruri widened her eyes. "Why do you need help from him? A Fusion user?" Never before had she thought that Yuzu would need help from that Academia spy. Instantly Yuzu felt regret for saying that.

"No Ruri! It's not like that!" Yuzu frantically said. "It's just… since Masumi is a Fusion user while your deck focuses on Xyz Summon and Yuya only uses Xyz recently, Sora, who uses Fusion, will be the best pick!"

"You really shouldn't asked someone to teach Fusion Yuzu! Especially him! He is not trustworthy!" Ruri slightly raised her voice. Hearing the word "Fusion" hurt her every time, sadly Yuzu did know know the whole truth yet, and she did not plan to tell her now.

"What's wrong with Sora teaching me Fusion Summon Ruri?" Yuzu questioned, Ruri froze, not knowing what to say. "It seems that you're too sensitive to Fusion Ruri, what's wrong with you?"

"I…" Ruri did not know what to say to this mess.

"Fusion is just like Xyz, Synchro or Pendulum Ruri! They are just different summon methods, nothing wrong with Fusion or anything!" Yuzu argued. "What did Fusion to do you that you hate it so much? Bullying is not really sensible for an answer if you continue to express that emotion Ruri!"

A pained face was seen on Ruri, who was heavily conflicted in her mind. Ruri realized that Yuzu and she have very different philosophies on Fusion Summoning.

"And by the way, why is Sora in this?" Yuzu pressed, deciding not to care about Ruri's emotions for this moment. She hid something, and friends were not supposed to hide things from each other.

"It's uh… uh…" Ruri faltered. Lying to Yuzu and her relatives already hurt her a lot, and now Yuzu had noticed, she was trying to pry her for information, and if she found out what she had told her was a complete lie, she could not know what to do anymore. Ruri knew the secret could not be kept for forever, but right now this was the best decision. Of course she did not hate her, she had every reason to, and if she was in that situation, she would stubbornly inquire as well. In the mix of complicated thoughts and emotions, she was torn. She cared about her own people in Heartland, but she had grown to care about Yuzu, Yuya, the kids and other people here as well. She held back the water formed in her eyes, swallowing her guilt, deciding to keep lying to them for now, and when she could not hide anymore, she would tell them the whole truth, not hoping to get a sorry from them of course, but at least, it would make her feel better before receiving the appropriate punishment from them.

"Yeah… I hate Fusion." She told Yuzu the half-truth. "And there is a pretty deep reason why I hate it, which I will not discuss for now. It's very traumatizing..."

Yuzu sadly looked at her, the sad face Ruri made while saying that clearly indicated that she did not want to talk about it one bit, yet she forced her to say some…

"You can say that Fusion Summoning destroyed my innocence, like a rape assault or something!"

"Rape assault?" Yuzu gasped, covering her mouth with her right hand.

"Yeah… It hurts me a lot… And the reason I don't want you to learn Fusion from Sora… is because I don't want you to suffer the same fate as I did… Sora reminded me of that. For me, the fact that he used Fusion made me hurt again. For me, everyone who uses Fusion is horrible and untrustworthy…" Ruri looked down, not having the courage to even look at Yuzu anymore. She was vulnerable now, and even though she had toughen herself up a lot during the last six months, she could not keep the never-ending poisonous memories out of her head.

Yuzu touched Ruri's shoulders, giving her the comfort she needed now. "Look Ruri, I'm sorry. I'm sorry okay. I'm sorry for forcing you to say it. If this thing really ruined you like that, then I have no right to make you continue to say about it."

Ruri breathed a little.

"Nothing is inherently evil Ruri, nothing is originally evil, it's only evil when it's used for bad purposes. From where you live, maybe Fusion was used for bad things, but here, in Miami City, Fusion is just like other things. It is used to entertain people, to make people really smile from their hearts! And that is what Fusion, or everything else, should be used Ruri! And I'm sure that Sora does not use Fusion for evil!"

Ruri looked up at Yuzu, finding the last sentence to be similar. "Make people smile"… you got it from Yuya?"

Yuzu slightly blushed. "Uh yeah… I got it from him. He's amazing!"

"Huh! Yuya influenced you a lot. But yeah… thanks Yuzu… you made me feel better now." She gave Yuzu a small smile. _"But you're 100% wrong about Sora…"_

"That's good to hear Ruri! It's good to see you smile again! And Ruri, I learn Fusion also because I want to protect You Show Duel School, and to be stronger too, just like you!"

Ruri was touched. Yuzu really wanted to do good things from Fusion, and she had good reasons to be. Maybe she should let her learn Fusion from Sora, if that helped her, despite the danger of having an Academia lurking around. "Good luck Yuzu! And just be careful okay?"

"I got it Ruri! And by the way… if you can, please have a wider thought about Fusion. If you can get over the fact that Fusion harmed you in the past, you will embrace it and truly fell happy with it right now, right at the present and in the future too!"

"I'll try Yuzu… thank you…" Yuzu never knew how her words affected her, and it was good to let it be.

"Well… I have to go now, Sora's calling me on the phone!" Yuzu took her Duel Disk and got off the chair. "Daddy! I gotta go learning Fusion now, please take care of Ruri while I'm away!"

"Got it sweetie! Just do what you wanna do!" Shuzo said back. He happily watched his daughter run out of the house. He then turned back to Ruri.

"Hey Ruri!"

"Yeah?"

"I heard your conversation earlier. About Fusion, I can only say this."

"Humph?"

"Just like what Yuzu said, everything is supposed to help and entertain people. It was not intended to hurt people, only bad people do. So if you got a bad history with Fusion, just don't think too much about it. Fusion never wants to hurt you, just like you never wanted to hate Fusion. Conquer the bad past and embrace it to make you mature and hold your own future in your hands! That's all I gotta say!"

"Thanks a lot Shuzo-san!" Ruri smiled sweetly. Shuzo's phone suddenly rang. He picked up and talked to someone for a bit. After that, he turned to Ruri.

"Ruri! Yuya wants to see you today! He's doing qualification duels for the tournament and he wants you and the kids to accompany him since Sora is helping Yuzu right now!"

"Oh I see… Okay! I will go! I will also call Ryoga too!"

"Good Ruri! Be careful okay? And remember to bring the Duel Disk of our school since Yuya will be calling you to that disk! You left it at You Show after leaving with Ryoga and I picked it up for you! I left the address of Yuya's house on it!"

"Thanks Shuzo-san!" Ruri grabbed the Standard Duel Disk that she got from Shuzo after coming to here and went out of Shuzo's house.

Shuzo thought about Ruri for a bit. _"Sad girl… got a poor past with something that she should not have had… And I wonder how she got that purple Duel Disk… Miami does not mass-produce that model!"_ Little did he knew, Ruri was more than just innocent.

* * *

"Oi Ryoga!" Ruri called her friend.

"Oi Ruri! What's wrong?"

"I'm going to Yuya's house since he wants someone to accompany with him today! And it would be nice if you do the same too!"

"Okay I will!" Ryoga immediately agreed. "Wait? How can you get there when you do not know where his house is?"

"I should say the same thing to you! Shuzo-san gave me the address!"

"I managed to hack the map of Miami City! I can get there alone!"

"Dammit… Eisuke is really good!" Ruri noted.

"He is! Now, let's race to there shall we?"

"Only Yuto gets to say it to me!" Ruri joked. "Besides, I'm sure that I'm closer to his house! I will win, and I will not wait for you punk!"

"Bad girl Ruri! I will tell Yuto that you played with another boy!" Ryoga returned while beginning to run.

"In your stupid dreams!" Ruri said back, running as well.

A short while… they both came to Yuya's house at the same time. This earned massive laughter from both of them. After finishing the laugh, they began to talk.

"No one wins this time Ryoga!"

"Huh… I'll pass…"

"Good to see you again! Did you sleep well last night?"

"I did!" In truth, it was the opposite, but Ryoga did not want to harm her feelings.

"Yeah… It's sad that we cannot see Yuto and Shun now…"

"He had even blocked the communication on our Duel Disks and GPS on mine as well! But don't think about it too much Ruri! We will find him later. Now, let's get inside… Wait!" Something about Ruri got him interest. He smiled. "You finally wear shorts now?"

"Yeah… I decided…" She nervously answered.

"Yuto will say that you're sexy with those white long legs!" Ryoga joked.

"Stop it Ryoga!" Ruri blushed. "It's just that I did not have time to change clothes!"

"It's fine Ruri!" Ryoga then knocked the door. After that Yoko greeted them. This was the first time they had met the mother of Sakaki Yuya. After getting in and talking for a little bit, Yuya asked his mother to take them and the kids outside to go to a place where his first qualification duel would be. Yoko agreed and they went to there. It was a Duel School called Cuisine Duel School. It focused on entertaining the audience by incorporating cooking and Dueling.

"Sounds good. I can learn some cooking here!" Ryoga commented.

"You don't know how to cook Ryoga?" Yuya took this chance to tease him.

"Are you?" Ryoga coyly said back.

Yuya gave him a hard look and turned back. "Curse you…"

Ryoga smiled smugly and surprisingly, Ruri too. After that, they got in and after some skillfully convincing words from Yuya, a student named Mokota Michio agreed to duel him for fun despite having already qualified for the championship. Before that Ryoga had easily beaten another duelist here, commenting that he was weak while Ruri simply sighed at her friend's antics.

After getting to the Duel Room, the principal of Cuisine Duel School Kirigakure announced the duel of the two representatives of the two Duel Schools and began the duel.

"Action Field on! Field Magic, Action Kitchen activate!"

"Duelists locked in battle!" Yuya said.

"Kicking the earth and dancing in the air alongside their monsters! They storm through the field!" Michio continued.

"Behold! This is the newest and greatest evolution of dueling!" Yuya happily said.

"ACTION…" The audience, including the kids, Ruri and Ryoga, happily said.

 **DUEL!**

 **Sakaki Yuya** : 4000 [5]

 **Mokota Michio** : 4000 [5]

* * *

" _Man… things just said "screw you" to me…"_

Yuto bitterly commented in his mind. He was sitting at the black wall, looking at the sun through the rectangular hole used to be a window, eyes black and heavy from lack of sleep and piece of his mind. The last two days for him and Shun was a complete mess. Kamishiro Ryoga, their friend, their comrade, was captured by none other than Akaba Reiji, which followed by their complete outburst of overwhelming emotion and heavy grief for failing to keep a close eye on him. While Shun angrily expressed it out in the form of ground punching and screaming, Yuto tried his very best to keep it all to himself, only revealing a bit to Shun. He did not want this, he did not want this any bit. Before the war, he was still composed and calm, but he could express much more emotion and what he thought about to his parents and his friends. The war, or more specifically, the ground-crushing footsteps of tons of Antique Gear Chaos Giants and the sheer terror they brought through their colossal appearances and their destructive and unpreventable Real Solid Vision laser beams, had crushed his mind severely. He became more depressed, angrier and sometimes he would go out of control of himself and crush anything he desired, although he never wanted it, he never wanted to hurt anyone, friend or foe. At least, or from what Yuto thought, this made him even more composed and collected, bringing an air of manliness and maturity to anyone around him, especially to Ruri. He thought that if he managed to remove the massive depression he got from this war and retain the composed part, he would be the man he wanted to be, the proud child his parents wanted him to be, the trusted and dependable man his friends wanted to have, and the manliest man that Ruri ever had.

Honestly, the only time he could at least have a small piece of his mind was the Ruri and what they had shared together. From what Yuto knew, there was no girl better than her. She was beautiful, in and out, kind, gentle, honest and strong at the same time, the qualities that every girls desired to have, which (Yuto thought she would not know about it) Ruri was lucky enough to have all. She was the best girl that he had ever met in his life, and he had to admit, she would probably be the only one that he would always truly love and eternally remember, not even the moment he breathed his last would he forget it. Ruri would never knew that how important she was to him, she was like a warm flame in his fragmented mind, a beautiful flower to his scarred heart, and, probably, no, really, the Goddess of Love Aphrodite reborn in the shape of a beautiful girl formed from the tears of the Creator. The girl Kurosaki Ruri would be the only one he always love no matter how cruel life was now. He would always cherished the times they spent together, and however harsh the quest would be, he would do his best to get her back, to get his Ruri back from the chain of Academia.

He could imagine the life they would have after getting her back and ending this war. It would be beautiful. They would both achieve their dreams in life and maybe end up married, their life intertwined. Probably some kids… it would be good. And he knew he could not achieve it, or at least the first part, if he did not act.

" _I will get you back no matter what, Ruri! Because you are my treasured love! You are the most important person in my life, and I will do my best to make sure that we will both get what we deserved!"_

Feeling better after that, he was pumped up with determination. And the calling from his Duel Disk just confirmed it further. He quickly swiped the interface and accepted the call. The image of Shun coming up above the Duel Disk.

"Hey Yuto! Are you okay?"

"Pretty good Shun!" Yuto answered, "Hey Shun! Now a day had passed, we can confirm that Akaba Reiji captured Ryoga. Got anything?"

"Not yet Yuto! There's too many at LDS! I cannot get Akaba Reiji!" Shun disinterestedly said. "Got any plan Yuto?"

"Not yet… but blending in may do some good!"

"We're not gonna do that Yuto!" Shun protested.

"Look Shun! I don't want to do the direct way you are doing now! I prefer the silent approach more. I will get inside the city and try to find anything useful!"

"Whatever Yuto…" Shun relented, accepting his friend's wishes. Deep inside his outer harsh appearance and facade, he deeply cared for his best friend. "Don't compromise us! I will try to find where Ryoga is too!"

"Of course. For some reason he had not communicated with us for the last two days! His Duel Disk might have been tampered with!"

"That's a possibility Yuto!" Shun confirmed. "Anyway, good luck with your way of doing this mission!"

"Try not to card too many LDS members Shun!" Yuto reminded this angry bird.

"Will try…" Shun said to himself and cut off the connection.

Yuto sighed heavily. He knew Shun would be reckless again. _"Shun might break this rule soon, but I have no choice… Besides, I cannot hide myself in the dark anymore, I need to blend in and try to get information!"_ With that, Yuto took off his cape, got out of the hideout and began to walk to the center of the city while biting a loaf of bread that he managed to buy from a street store without raising much suspicion. Along the way he stopped at a clothing shop, a pretty large one. He glanced at the prices of the clothes there.

" _Good price! Lucky that I got more than enough money for this and there was not too many people around!"_ He smirked. Despite being 8 AM now, there did not seem to be a lot of people around and inside the shop. Yuto put the Duel Disk behind a dark place and finally pushed the door, getting inside the shop. As he predicted, the shopkeeper could not hide his surprise at his tattered shirt and pants.

"I'm sorry but uh… why are your clothes pretty… uh… messed up?" He nervously questioned.

Yuto sighed, looking at his clothes before giving him the answer. "Life got harsh, I only have these clothes available. Luckily, I got some money from my adopted parents so I decided to immediately buy some new ones!"

"Oh I see!" The usual reply for this situation, especially expected from a shopkeeper of a clothing shop in Japan. "Well, good luck with your new clothes! We have a lot in here, you will probably choose what you like easily!"

"I hope so!" Yuto politely answered, still finding strange that he was able to communicate normally like before the war. Six months clearly changed him a lot, but not his former way of life yet. He went to the men's wear section at looked at the long racks of clothes consisted of men's shirts and pants. He took interest at two of them in particular. They were a beige shirt and simple long black pants. They were similar to the ones he wore back in Heartland. He smiled and took off those two items. After switching clothes sizes to find out which one he would fit in best, he bought a new large jacket as well. It was a dark green jacket with a hood in the back. He also wanted to buy a dark cap too.

" _Gonna need the hood and the cap later! Need to hide the Duel Disk!"_ He thought before buying it and immediately wearing it. Yuto suddenly looked at the female clothes section and glanced at some fancy ones there. A purple shirt, a sleeveless shirt, a beautiful red dress, some pretty short shorts…

" _Heh… I guess I should buy this for Ruri! She's gonna like it a lot!"_ Yuto sheepishly smiled. Knowing Ruri, she would never wear these kind of revealing clothes like this. Her parents were pretty restrictive on this matter and Ruri herself did not like this a bit. Maybe he would find a way to convince her to wear this at least once, he would surely be dead on track if he managed to take a long good look at her (he knew) sexy long legs. Unknown to him, Ruri already did that…

"Wanting to buy clothes for your girlfriend? How perspective!"

Yuto jotted up to reality. He realized that the shopkeeper was looking at him.

"Uh… no! I don't have one! You see, I don't even have proper clothes, how can I have a girlfriend!" Yuto managed to calmly say to him.

"OK… I trust it for now…"

Having enough of being in cloud nine of lust, he paid the money and thanked the shopkeeper. "Thank you a lot! I guess this is enough for me now! Don't need anymore because you know, boy issues!" He laughed at his pretty bad joke to be honest, but at least it helped him feel better. He put his cap on.

The shopkeeper laughed with him and bid him farewell. He had met a pretty interesting boy despite his rather bad background.

Yuto picked his Duel Disk and hid it under his jacket. A small but heartwarming interaction with a stranger was enough to pump Yuto up with hope, and he was right when he began to walk towards the center of Miami City. The city was lively with people busily walking around doing their usual work, tall buildings trying to arch themselves higher to welcome more sunlight. The city was similar to Heartland in many ways: colorful, beautiful, lively, and most of all, full of hope. In Yuto's mind, this city was ideal for him. If somehow Heartland was unable to live in anymore, he would move to this place, the Standard Dimension, this Miami City to live his life and achieve what he wanted. In a moment of nostalgia, he promised to himself that he would not let this beautiful city, this dimension, or the Synchro Dimension, anywhere else suffer the dilemma that his hometown had cruelly endured. This was unlike the reckless and angry Shun.

Yuto realized that this city had too much to be ignored, and he decided to at least spend some time forgetting the mission to enjoy this city and what it offered to a broken bird like him. With that, he immediately took his Duel Disk out and checked the GPS to find a place of interest. He really wanted to relax a little bit after those harsh times. After some searching, he finally found one, the Miami Supermarket. Smiling, he hid the Duel Disk back and began to walk to there, having remembered the location and how to get there. His good memories was what kept him alive during the war by hiding in places where most people would not check. After a short while, he was finally at the place. He had to admit that it was a really big building, just the look of it was enough to confirm that, this supermarket was bigger than that of Heartland. Admiring the place, he walked inside.

"Oi! Are you hiding the Duel Disk?"

"Huh?" Yuto turned to see a female employee saying to him. He took his hand to his back and pulled the Duel Disk out. "Do I need to keep it here?"

"There is no need! We just want to make sure that there would be no shoplifting! You can wear it in here, just like others!" She pointed at the people, who had Duel Disks in their arms as well. Yuto sighed in relief. "And by the way, that model is strange! We have not seen one yet!"

Yuto quickly replied. "This is a special model!"

"Well… I see… you got connection to LDS?"

"Not that kind of… you know… just a gift!"

"Gift? That''s a nice one!"

"Yeah! And I think I may have to leave it to the locker, people in here would say bad things about me if they see this!"

"Yes sir!" She took Yuto's Duel Disk and locked it. She gave him the key. "Have fun in the Miami Supermarket!"

"I will!" Yuto went inside.

The building was even bigger than what he thought when he stood outside. It was a very spacious structure with a lot of stores, including shops, restaurants, fast food stores like KFC, Lotteria or more traditional ones, gaming shops and so on. It consisted of 10 floors with dozens of escalators all over, and luckily, some lifts to save walking time which Yuto swore that it would tire Ruri out rather quickly if there was not any. Yuto took the elevator and clicked the "5" button. Elevators in Japanese did not have the numbers "4", "13", "14" or any numbers that had "4" in them due to the word being similar to "death" and the number "13" was obvious. After getting out on the fifth floor, he went to a gaming center and played some games there, especially shooting games. Even though he seemed to be the type of guy who would rather not play those violent games, he actually did because he knew as long as it was just a game, he would gladly play it for the pleasure of himself and others. Yuto felt very happy playing this as this reminded him of the old good times when he was playing games with his parents and the one time when he took Ruri to play with him. While she played many games, she did not play the shooting game, she only watched him happily play it. Yuto took this as a gratitude, he was lucky enough to have a girl watching him do what he likes to do. He always thanked her for that.

After playing enough, Yuto was about to leave the place when he heard some kids whispering.

"Hey, I heard a duel was happening!"

"Yeah! At the Cuisine Duel School!"

"You know this? Sakaki Yuya was the one to duel!"

"What? The man who beat the champion?"

"Yeah! From what they said, he requested to have a duel with one of the members of that Duel School! And Mokota Michio agreed to duel him!"

"It's happening now! Let's go before it's too late!"

" _Sakaki Yuya!"_ Yuto realized. Ryoga had told him about Yuya earlier. Luckily, he only secretly heard the kids talking and his cap partially hid his face from view so he would be safe from the misidentification that he was Yuya due to having the same faces. He followed the kids behind. Quickly enough, he was at the Cuisine Duel School, where a supposed lookalike of his was dueling a representative of the school. He was interested in seeing how Yuya would duel and how his skill would be. He hoped that that boy would not be involved in this cruel war though. He decided to go to the upper floor to see the duel, but sadly, when he got there, the duel was finished. Everybody smiled happily as they got out and go back home or back to their usual duties. As indicated from what they said, Sakaki Yuya had won the duel.

" _Well he seems to be good! Now, I need to see what he looks like!"_ Yuto became curious.

A short while later, Sakaki Yuya had come out with his friends and a woman. Yuto briefly stood dead in track the moment he saw his face. Besides the different hairstyles with Yuto's being spiked and Yuya's being more down and all over, his face was exactly the same. Yuto wondered at this strange phenomenon, there was someone else besides Yugo that shared the same face as his. Quickly Yuto thought about it.

" _Think about it, it is similar to what Ryoga had told me about the Yuzu girl and Ruri. If I was from Xyz, Yugo was from Synchro and this boy Yuya was from Standard, then that means there must be another one like this from Fusion… and from this, I can say that all of the boys like me are good at Dueling! And if the Fusion boy is not in Academia, even though it is a possibility, he would be useful in this war… Stop! Stop! No! Don't even think about it! I don't want anyone else to get involved in this war anymore! Not anymore!"_

There was something else that cut him off of the flowing thoughts, and it was something that he never expected to happen…

There were two more people behind Yuya and the kids, and it were… Kamishiro Ryoga… and Kurosaki Ruri…

They were with Yuya and the kids…

" _Ryoga? Ruri?"_

* * *

…

…

This time, Yuto completely froze. Never before had he thought that he would see this, he had finally found them!

Kamishiro Ryoga and Kurosaki Ruri!

The dear comrades of his, the people he swore he would protect from Academia no matter what, were right here, right there, right in front of his eyes!

Instantly, he had the urge to vault down from the railing and run at lightning speed to them, to finally meet and hug his friends and thank Yuya for rescuing them or something. But he immediately held himself together. It would shock everyone in the hall. Instead, he decided to stalk them after they went out of the Duel School. He looked at them happily, finally finding the solace he needed after those horrible times. He would bring them back to Shun, smiling at the (probably) teary reunion of Shun and Ruri, then they would find Akaba Reiji and finish the mission, bringing back peace to Heartland. Yuto realized that Ruri was wearing shorts today, probably she had bought it or one of Yuya's relatives had given her one. Either way, he thanked him for that and he felt something strange under his thing as he admired the view of Ruri's long, thin and sexy legs for the first time.

Those promising thoughts were instantly shot out when somehow, Ruri and Ryoga suddenly looked up at him right before they got out and he was about to follow them. Ruri widened her eyes in shock, despite knowing Yuto was here, she would never expect to find Yuto in here. And just like Ruri, Ryoga was doing the same thing as her. They were at the mix of emotions, not knowing what to do anymore…

The shock on Ruri's face turned into sadness. She turned to Ryoga, who sadly nodded, giving her the instruction of what she must do. They both knew that they could not see Yuto and Shun now, lest they let Reiji kill all of them, not counting the painful electrocution that they were sure that Reiji would gladly do…

Ruri painfully looked up to see Yuto one last time. She attempted to mutter his name but she could not bring herself to do it. This was too much for her. She had finally found her boyfriend, the one she cherished the most, yet she could not run to him and hug him tightly like she was supposed to do. Trying her best to hide the urges to do what she should do and the tears, Ruri looked away from Yuto and went off with Ryoga and Yuya, who had begun to ask why they stayed there for too long.

Meanwhile, Yuto wondered what the hell was wrong with them, why they suddenly changed and left him like that…

* * *

"It's okay Yuya, I just saw something that bothered me a bit, that's all!" Ruri immediately found an excuse.

"Really? You seemed to be really hurt!" Yuya worried for her.

"Yeah! You were pretty sad there Ruri!" Yoko said.

"She's fine Yuya!" Ryoga cut in. "I know her well, she sometimes acts like this!"

"Okay…" Yuya relented. They then walked back to Yuya's house.

"Oi Yuya!"

"Yes Mom?"

"You really did well today! I'm proud of you!"

"Hehe~~ Thanks Mom!" Yuya embarrassingly rubbed the back of his hair at the sudden change of attitude her mother just displayed. "Strange that you rarely does that!"

"No really. You managed to request a duel with Michio-kun by yourself! I really thought that you failed to!"

"Nah, it's all right, I'm 16 now Mom! I should be able to do something on my own now!"

"That's my boy!"

"You're very good Yuya! I'm proud to have a friend like this!" Ryoga chimed in, putting his arm around Yuya's shoulders. He truly admired him today.

"Thanks Ryoga!" Yuya felt proud, this was probably the first time he had been complimented by someone else other than his mom, Shuzo, Yuzu, Gogenzaka and the kids.

"Me too!" Ruri happily told him, hiding her sadness for a moment. Yuya was a very interesting boy in her opinion with the amazing duel and the Entertainment Duel style he just displayed back there.

"Don't say anymore Ruri! I'm embarrassed!" Yuya slightly blushed.

"Then I'll continue making you like this!" Ruri teased.

"I will not interfere this time son!" Yoko decided to play along, earning a pout from Yuya. The conversation then turned to joking and teasing from Yuya, Ryoga and Ruri with others smiling happily. Together, they began walking home for lunch. Yoko decided to make it AND dinner for them in celebration for Yuya's victory.

All the time though, Yuto was trailing behind them, not knowing how the whole situation had turned like this.

" _What the hell… why did they… why did Ruri and Ryoga changed like that… did Reiji do anything…"_

He did not want to follow them anymore. It would just create further problems, not solving anything. He bitterly looked at the fading forms of them before put on his hoodie and sadly turned away.

* * *

The rest of the day, Yuto spent time wandering around the city, attempting to break in LDS or staying in a coffee shop to drink something to pass the boring time. He could not shake off the sad look of Ruri when she turned away from him, wondering what he did wrong, whether he deserved it or not, and what Akaba Reiji had done to him.

" _Damm you…!"_ Yuto clenched his fists. _"Akaba Reiji!"_

He did not realize that he was holding a glass of coffee until he felt pain in his hand. He carefully dropped it and looked down in anger. At least, he was not out of control and did things that scared Ruri which he did not even remember that he did. After finishing the drink, it was pretty dark. Yuto went to a dark alley and contacted Shun.

"Hey Shun! Any way to find Reiji yet?"

"Not yet! I think we have to do that…"

"Probably…"

"Are you okay Yuto?" Shun immediately became concerned.

"What?"

"Usually, you would disagree with me! And today you did not! What's happening?"

Yuto sighed. "Well… there was something… but I cannot speak to you through Duel Disks! We need to get back to the hideout! This is important!"

"Really?"

"Yep! Get back as soon as you can!" Yuto urged Shun.

"Okay!" Shun immediately agreed and cut off the communication.

Yuto put back his Duel Disk on his right wrist and began to run back to the hideout, not forgetting to buy foods for him and Shun which was a piece of cake thanks to the civilian clothes he was wearing. Yuto stood at the door, waiting for his friend to return, and Shun did come back a short while later. And of course, Yuto predicted that Shun was surprised at his changed appearance.

"Hello Yuto! Forgetting our mission already?" Shun joked.

"Forgetting your ass!" Yuto replied.

Shun chuckled. "Honestly, nice clothes! I should get some!"

"Knowing you, I don't think so!" Yuto was kicked by Shun for the joke.

Shun then talked about that subject. "So what is important that you need me here to say?"

"Yeah I got one… and you're not gonna like it." Yuto turned serious. He got inside and talked. "I finally found them!"

"What, them? Who?"

Yuto breathed tiredly before continuing. "I have found our comrades!"

"What? Ryoga?"

"Yes! And there is… one more…"

"Who?" Shun was full of hope. "Don't tell me…"

"Yep… your sister… Ruri…" Yuto gave a small smile.

"Ruri!" Shun smiled. "You finally found her? And she's in here?"

"Of course… she is here with Ryoga."

Shun held Yuto's shoulders. "Where are they Yuto? You know where they are right?"

"Yeah… but something's strange…"

"Something strange…?"

"Ruri and Ryoga left me after seeing me…"

"What? Leaving you?" Shun could not believe what Yuto was saying. "You're not kidding around are you?"

"Course not! For some reason, Ruri and Ryoga did not want to see me and walked away, and of course, you!"

"The hell!?" Shun roared. "What's wrong with them?"

"I don't know! Probably Reiji did something to Ryoga, and maybe Ruri too!"

Shun completely froze. The small hope he had been chasing had been completely shattered. "No… no… no… not Ruri… not them!" Shun slowly walked backwards, hitting the wall. "Damn you Reiji! Do you know what did Reiji do to them?"

"Of course I do not know…"

"Damn you Reiji… I will never forgive you for this! NEVER!" Shun yelled and immediately ran off searching for him, ignoring the pleading of Yuto to calm down and stay back. Shun continued to run until he had to stop to catch his breath. He hid himself in a dark alley and thought about the situation.

" _So Reiji had captured Ryoga that night… and now I remember… there was one more person in the car…"_ He recalled the moment Reiji's limousine passed by Yuto and him. _"That person was lying down, but it's pretty slim and small… probably Ruri…"_ He came to a conclusion, although not 100% percent. _"Ruri was here, in Standard the whole time! And Ryoga and Ruri were about to go back to me and Yuto when Reiji kidnapped them!"_

" _Wait for me Reiji…"_ Shun looked outside. _"I will force you to come out… and I will kill you soon…"_

Shun then pulled out a card from his pocket. It was a card with a picture of a scared Marco, the man who Shun defeated and carded. A plan formed in his head.

"You will be drawn out soon Reiji… and I will beat you to death…"

* * *

Ryoga happily ate dinner with Shuzo, Gongenzaka, Yoko, Ruri, Yuya and Yuzu and the kids (not Sora for Ruri and him). To celebrate Yuya's win against Michio, Yoko decided to make dinner for everyone and invite his close people to it. It was very good, the food was delicious, that was the first time since the war that Ryoga managed to eat a good meal with a lot of people around like that. He had to keep his smile from being too brightly at this long-awaited treat, especially from someone that he had just met yesterday. Of course, Ruri and he did not forget to thank her for the dinner. The two things that he did not like were the manner Gongenzaka referred to himself and the inclusion of Sora, the Academia spy, but obviously they could not tell anyone about the second part. During the entire night, he made sure not to have much conversation with Sora, and if he did, they would exchange quick death glares after talking.

"Luckily Sora stays here!" Ryoga whispered to Ruri while watching TV with Yuya, Yuzu, Gongenzaka and Sora.

"Yeah… when you leave, I'll make sure he will not follow you!" Ruri whispered back.

"Ruri!" Yuzu suddenly spoke up.

"Yeah?"

"Where's he?" Yuzu carefully not to say Yuto's name to avoid unnecessary attention.

"He's not here!" Ruri said back.

"What are you talking about?" Sora wondered.

"Nothing!" The girls quickly replied, though Ruri said with more force than necessary, luckily they did not notice.

"Just girl's thing Gongenzaka!" Yuya told him.

"Ok. The man, Gongenzaka, will not interfere with private talks between two female individuals!" Gongenzaka said, huge laughter ensured.

They continued talking and watching TV until it was nearly 10. Ryoga got up and left, not forgetting to glance back to watch out for Sora. After a short walk, Ryoga finally confirmed that Sora did not do anything stupid.

" _Thanks Ruri!"_

He then walked back to his sleeping spot earlier and covered himself with a ragged blanket which he managed to find during the way. This night was slightly better for him. He knew that he needed to act like a homeless person so he had changed to his tattered clothes and not stay up late and get drunk or something, even though his depression told him to. It was too easy to lose control of yourself when you were alone and moody, but he could manage it.

" _Guess the war did bring some benefits… Anyway, hope you guys, Yuto and Shun okay. Don't do anything stupid. I'll explain why later…"_

* * *

Ruri looked at the bird resting besides the window after a full day flying. She was tired from in the inside just like the bird, she could find similarities between herself and what inspired her deck. Flying too far and it must rest for a long time, just the the constant lying she made to her people. She did not want to do this anymore, yet she could not find a way to ease her doubt with Sora being around and the desire to keep those people out of the war as much as possible. It was getting bigger and bigger every day and it was slowly killing her.

" _Now Sora had got close to Yuzu, things are out of control now. I may have to use force…"_

" _Ryoga, Shun, Yuto, Yuzu, everyone, I messed things up by myself, and I don't know what to do to fix it anymore…"_

At least the good times with the group today managed to make her sleep after a short while...

* * *

Yuto ate the food, looking at the full moon, the representation of the moon god Tsukiyomi in Japanese culture. This was a sight to behold during the war time, as it was hidden in the black smoke of the burned buildings. Yuto thought back about the day. Too many things have happened in just the few days he, Shun and Ryoga got here, probably even more than back in Heartland, and even though he hated it, he got used to it. He decided to stay in the dark life he always was and protect people from behind. He would protect Ruri, the girl Yuzu, that boy Yuya or every innocent people in this dimension from Sora, from Academia…

And probably from themselves…

* * *

 **Yeah! A complete mess this time right? At least there is some good moments in here, and Yuto, you're pretty nasty now when you decided to neglect your duty!**

 **I don't know what went wrong with my head when I've managed to make a 9k+ non-duel chapter. I'm sure this is not organized properly though.**

 **I really loved the Yuzu and Ruri conversation for some reason. I hope you guys like it as well. I made Ruri a girl who does not like revealing clothes because Ruri reminded me of a close friend who only wears those at home and not in public.** **I realized that I did not have enough scenes of Ryoga so I decided to have one at the end. I guess I could explore him in a future chapter soon to avoid making him too flat.**

 **I sorta get the idea of Yuto blending in when I re-watched ARC-V. Since the show wanted to create suspense, they did not include any scenes of Yuto doing stuffs between when he beat Sawatari and his duel with Sora. I guess the show could just have done a flashback episode centering around this time of Yuto though, and this is what I did as you can see.** **Sorry if you complain that Yuzu did not have much "paper time" in this chapter. Watching Sora win against a sumo duelist while still thinking about Yuto and her loss against Masumi (Ep 16) is still too hard and not enough for me to write and explore.** **Also, I have changed the effect of Black Rose Bloomer Dragon, you can see it in chapter 13 where I've rewritten the effect.**

 **To Gentyman, hope you're not disappointed that you did not explore Yuto like this (no offense).**

* * *

 **Next Chapter Preview**

 **Extremist vs Pacifist**

Seeing something strange, Yuya investigated and crossed paths with Kurosaki Shun. There they have a massive clash...

* * *

 **Don't forget to review, that will help me a lot. This is matrixnis, out!**


	20. Scale 20

**I'm here with a new chapter to all of you guys!**

 **Sorry for the pretty late update, my life have gotten busy this time and probably for the next 2 months, so don't expect the update to be as usual. I will try my best though.**

 **This time though, we will have the most anticipated duel between Yuya and Shun. I never liked how the writers made that duel short and pretty boring. With those two being two of the best duelists of Yu-Gi-Oh ARC-V, they should have had a big and long duel as everyone wanted to. Especially at the time when Shun was still an anti-hero, clashing with the wide-eyed idealist Yuya would be a good fit for drama instead of being blown away by Rise Falcon's gust of wind. That's what I'm trying to do in this chapter.**

 **To Gentyman, they will (lol). As far as I know, Reiji's VA schedule was heavy at the time so there was no duel between them.**

 **To Playerhood18, you may know it already. And Yuya is pretty much dead now...**

 **With that out of the way, let's get started!**

* * *

 **Chapter 20: Extremist vs Pacifist**

"Huh… huh… huh…"

"Huh… huh… huh…"

Multiple quick intakes of air was heard as two duelists faced each other, both tired and pained. They were a tall man in a blue jacket with glasses and a red scarf covering his face, and a shorter man with red and green hair, a white jacket over his shoulders, long pants and an orange shirt with a small slash wound, blood pouring from it. They were in a long and intense duel with neither side having the slightest intention to give up. They both have their own reasons to fight this hard and this brutal. For the masked man, he wanted to find his sister back, and for the wounded man, he wanted to get out of this situation and achieve his mission today.

…

…

 **Sakaki Yuya** : 350 [3]

…

…

 **Kurosaki Shun** : 500 [1]

…

…

Yuya could feel the pain from the wound. Trying his best to hold himself together, he touched the top card of his deck and drew it. Bringing all of his might on this destiny draw, he forgot the dripping wound and yelled as loudly as possible, like a survivalist refusing to give in to despair. The blood slowly yet insistently hit the ground, one by one, and he clearly had no plan on losing himself to the alluring darkness slowly formed in front of his very eyes.

"DRAW!"

* * *

 **(3 hours ago)**

The best way to start your day is to prepare a good plan in advance yesterday, and for Yuya, it was the trip to another Duel School called Clarity Prep School. It is a popular preparatory school in Miami City where many politicians, scholars or prodigies are trained, in other words, it is a school for training successful people in the future. It was pretty far away from home though, required a 20-minute bullet train ride to get there. With that in mind, Yuya quickly got out of his bedroom, greeted En, Core and the other two cats that his mother Yoko adopted yesterday and went down to eat the delicious breakfast. There was one thing that surprised him though: Sora was not there.

Out of curiosity, Yuya asked his mom. "Mom, where is Sora? Why isn't he here today?"

"Strange, you usually do not want him to be here!" Yoko exclaimed.

"Maybe I got used to that kid around Mom. But do you know where he is now?"

"Not sure though, but from what I knew, she is probably practicing Fusion Summon with Sora now."

"How about Ruri?"

"She's giving Xyz lessons this afternoon so she stays at Shuzo's house."

"I see… Well I need to do something too! I need to qualify for the Miami Championship!"

"And which opponent has the guts to face the proud kid of mine today?" She asked with a smile on her face. Clearly she took pride in her son a lot, Yuya was just like her husband in the bright image aspect.

"I got one, from Clarity Prep School!"

"Clarity Prep School? I thought that school only teaches advanced stuffs!"

"It also teaches Dueling, and it also brings its education to Action Duel as well! I called them last night and they accepted the duel. I guess they just want to boost their popularity up by beating me, who won Strong though."

"Sound interesting!" Yoko said. "I am doing some charity work today so I cannot go with you. Hope you can win today! I know you're really strong!" She kissed her son in his forehead to give him the support he needed today. As Yoko expected, the face that Yuya made indicated that he did not want to be seen like that in public.

"I'm not a kid anymore Mom!" Yuya pouted. He then opened his eyes and smiled at Yoko. "Anyway, thank you!"

"Good luck!"

"I will!" Yuya excitedly said his mother goodbye and went out. He was ready for the challenge today. Two days ago, while Yuzu, Ruri and Ryoga were chatting at his house, Yuya went upstairs and opened the Internet for potential opponents. After some surfing, he managed to find a seemingly strong one. His name was Kyuando Eita. He was a child prodigy in a lot of subjects and it seemed that he had incorporated them to Dueling as well. It was a pretty interesting combination in his opinion. Subjects in school are usually pretty hard and difficult to understand. Yuya really wanted the Ministry of Education and Training of Japan to do something to make the school subjects easier to grasp and with the invention of Action Dueling, it was finally possible in his opinion. The Clarity Prep School was one of the first preparatory schools in Japan to try out a new way of education through Dueling. To Yuya, anything that can be integrated into Dueling is very interesting, and even though it may not be fully practical, he would like to experience them at least once to find out the pros and cons of them and decide if it was best to continue that idea or not. The thought managed to kill some time and when Yuya stopped thinking about the duel he was about to commence today, he realized that he was in front of the bullet train station.

To be honest, he had no need to go there that early since he had arranged to get to the school at 10 AM; but since he was in a good mood today, he decided to go two hours earlier, probably to go around the city or explore the school somehow. It was good that Yuzu and he are having a one-weak break from school, allowing them time to prepare for the Championship.

As he was walking to the station, he suddenly saw three men in blue robes at the opposite street. The clothes they were wearing indicated that they are from LDS. Those people were standing beside the wall and peeking at the alleyway cautiously before running in.

" _What are they doing over there?"_

Interest got the best in Yuya now and he knew he could not resist it. At least the train could be used later, there were many more. Listening to his own heart, he quietly ran to the alley and the next thing he heard made him jerk up. The screaming of one, no two… no, three individuals, and the blinding light suddenly shining up. And then there were nervous grunts from other three men, and Yuya was sure that those were from the LDS members he had seen earlier. Right after that, a strong, angry voice of a strange man was heard.

"You three are from LDS? Then DUEL ME!"

" _What the hell? What is this guy?"_ Yuya decided it was best to hide himself behind the wall and watched the unfolding situation. No matter how dangerous it was, he knew that the three LDS members were strong and could hold his own, or maybe he could storm out of the hiding spot and helped them.

"From my hand, I normal summon Vanishing Lanius!"

"When this card is successfully summoned, I can special summon another Vanishing Lanius from my hand!"

Yuya peeked out and saw a tall masked man with three identically mechanical birds armed with weaponry on their wings.

"I, using the three level 4 Vanishing Lanius, overlay! Xyz Shōkan!" The three monsters flew down to the Overlay Network as three purple energy swirls.

"Appear now, Rank 4! Raid Raptors - Rise Falcon!"

" _The hell… Xyz Summon? Can't be…!"_ The thought within Yuya was suddenly cut off by an unsuspected gust of wind right at the moment when the Xyz Monster was summoned. It was so strong that Yuya had to hide himself to avoid being blasted away. Behind his line of sight, there was another source of lightning. After the dust had settled, he peeked out and was shocked to find only the masked man earlier, along with three strange cards floating above the ground. Instantly, his inner caring nature came out and forgetting the fact that the man over there was dangerous, Yuya ran out and grabbed the cards. Those cards contained the images of, instead of the usual monsters, the three LDS teachers he had seen earlier… and another three too…

Yuya could not believe this. The moment before they were alive right there, and the next thing he knew, they were instead turned into cards. And the images decipted that they were screaming in fear for life, that confirmed him that the masked man over there was the culprit. They were…

They were…

Murdered…

The realization hit him hard. Despite no blood being bled, they were practically dead anyway in those prison cells called cards and there would be no way to bring them back to who they were before. Swallowing the rising shock, anger and fear, he faced the man with a very serious face.

"Who are you? What did you do to them?"

Kurosaki Shun, unknown to Yuya thanks to the red scarf and the glasses, was widening his eyes in shock. The face was very similar and he only knew one, no, two people who had that face…

" _Yuto… then that guy must be…"_

" _The Pawn of Fusion!"_

Instantly, Shun questioned Yuya back. "Are you from Academia?"

"What? Academia?" Yuya did not know what did he meant.

"Are you, the Pawn of Fusion!" Shun raised his voice in, of course, anger.

"The Pawn of Fusion? I don't know what you mean?"

"Don't lie to me! I know you took my sister away and went to here!"

"I don't know who your sister is-"

"Shut up! Don't LIE to me!" Shun roared and activated his Duel Disk.

"I don't know what you mean, but you did this!" Yuya looked at the cards in anger, hands clenching tightly. "And I will not forgive you!" Yuya put his Duel Disk on his right hand and swung it, activating it as well.

"Left hand…" Something that Yuya did caught Shun's attention.

"What?"

"You're left-handed! Just like him!" Little did he knew, this was the standard feature for the people like Yuya.

"Him? The Pawn of Fusion as you-"

"Enough lying! I will beat you for capturing my sister!"

"I don't do anything to you and I will stop you from hurting me and anyone else!" Yuya resolved. He immediately drew five cards and yelled.

 **DUEL!**

 **Sakaki Yuya** : 4000 [5]

 **Kurosaki Shun** : 4000 [5]

* * *

"I take the first turn!" Yuya said and slapped a card. "Entermate Skullcrobat Joker summon!" Yuya called out his most versatile monster in his Deck; it smiled upon appearing like usual.

 **Entermate** **Skullcrobat Joker** DARK Magician Pendulum Effect LV4 Scale 8 **1800** /800

"Thanks to this card's effect, I can add "Odd-Eyes Pendulum Dragon" to my hand!" Yuya took out his trusty monster and showed it to Shun before taking out two cards.

" _What the hell is those card frames?"_ Shun wondered. He had not seen those kinds of cards before.

"I, using the Scale 1 Entermate Gumgumouton and the Scale 8 Timegazer Magician, Pendulum Scale setting!" Yuya swung his hand across the blade, setting down the two cards.

" _Pendulum…?"_ Shun was taken off guard.

The two blue pillars showed up, two monsters occupying each after a short while.

"Swing, Pendulum of the soul! Draw an arc across the nether! Pendulum Shōkan!" Yuya chanted, Shun widened his eyes in further shock as two swirls of energy flew down from the portal and formed into two monsters.

"Odd-Eyes Pendulum Dragon! And Entermate Amenboat!"

 **Odd-Eyes Pendulum Dragon** DARK Dragon Pendulum Effect LV7 Scale 4 **2500** /2000

"What the… what is this…?" Shun did not know what to say anymore.

Ignoring Shun's bewilderment, Yuya set down his last card in his hand. "Sa! It's your turn now! Make a move!"

Shun composed himself, returning to his predator mode. "No need to be told from a prick like you, Pawn of Fusion!"

"I'm not-"

"Draw!" Shun interrupted by yelling and drawing his card. "Magic Card, Raid Raptors - Roar!" Shun activated the magic card he had just drawn and took out a card from his deck. "I special summon Raid Raptors - Vanishing Lanius!"

 **Raid Raptors - Vanishing Lanius** DARK Winged Beast Effect LV4 **1300** /1600

"Its effects will allow me to call out Raid Raptors – Fuzzy Lanius!" Shun summoned another mechanical bird monster.

 **Raid Raptors - Fuzzy Lanius** DARK Winged Beast Effect LV4 **500** /1600

" _2 level 4 monsters… He will call out another one!"_ Yuya remembered what Shun did earlier when he fought several LDS teachers.

"Since I have a "Raid Raptors" monster on the field, I can special summon Raid Raptors - Backup Lanius!"

 **Raid Raptors - Backup Lanius** DARK Winged Beast Effect LV4 0/ **2100**

" _It's here!"_ Yuya readied himself.

"I, using the level 4 Vanishing Lanius, Fuzzy Lanius and Backup Lanius, overlay!" The three monsters

"Falcon lurking in the darkness! Raise your sharpened claws in adversary! Spread it out, Wing of Rebellion! Xyz Shōkan!"

"Appear now! Rank 4! Raid Raptors - Rise Falcon!" The roar was enough to creep Yuya out, and the appearance of the six-eyed armored falcon did the job even more effective.

 **Raid Raptors - Rise Falcon** DARK Winged Beast Xyz Effect R4 **100** /2000

"Since you were watching the duel earlier, you know what this monster can do right?" Shun said as Rise Falcon ate one Overlay Unit orbiting around it and absorbed the energy from Yuya's monsters, bathing itself in fire.

"Once per turn, by detaching an Overlay Unit, it gains the ATK of all of your special summoned monsters until the end of this turn!"

 **Raid Raptors - Rise Falcon** ATK 100 - 4900

"Nani? 4… 4900 ATK?" Yuya did not know the effect since he was busy covering himself from the gust of wind this monster created earlier. He looked at the burning falcon in awe.

"Battle!" Shun pointed his hand towards Yuya. "Raid Raptors - Rise Falcon! Destroy all enemies opposing you! First off! Entermate Amenboat!"

"Amenboat can switch itself to Defense Position and negate the attack!" The skimmer lowered itself, gaining a faint blue aura.

"Useless! Since Rise Falcon has Backup Lanius as an Xyz Material, it can negate the activated effect of Amenboat and destroy it!" Rise Falcon roared, sending another one of its Overlay Units to Amenboat and engulfed it, making it scream in pain before exploding.

"Amenboat!" Yuya yelled at his destroyed monster.

"And you take 500 damage!" A gust of wind splashed Yuya, who managed to stand still. Just like Yuzu, he wondered why he could inflict real damage outside of Action Duels, but he decided it was best to keep it to himself.

 **Yuya** : 4000 - 3500 [0]

"The battle continues! Rise Falcon, attack Odd-Eyes Pendulum Dragon!"

"Gumgumouton! Protect Odd-Eyes!" The monster created a blue barrier, protecting the dragon from battle destruction.

"But you will still take damage!" Shun reminded.

Yuya quickly acted. "Trap Card, Defense Draw! Battle damage becomes 0!" Yuya calmly drew a card since the barrier from Gumgumouton was protecting him from the scratching of the claws of Rise Falcon.

"Futile move… Since Rise Falcon can only attack special summoned monsters, I set down 2 cards and end my turn! At this moment, Rise Falcon's effects ends, its ATK returns to normal." The flame around Rise Falcon went down and disintegrated, returning the ferocious six-eyed falcon to its normal appearance. Yuya reminded himself that he

 **Raid Raptors - Rise Falcon** ATK 4900 - 100

" _Dammit… he's truly strong! Forcing me to use this trap from the get-go! I need to be careful…"_ Yuya touched the top card of his deck. "Ore no turn, draw!"

" _The two cards in my hand can only work later… and I'm sure that he had counters for my following moves! He would not leave a 100 ATK monster during my turn like that… But I have no choice now! I must let him use it!"_

"Battle! Entermate Skullcrobat Joker, attack Raid Raptors - Rise Falcon!"

"Trap activate! Adversary!" The trap depicting a man surrounded by multiple enemies showed up and shone up. "That attack does not do anything and Rise Falcon gains 1000 ATK!"

 **Raid Raptors - Rise Falcon** ATK 100 - 1100

"Then I'll attack with Odd-Eyes! Rasen no Strike Burst!" The dragon fired a spiral flame from its mouth.

"By detaching an Overlay Unit, Rise Falcon is safe from battle destruction!"

 **Shun** : 4000 - 2600 [1]

"Tsk… That was the effect gained from Backup Lanius right?"

"Right! When Backup Lanius is sent to the graveyard, I can add a Magic Card to my hand!" Shun kept the added card's name unrevealed, making Yuya wonder.

" _Why did he do that… Whatever…_ I set down a card and end my turn!"

"Ore no turn!" Shun drew his card and activated another one. "Continuous Magic, Raptor's Intercept Form!" The card with the image of two shining birds flying up high in a blue sky with lighting pouring down from above appeared.

Shun touched a card and eyed at Yuya. "Now is the time to show you my real power! The power to crush you to death and rescue my sister!" Shun showed the card he added earlier and activated it. "Rank-Up-Magic Raid Force activate!"

"What the? Rank-Up-Magic?" Yuya widened his eyes in surprise. _"Ruri is the only person I know to use those cards, why did he…"_

"You know what it would do right? With this card-"

"Trap Card, Pendulum Area!" Yuya countered by the trap. "Thanks to your Rise Falcon destroying my Amenboat earlier, I can activate this card."

"What?"

"I destroy the two Pendulum Cards in my Pendulum Zones…" The two floating monsters got destroyed. "…and we can only Pendulum Summon this turn!"

Shun gritted his teeth. "Only Pendulum Summon? Shit!"

"You surprised me by that Rank-Up-Magic, but sadly I have had a counter for that. Rise Falcon had used all of its Overlay Units, so it cannot raise ATK anymore. And now, tell me why did you have that card? LDS does not produce them!" Yuya attempted to pry.

"As if I need to tell you!" Shun said back. "To be honest, that summon lock move you just did really caught me by surprise, but don't even think I will give up! Turn end!"

"Ore no turn, draw!" Yuya drew his card. He decided to talk with Shun for a little bit. "Just who the hell are you, and why are you dueling me like this! Dueling is not supposed to hurt people! It's supposed to-"

"Don't say those lies anymore, Pawn of Fusion! I know how deceiving you are!" Shun snapped.

"I told you I am not that Pawn of Fusion! You're barking up the wrong tree!" Yuya protested. He was tired of hearing that.

"Then why are you having that face?" Shun questioned, surprising Yuya.

"That face? What do you mean?"

"You don't know? Another lie?" Shun eyed at Yuya. "Okay… let me fill in the blank for your stupid head! And I will only say this once only! That son of a bitch took my younger sister away from me, and his face is exactly like yours!"

"What…" Yuya's eyes widened in shock. "You say that… he has the same face as I am…?"

"Yes! And I know that only one person has that face! And that is YOU!" Shun angrily pointed his hand at Yuya, making him jot back slightly. "And I have found you now! I will beat you in this duel and interrogate you about where my sister is!" Shun gave a smile that indicated that he would love to torture Yuya.

"I said this before and I will say it again: I, am, not, THE PAWN OF FUSION!" Yuya yelled. "I do not harm or hurt anybody, and I surely did not kidnap your sister! And you use Dueling to hurt those six LDS teachers there and sealed them in cards! I will never forgive you for this!"

Shun stared at Yuya. Clearly, that asshole had not seen the horror and experienced the despair he had. "You never know how much we have gone through…" Shun sneered, slowly losing his control over his own temper. "You only live your life and follow orders, ruining the lives of many people back in my hometown in the process! You people caused war and destroyed us!"

"War…? I did not…" The face of the Entertainment Duelist lost its colors as soon as he heard that word. _"What happened to him and his people… War…?"_

"Whatever!" Shun said between Yuya's thoughts. "Go back to the duel!"

Yuya calmed himself down by taking a deep breath. There were a lot of things going on, and he would have to ask that masked man later.

"I Advance Summon Entermate Partgana!" The black joker turned into green particles and slowly gathered together to form a red and yellow striped snake wearing a small black hat usually seen being used by magicians. The hand on its tail waved around as a "hello" to Shun, who remained his stoic and dangerous expression.

 **Entermate Partgana** EARTH Reptile Pendulum Effect LV5 Scale 3 **500** /2100

"Partgana will increase Odd-Eyes' strength!" The snake wrapped its tail around the dragon's own, charging it with power.

 **Odd-Eyes Pendulum Dragon** ATK 2500 - 2800

"And then Magic Card, Pendulum Halt! I can draw 2 cards!" Yuya drew two cards from his Deck. "But I cannot add cards to my hand this turn."

"Magic Card, Amazing Pendulum activate!" Yuya took out two cards from his Extra Deck slot and showed them to Shun, who reacted in shock. "I can add two Pendulum Cards from the Extra Deck to my hand."

"What? How can those destroyed cards be in the Extra Deck…?" Shun wondered.

Yuya sighed as he would need to explain to this hot-headed prick again. "Pendulum Cards are sent to the Extra Deck when they leave the field, and if I have the appropriate Pendulum Scales, I can special summon them!"

Shun took the information with pure surprise. This "Pawn of Fusion" really had a trick up his sleeves! "What the… Such powerful cards… With this you can summon those monsters anytime you want! That's why you managed to capture her!"

"Forget that thought!" Yuya became tired of Shun's accusations. He set the Scales again and chanted. "Swing again! Pendulum of the Soul! Draw an arc across the nether! Pendulum Shōkan!"

"Return from the Extra Deck, Entermate Skullcrobat Joker!"

"With Odd-Eyes and Joker on the field, the duel is over!" Yuya warned Shun, who remained silent. "Battle! Odd-Eyes Pendulum Dragon, attack Raid Raptors - Rise Falcon! Rasen no Strike Burst!" The dragon did its signature attack, destroying the falcon.

"Raptor's Intercept Form will change Rise Falcon's ATK and DEF during the Damage Step!" Shun arched himself sideways to avoid much of the ensuring blast and smoke.

 **Raid Raptors - Rise Falcon** **100** /2000 - **2000** /100

 **Shun** : 2600 - 1800 [2]

"Tsk… but now you only has 1800 LP left! I will win!" Yuya noted. "Skullcrobat Joker, direct atta-"

"I will not lose that easy! Quick-Play Magic, Rank-Up-Magic Raptor's Force activate!" The trap materialized and spun 90 degrees before shining up.

"What? Another Rank-Up?" Yuya thought out loud as the black falcon turned into purple energy and rose up to the Overlay Network above them, thunder could be seen afterwards.

"Ferocious falcon! Break through this fierce battle and spread your wings! Destroy our gathering foes!"

Shun continued as he held a card up high and slapped it down. "Rank-Up Xyz Change! Come forth!" A large stream of light crushed down to the ground.

"Rank 5! Raid Raptors - Blaze Falcon!" A bird-like monster spread its wings, casting away the light. The newly summoned monster resembled the mechanical Rise Falcon but its paintjob were red and grey as opposed to blue and black, it had fewer boosters on its wings than Rise, it now had eight teal eyes with four on each side as opposed to six red ones. In short, its design was more streamlined than Rise Falcon, but equally dangerous.

 **Raid Raptors - Blaze Falcon** DARK Winged Beast Xyz Effect R5 1000/ **2000**

Yuya commented in his mind as he looked at what he could only call as a ferocious falcon of the forest. _"A Rank-Up monster… and it's 1 rank higher than Rise Falcon, just like Revolting Nightingale…"_

"If you had attacked with Joker earlier, you could have destroyed this monster. Clearly you did not have any experience in the battlefield!"

As much as he hated to think about it, Yuya admit that Shun was right. He was blinded by Shun's taunting that he forgot to check the situation and plan ahead, resulting in losing his chance to beat him. "Dammit… I set down a card and end my turn!"

"Ore no turn! Draw!" Shun proceeded with his turn. He pointed at the red armored monster. "First, I'll change Blaze Falcon to Attack Position!" The monster lost its blue aura. "And now, by detaching one Overlay Unit, it can destroy all of your special summoned monsters, and inflict 500 damage for each one!" The monster burst out multiple small red beam projectors, they opened and fired blue energy beams at Yuya's field.

Yuya quickly acted. "Trap Card, Pendulum Bounce Draw!" The trap turned into a large barrier, blasting the beams away. "After negating destruction, I can draw a card for each Pendulum Monsters on the field!" He drew out three cards.

" _Good move… not only preventing my attempt at destroying, that bastard also recharged his hand…"_ Shun had to complement the kid's smart move. _"But how about this!"_ Shun then said. "Blaze Falcon can direct attack!"

"What!?"

"Go now! Blaze Falcon! Gaining the effect of Raptor's Intercept Form!" The monster charged at Yuya and headbutted him, knocking the poor teenager backwards.

 **Raid Raptors - Blaze Falcon** **1000** /2000 - 2000/ **1000**

 **Yuya** : 3300 - 1300 [3]

 **Raid Raptors - Blaze Falcon** **2000** /1000 - **1000** /2000

"This is the end now! I activate the Quick-Play Magic, Rank-Up-Magic Revolution Force!" Shun slid a card to the Duel Disk, activating it.

"The hell!? Dammit!"

"With Blaze Falcon on the field, Overlay Network reconstructing!" Blaze Falcon did the same procedure Rise Falcon had done earlier, a huge fire erupted from it.

"Prideful falcon! Spread your wings dyed in the blood of heroes! Advance through the path of revolution! Rank-Up Xyz Change!" The fire got higher.

"Come forth! Rank 6! Raid Raptors - Revolution Falcon!" From the flame, the monster put off the flame by spreading its wings out, revealing a larger and sharper mechanical falcon. The wings although had even fewer boosters than the former two, they were also larger and darker with two closed pads on it. Its legs were now gone, replaced by a sharp metal piece.

 **Raid Raptors - Revolution Falcon** DARK Winged Beast Xyz Effect R6 **2000** /3000

"Monster's effect activate! When summoned by Rank-Up, it can destroy your special summoned Odd-Eyes Pendulum Dragon and inflict half of its ATK as damage!"

"What!?"

"Go now! Revolution Falcon! Lay death to all of the enemies opposing you!" The monster flew up high before opening its pad, releasing a lot of small bombs down. The air bombing scene shocked Yuya completely. For the first time in his life, he had seen a real bombing, or at least a close one, instead of watching it through war commentary. He sweated greatly, consumed by the fear or being blown up alive. Instantly, the instinct of survival within him, it made him do a dive roll away to the nearest place with a wall above, shielding him from the bombing run. Odd-Eyes was caught in the blast and exploded.

 **Yuya** : 1300 - 50 [3]

After the situation was settled, Yuya got out of the hiding spot and yelled at Shun. "What the hell did you do! You could have killed-"

"Stop those nonsense! When my comrades were carded, did you even care about how they felt when they screamed and pleaded for mercy!?" Shun snapped back. "Now you will suffer the same fate, Pawn of Fusion! Revolution Falcon, attack Skullcrobat Joker!" Revolution Falcon suddenly released fire out of its boosters, weakening the joker. "When Revolution Falcon attacks a special summoned monster, it changes that monster's ATK to 0!"

 **Entermate Skullcrobat Joker** ATK 1800 - 0

"Shit!" Yuya could feel that his loss was imminent.

"This is the end of YOU! Die in the rage of rebellion! Revolutional Air Raid!" The falcon flew up high, readying to level that smiling monster.

"Not gonna happen! By banishing Bounce Draw, I can negate your attack and draw a card!" Multiple colorful balls appeared from Skullcrobat Joker, who threw them at Shun's monster, blocking the bombs.

"Tsk…" Shun expressed his anger for not finishing the duel right then and there before setting down a card from his hand.

Yuya cautiously looked at that madman before touching his Deck. _"Father… mother… Yuzu… please… let me gain your strength!"_

"Draw!" Yuya did his draw.

"First, I'll change Partgana to defense position. Then, once again! Pendulum Shōkan!" Yuya slapped down two cards from his hand.

"From my hand, Entermate Snula Hoops, and Entermate Trampolynx!"

 **Entermate Trampolynx** EARTH Beast Pendulum Effect LV2 Scale 4 300/ **300**

 **Entermate Snula Hoops** EARTH Beast Pendulum Effect LV1 Scale 9 **0** /0

"Trampolynx will return Joker to my hand!" Yuya picked up the card from the blade and snapped it down again. "And I normal summon it!" The monster returned, Yuya added a monster to his hand thanks to Joker's effect.

"So you return it back to your hand just to use its effect to add a card? Not bad…" Shun said with disinterest.

"Let's see if you can say this any longer! Magic Card, Pendulum Storm activate! I can destroy Revolution Falcon and Raptor's Intercept Form!"

"Stupid! When Revolution Falcon is targeted for a card eff-"

"Storm does not target!" Yuya revealed, shocking the Raid Raptors duelist. That shock was temporary however, as Shun activated his set card.

"Trap Card, Raid Raptors - Shield!" The trap turned into energy, protecting the bird. "My monsters is safe from destruction this turn and I can special summon Raid Raptors - Heavy Vulture from my deck!" Shun took out a card from his Deck and summoned it.

 **Raid Raptors - Heavy Vulture** DARK Winged Beast Effect LV4 800/ **1800**

"Dammit… but! Entermate Snula Hoops' effect! I can make its level becomes 7!"

 **Entermate Snula Hoops** LV1 - 7

"What? Change level to 7!?" Getting over the initial surprise, Shun realized that Yuya now has two level 7 monsters on the field. A beat of thought hit him. "Can't be…!"

"Yes can be! I, using the level 7 Entermate Snula Hoops and Odd-Eyes Pendulum Dragon, overlay!" Shun could only widen his eyes and open his mouth in pure shock, which, thankfully, was concealed by the disguide he was wearing. The dual-colored-eyed dragon and the snake turned into purple and black energy respectively before flying up high, spinning around for a bit and crashed down to the Overlay Network appeared on the ground. A huge lightning erupted from it.

"Dragon of perfection, come out of the cold ice surrounding you and let out a roar of prideful mighty! Xyz Shōkan!"

"Appear now, Rank 7! The ice dragon that will bring victory! Odd-Eyes Absolute Dragon!" Yuya's Xyz monster came out of the ice shell by breaking it, shattering it to pieces. The debris flew around, nearly hitting Shun, who managed to sidestep away.

 **Odd-Eyes Absolute Dragon** WATER Dragon Xyz Effect R7 **2800** /2500

In his heart, Yuya really cared about others' well-being, even for a man who just wanted to attack him for no apparent reason. He shivered at the thought of potentially harming him. He also wondered why he could have dealt real damage to Shun even though there was no Action Field available.

"A Rank 7 Xyz monster… how did you have it?" Shun questioned.

"I don't know. I just got it!"

"You got it from Yuma?"

"What? Who is Yuma?"

"You allied with the betrayer and you do not know that? Then how did you get an Xyz monster?" Shun interrogated. "Yuma taught you how to make one right!?"

"I do not know who Yuma is and what did he do to you people! All I care about now is you are attacking us, and I will not forgive you for that! Battle! Odd-Eyes Absolute Dragon, attack Raid Raptors - Revolution Falcon!" The dragon fired a spiral blast of ice from its mouth, ready to crush the falcon equipped with military equipment.

"Not gonna happen! Revolution Falcon will rip your monster of its strength!" Shun said.

"Of course I know!" Yuya countered. "I special summon Entermate Skill Locker to negate Revolution Falcon's effects!" A small monkey in circus costume showed up, throwing bananas at the falcon, negating its effects.

 **Entermate Skill Locker** EARTH Beast Pendulum Effect LV4 **1400** /1200

"And then I gain LP!" Yuya said. One banana was thrown above him, turning into blue dust, raining down on him.

 **Yuya** : 50 - 1050 [3]

"Dammit!" Shun could only mutter as his upgraded monster was attacked. Thankfully he had Heavy Vulture on the field, if he did not, he could have lost then.

 **Shun** : 1800 - 1000 [2]

"Next turn is Skullcrobat Joker! Since Skill Locker was summoned, all Pendulum Monsters on the field regained their original ATK and DEF!" The monster created an energy disc and kicked it at the wounded falcon.

 **Entermate Skullcrobat Joker** ATK 0 - 1800

"You crazy? Wanna lose that badly asshole?" Shun did not know…

"Absolute Dragon, now!" Yuya orded the ice dragon, who immediately detached one Overlay Unit and grabbed Joker back to Yuya's field.

"What? It negates attacks?" Shun was shocked. He narrowed his eyes in anger. _"Just like Hope… Is he going to boost up-"_

"And I get to special summon Odd-Eyes Pendulum Dragon from my graveyard!" Yuya said as his signature weapon returned to the field, roaring.

Shun noticed the fact that Yuya could special summon a Pendulum Monster from the graveyard. "So… Overlay Units are not treated as being on the field…"

"Yes! You catch on fast!" Yuya said. The dragon did its red spiral attack again, blasting the smoking falcon. While it survived, its owner was knocked back but quickly regained his standing stance.

 **Shun** : 1000 - 500 [2]

"Turn end! At this moment, Revolution Falcon has its effects back…"

Shun knew he was in a tough situation now, and he had to rely on this very draw to win Yuya. From what he had seen, this "Pawn of Fusion" was really strong. He only had Fuzzy Lanius and a burn card on his hand now. If he let him have another turn, he would lose. He touched the top card of his Deck. _"Yuto… Ruri… Please… lend me your strength!"_

"Ore no turn…" Shun breathed and did his turn. "Draw!"

"Good!" Shun smirked. "I set down two cards!" Shun set cards first just to be sure.

"What are you gonna do with the cards that you cannot activate this turn and Fuzzy Lanius on your hand?"

"Catch on fast asshole! You will know! Heavy Vulture will attach itself as an Overlay Unit to Revolution Falcon!" The monster turned into a small purple energy ball, flying around the mechanical bird.

"Since your Skill Gainer's effects are gone now, I will activate Revolution Falcon's effect!" It detached one Overlay Unit. "It can attack on all monsters this turn, once each!"

"Shit!" Yuya muttered.

"And the card I detached was Heavy Vulture! It has another effect!"

"I send Fuzzy Lanius from my hand to the graveyard and special summon Blaze Falcon from my graveyard!" The moment Shun sent his only card to the grave, lightning erupted from the slot and illuminated the alley for a bit before the red armored falcon showed up.

"No way!"

"Of course I can add the third Fuzzy Lanius to my hand as well!" Shun added a card and pointed at Yuya. "Battle! Raid Raptors - Revolution Falcon, attack Odd-Eyes Absolute Dragon! Revolutional Air Raid!" The large winged falcon flew up high, releasing fire out of its boosters, weakening the ice dragon.

 **Odd-Eyes Absolute Dragon** ATK 2800 - 0

"Not gonna happen! Odd-Eyes Absolute Dragon's effect activate! Ice Barrier!" The Overlay Unit turned into an ice block, shielding Yuya's field from the bombs.

"Sadly the detached monster was an "Entermate" monster so you cannot special summon that level-changing snake to the field! Revolution Falcon, attack Odd-Eyes Pendulum Dragon!" The falcon did its bombing run again.

"Entermate Skill Locker's effect!" Yuya raised his left hand up. "By releasing it…" The monster disintegrated. "Revolution Falcon's effect is negated again! Odd-Eyes does not lose ATK!"

"The hell…? Well if then, I attack Joker!" The falcon this time flew down and scratched Joker, but Gumgumouton protected it from destruction this time.

 **Yuya** : 1050 - 850 [3]

" _I only have 850 LP now… but…"_ Yuya looked at his graveyard slot. He continued to stare at Revolution Falcon as it destroyed Partgana and Trampolynx with ease.

"This time, Blaze Falcon! Finish that asshole with your direct attack!" Shun yelled. The red falcon flew towards Yuya and as if obeying Shun's order, gave the red and green hair teenager a slash to his abdomen. Yuya was knocked backwards in pain. He could feel that that attack had left a deep gash behind, he could fell that blood was slowly running out. And he was right when he slowly touched his stomach…

"This is what you deserved for kidnapping Ruri…" Shun whispered while taking multiple short breaths due to the strain of the duel. What happened next however shocked Shun as Yuya slowly got up, grasping his stomach in pain.

"What… what the… you did not lose…?" Shun then looked back to his Duel Disk and saw Yuya's field display.

 **Yuya** : 850 - 350 [3]

"When… when you declare the direct attack… I banish Skill Locker to half that battle damage…" Yuya showed the Pendulum Monster. He could feel blood running down from the slash wound, but he had to endure it. He had to, for his upcoming duel with that kid, for his own survival…

"Persistent bastard!" Shun cursed. "Blaze Falcon, destroy Odd-Eyes Pendulum Dragon!" The flacon created an energy wave at the dragon, destroying it. _"Even though he may bring it back eventually…"_

"I end my turn here! Look at you, the one-time arrogant hope stealer of my hometown, who took my sister away from me, now could not even know for sure if he could continue enduring the punishment he deserves anymore!"

"Curse you… the wrong tree barker piece of junk…" Yuya told him, still holding his stomach. "I never knew who you are, I never knew who your sister is, and you attacked innocent people here…"

"They are hardly innocent. They are involved in the war too!"

"There is no war happening in Japan now!" Yuya said. "You're clearly making up story yourself bastard!"

" _Clearly he does not know where I am…"_ Shun noted. _"He's not the Pawn of Fusion? He did not Synchro Summon once…"_

"And I will declare the name of god and punish you to death!" Yuya's eyes briefly glowed red as he drew his card. Unknown to him and Shun, the would was slowly healing.

"Be reborn from the Extra Deck!" Yuya said as his pendant swung. "Odd-Eyes Pendulum Dragon!"

"Trap Card, Raid Raptors - Readiness!" Shun activated his trap just to be sure. "My monsters cannot be destroyed this turn!"

"But you will still take the damage!" Yuya reminded Shun. "Battle! Odd-Eyes Pendulum Dragon! Attack Raid Raptors - Blaze Falcon!" Yuya roared despite the wound. "Rasen no… Strike Burst!"

"Quick-Play Magic! Rank-Up-Magic Battle Up Force!" Shun waved his hand at the activated trap card. "When Blaze Falcon is attacked, I can rank it up by two ranks!" The falcon turned into energy and flew to the Overlay Network.

"Proud falcon of the sky! Descend from the clouds and inspire hope to others for the peace you all are looking for! Rank-Up Xyz Change!" The ground erupted, paving way for the Rank 7 monster.

"Appear now, Rank 7! Raid Raptors - Arsenal Falcon!" This time, Shun summoned a new monster from his Extra Deck. It was a black armored falcon with blue parts on its wings and its head, two yellow orbs on each large white wings and two more on its legs. Its wings consisted of multiple closed doors, seemingly capable of housing multiple monsters if it needed to. The falcon flapped its mechanical wings, ready to join the battle ahead of it.

 **Raid Raptors - Arsenal Falcon** DARK Winged Beast Xyz Effect R7 **2500** /2000

"They all have 2500 ATK…" Yuya noted. "It will be a mutual kill… If so… I'll attack Revolution Falcon!" The dragon redirected the blast to Shun's other falcon.

"Why are you decreasing your dragon's ATK like that?" Shun questioned.

 **Odd-Eyes Pendulum Dragon** ATK 2500 - 0

"Wanna negate its effects again somehow?" Shun thought before waving his hand. "I banish Readiness from the graveyard and this turn, you cannot inflict damage to me!"

"Not gonna happen!" Yuya slid a card to his Duel Disk. "This card will finish this duel! Quick-Play-Magic Pendulum Around Swing!"

"What the…" Shun froze. _"He chained the effect!"_

"With this card's effect, take 2500 damage and lose!" Yuya yelled.

"Dammit!" Shun quickly acted to avoid losing. "There is no choice! Counter Trap, Raid Raptors - Rescue Beacon! Both of us will take the damage!"

"What!?" Yuya exclaimed. Odd-Eyes Pendulum Dragon made a large impact with Revolution Falcon, creating a huge explosion. It was such a strong one that the ensuring shockwave knocked both Shun and Yuya backwards. Shun hit the wire wall behind him while Yuya hit his head hard to the wall, making him slide down to the garbage underneath. He was knocked out instantly.

 **Yuya** : 350 - 0 [3]

 **Shun** : 500 - 0 [1]

The impact did not make the battle-hardened Kurosaki Shun lose consciousness despite the clear pain apparent. Looking at Yuya, now it was the chance. He just needed to wake him up and interrogate him to find out where he took Ruri. He was about to get up when someone yelled at him from behind.

"Shun! Shun!"

"Yuto…?" Shun turned around and his assumption was right. Yuto was running at him with concern. He then looked at his Duel Disk and thanked it. _"Lucky that Resistance Duel Disks always sent signals to the nearest ones in case Academia attacks…"_

"Shun? Are you alright?" Yuto asked between intakes.

"Yeah… but now we have him Yuto!" Shun smiled.

"What do you mean by that?"

"Look!" Shun pointed at the garbage, where Yuya was lying down underneath.

"Shun… you dueled Yuya?"

"What? His name is Yuya? How do you know?"

"I looked at the news. And he is not the Pawn of Fusion!"

"Really? I don't think so!"

"Uh! But he knew where Ruri is." Yuto decided to reveal.

"That's good! Let's-" Suddenly, multiple footsteps from the street outside could be heard.

"The LDS teachers were here minutes ago!"

"Where?"

"Probably in that alley!"

"Let's go!"

It was another LDS squad. Shun and Yuto knew what they have to do. "Shit!" Shun took the six cards and he along with Yuto immediately jumped up to the two-story building behind them and hid themselves away from view.

"They got Yuya now Shun… let's get outta here!" Yuto proposed.

"Fine…" Shun agreed. They both went off the area.

The LDS squad consisted of six members went to the alley only to find nothing since Yuya was hidden under the garbage.

"Nothing here sir!"

"Yeah, it seems nothing have happened here!"

"Strange, they reported that they have found the attacker there!"

"Maybe he had disappeared sir."

The leader thought for a bit before turning to his men. "Okay. Let's go somewhere else!"

"Yes sir!" They all went off the alley, looking for another place, leaving the poor Yuya behind the garbage. Unknown to them, at the spot they ignored where the poor son of Sakaki Yuya was lying, a small purple smoke aura appeared…

* * *

Moments later, Yuya suddenly woke up. He rose up, sending all of the garbage around him flying several meters away, scaring the rats attempting to pry one of those for food. Being underneath them for some time had made him panic. He frantically looked around, trying to see if anyone had seen him.

" _What the hell… why am I here, under those garbage… Ah! Okay, I remember!"_ Yuya touched his head in pain, recalling the events happening before.

" _I saw LDS teachers here… I followed them and see… see them… being carded…"_ Yuya muttered in shock, he could not forget the moment he saw the carded members of LDS. _"Then I saw him, that guy… he seemed to have mistaken me as the… "Pawn of Fusion" or something… Then we had a duel and… He uses Rank-Up-Magic… and… No!"_ Yuya remembered the moment Blaze Falcon starched him, tearing his shirt and made him bleed. He immediately looked down and what he saw made him completely speechless.

The shirt was still intact and there was no cut on his stomach…

…

…

" _What the… I'm sure that Blaze Falcon had hurt me! Then how… how… how could I…"_ Yuya also realized that he did not have the smell of trash around him despite being under them for quite a while.

" _What the hell is happening to me…"_ He then remembered something else. "Wait! No! God dammit! The duel!"

Yuya hurriedly ran to the train station nearby. Luckily, there was a parked one right there and he waste no time to board on it. The door closed and went off at amazing speed. Ignoring the brief pathetic looks of the people in the train, Yuya silently took a seat nearby and sit down. It was 9:40 AM, which means he only had 20 minutes left to reach the destination. He tiredly looked outside with his right hand supporting his chin, all the while trying to speculate what had happened.

" _Who the hell is he? Why is he targeting LDS? Who is Yuma?_

" _And who is his sister…? Is she…"_

* * *

The day then went on as usual. Yuya went to the school on time and beat the kid, no, the annoying kid as he put it, Kyuando Eita. That kind of Action Duel should have been called "Action Quiz Duel", he picked tons of cards that have pretty difficult questions about pretty much everything and even Dueling. He hated it when he forgot the number of teeth of the pot of the card "Pot of Greed", it humiliated him a lot. After all, he managed to win the duel, and he would rather not go to there and have that kind of duel again; at least, the school's intention of increasing their popularity by beating him had failed miserably.

After getting home, he had dinner with Sora and his Mom as usual. He happily told her and the kid about the winning, avoiding the harsher subject of the event happening before that. His life had been hard ever since his dad disappeared, and he never wanted to burden his mother more.

"I'm tired now! I'll go to my room." He did not forget to warn Sora. "Don't mess with me Sora! Really! I need rest today!"

"Haii…" Sora pouted at him. He then continued eating.

Yuya immediately went to his bed, looking at the ceiling, thinking about the day. There were too many things happening, and from what he speculated, the attacker's sister was kidnapped by LDS. He doubted it though as it was the largest gaming company in Japan, it would be very foolish for it to engage in kidnapping. What shocked him however was the use of Rank-Up-Magic, the kind of Magic Card that only Ruri possessed. Was Ruri and that man connected in some way? Or Ruri was that man's younger sister?

" _Ridiculous…"_ Yuya childed himself. _"Maybe just coincidental… Maybe LDS secretly produced those cards…"_ But he knew he had to do something about it some time soon.

" _I need to find out about it as soon as possible…"_

* * *

 **Fanfic OC Cards**

 **Raid Raptors - Roar (Magic Card)**

Special summon 1 "Raid Raptors" monster from your Deck. You can only summon or special summon "Raid Raptors" monsters this turn.

 **Raid Raptors - Backup Lanius**

DARK Winged Beast Effect LV4 0/2100

If you control a "Raid Raptors" monster, you can special summon this card from your hand. If this card is sent to the graveyard, you can add 1 "Rank-Up-Magic" card from your Deck to your hand. A DARK Winged Beast Xyz Monster that was Xyz Summoned using this card as material gain these effects:

Once per turn, when an opponent's card effect is activated, you can detach 1 Material from this card; negate the activation, and if you do, destroy it.

If this card would be destroyed, you can detach 1 Material from this card instead.

 **Pendulum Bounce Draw (Trap Card)**

When your opponent activates a card effect that destroy your Pendulum Cards on the field or in the Pendulum Zones, negate the activation, and if you do, draw 1 card for each Pendulum Cards on the field. You can banish this card from your graveyard; (Quick Effect): negate the next attack this turn from a monster your opponent controls, and if you do, draw 1 card.

 **Pendulum Storm (Trap Card)**

Destroy one monster on your opponent's field for each Pendulum Monsters you control, and if you do, inflict 300 damage to your opponent for each card destroyed by this effect.

 **Raid Raptors - Shield**

When a card effect activates that would destroy your "Raid Raptors" monsters on the field; negate the activation, and if you do, special summon 1 "Raid Raptors" monster from your Deck.

 **Raid Raptors - Heavy Vulture**

DARK Winged Beast Effect LV4 800/1800

If this card is special summoned, your "Raid Raptors" monsters cannot be destroyed this turn. You can only activate the following effects once per turn:

During your Main Phase, you can target 1 "Raid Raptors" Xyz Monster you control; attach this card to it as an Xyz Material.

If this card is sent to the graveyard: Special Summon 1 "Raid Raptors" Xyz Monster from your Graveyard.

 **Entermate Skill Locker**

EARTH Beast Pendulum Effect LV4 1400/1200

When an opponent's monster on the field activates its effect; you can special summon this card (from your hand), and if you do, negate that monster's effects until the end of this turn, gain LP equal to half of that monster's original ATK, also all of your Pendulum Monsters' ATK and DEF become their original ATK and DEF. When an opponent's monster on the field activates its effect; (Quick Effect) you can release this card; it has its effects negated until the end of this turn. You can banish this card from your graveyard, half the battle damage from the next attack this turn from a monster your opponent controls.

 **Pendulum Around Swing** **(Quick-Play Magic Card)**

If the ATK of a Pendulum monster on the field is changed: You can inflict damage to your opponent equal to that change, and if you do, special summon 1 Pendulum Monster from your Deck or from your Extra Deck.

 **Raid Raptors - Rescue Beacon (Counter Trap Card)**

When an effect that inflicts damage to you is activated; both player take that damage, then you can special summon 1 "Raid Raptors" monster from your Deck.

* * *

 **Changed effect**

 **Raptor's Intercept Form (Continuous Magic Card)**

Once per turn, if an Xyz Summoned "Raid Raptors" monster you control attacks or is attacked, during damage calculation: You can switch its current ATK and DEF during that damage calculation only. Once per turn, during either player's turn, when a card or effect is activated that targets an Xyz Summoned "Raid Raptors" monster(s) you control: You can negate that effect.

* * *

 **Well that was brutal, wasn't it?**

 **One thing I don't like about Shun's deck is that it is not really fast and also it lacks means of searching RUM cards, unlike the legendary Tenjo Kaito who had far less duel than Shun yet having a searcher for RUM (Cipher Etranger)? That's what I'm trying to improve during this duel. Hope you guys like it.**

 **And yes, this chapter confirmed that in my story, if the Dragon Boys got severely injured, Zarc's power within them will heal the wound, along with some reality wrapping limited to clothes or something the counterparts have around them during the healing process. This time since Yuya lost consciousness, he did not know that he was healed by a power that he surely would dread.**

 **Also you may not notice, but Shun was clearly avoiding talking about Yuto when he dueled Yuya. He clearly cares about his comrades.**

 **Hope you guys enjoyed the chapter and please review. This is matrixnis, see you guys soon!**


	21. Scale 21

**Welcome back everyone, I hope you liked the last chapter.**

 **I noticed a trend that legendary characters have: they do not get as much characterization as they do in their original source. To me that was the main problem with Kaito since he was introduced late in the series; Jack and Crow actually got enough. So in this chapter, I will try to explore one of them and put more focus on him, you already know right?**

 **Yes! Kamishiro Ryoga! Our favorite Barian Nasch!**

 **And just from the title of this chapter, you can be sure that the plot is now starting to roll forward, and it will be soon!**

 **Just a warning, this chapter got some Dreed vibes to it. You will know soon.**

 **Enjoy the chapter! Let's roll!**

* * *

 **Chapter 21: Unveil**

Reiji stepped forward, holding two cards in his right hand and looking attentively at them. He looked forward in assurance and determination.

"I, using the Scale 1 D/D Magical Savant Galilei and the Scale 10 D/D Magical Savant Galilei, Pendulum Scale setting!" Reiji slapped the two cards down to the blade. The word "Pendulum" appeared and the two monsters rose up in two blue transparent pillars behind him shortly after. The numbers "1" and "10" appeared below each according to its respective Scales.

"With this many monsters with levels between 2 and 9 can be summoned at the same time!"

Galilei and Kepler began cracking with electricity, readying for the tremendous power of the special kind of Special Summon. "The grand power shaking my very heart! Become the new light residing in my body and rend the darkness away! Pendulum Shōkan!"

Reiji unleashed the three cards in his hand. "Appear now, my monsters!" Three swirls of energy rose down from the portal opening between the Scales, forming into three dangerously floating crystals.

"The three transcendental deities who rule over all kings! D/D/D Death Great King Hell Armageddon!" The three crystal kings roared, signifying Ragnarok to any enemies opposing them. That was a reconstruction of the duel he had with Yuya earlier. He was playing with the exact same hand he had when he Pendulum Summoned the first time.

 **3x D/D/D Death Great King Hell Armageddon** DARK Demon Pendulum Effect LV8 Scale 4 **3000** /1000

From the control room above the training room, the technicians were working.

"Pendulum Summon, confirmed!"

"Summon energy, stable!"

"Good!" The lead one holding a tablet said. "If he can keep this stability then…"

Reiji imagined Yuya and his signature monster Odd-Eyes Pendulum Dragon standing in front of him on the other side of the field.

"Sakaki Yuya…"

He was about to set his trap card D/D Recruit when a voice stopped him. It was from his bodyguard, Nakajima. "President! The goal is accomplished! The experiment is a success!"

Reiji breathed out in relief. _"Finally…"_

A short while later, Reiji sat down on the chair in his office room with Nakajima talking about the experiment.

"Congratulations President! With this, Leo Corporation is now one step closer to creating Pendulum Cards!"

"But they are not completed yet." Reiji calmly said. He turned on the screen, showing the images of Yuya's Pendulum Cards and Reiji's ones. The charts indicated that the energy created from Reiji's cards were still low compared to Yuya's. "Compared to Sakaki Yuya's original Pendulum Cards, the energy emitted from my cards is nothing. With this, it is still impossible to put it in war."

"Uh- I'm sorry! We will do whatever it takes to make them usable in the tournament!"

"Um. That's the deadline." Reiji snapped his fingers, the dark wall behind him changed, revealing mirrors and the good view of Miami City. "We cannot underestimate our competition in the upcoming Miami Championship, no matter where our opponents may come from…"

"Speaking of our opponents, what are you going to do with them? Ruri and Ryoga?"

Nakajima's question brought the President of LDS to another trance in his mind. Honestly, he had got all what he needed from those two Resistance members anyway, he could have just got rid of them and he would be good. But he could not, since they were fighters, they knew how to survive, recruiting them to his team is the best bet for him. He put the nano substance to their blood to avoid further mishaps because if they told their comrades Shun and Yuto, he could not recruit them as he wanted to. Reiji needed to keep them submissive, under his control, and separating Ruri and Ryoga from those two, making them freak out and attack LDS relentlessly and use that to force them to work under him is a good idea.

To win the war, you need to sacrifice pawns…

* * *

Yuto looked at the cards containing the LDS members, the result of Shun's plan. The one-man-army attack he did on LDS and Sakaki Yuya. He nearly felt nothing. He had seen carded people a lot back in Heartland, but here, they were just innocent people, day-to-day hard workers. They had families, friends, close people, just like Heartland back then. And now they were gone, how could they live with it? How could they live with the fact that their friends, their family members, were dead by Shun's, no, their hands? He had seen a lot of tragedies like this, and it nearly robbed his conscience away.

But no. Instantly, he felt regret. The feeling he thought to have been long gone after his hometown was invaded, his father was carded and recently, Ruri was kidnapped and for some reason, she was here along with Ryoga yet Reiji did something that they did not come to him. The regret for causing the same atrocities Academia did to Heartland in Standard, and even though Shun did it, he felt he was responsible for leaving him do what he wanted as well. He felt disgust, deep disgust for himself. He did this mission for the peace of Heartland, yet during the way, he simply caused more miseries. How could he rest in peace every night anymore, knowing that he had become just as bad as Academia, maybe even worse? Is he going to be a normal kid again?

These questions continuously rotted his broken mind. And now he had to face the blood knight in the form of his best friend Kurosaki Shun who was eager to force Akaba Reiji to come out by carding more LDS members.

"Shun, I think we should stop doing this."

"What…? Stop doing what?" Shun turned to Yuto.

He pointed at the cards on the ground. "Carding them. We should find another way to get to Reiji."

Shun opened his mouth in shock. He never expected his friend to say this, especially after several days ago when he allowed him to do whatever he wanted. "What the hell do you mean Yuto? Don't you know who he is and who are these people?" He angrily pointed at the ground, where those cards were lying down. He picked those up and showed them to the spiked hair Duelist. "We do this to force him out of hiding! We are here to capture him remember?"

"Yeah, and now see what we're facing Shun. Turn out Reiji was the President of Leo Corporation, Shark was kidnapped with Ruri, for some reason they could not come to us!"

"And THAT! That, is why we need to punish him Yuto! A payback for what he did to Shark and my sister!"

"I don't think that's the case Shun. Think about it, if Reiji did kidnap them, then it means that he had known about us, Heartland and the mission! It is not relevant anymore! Reiji had the upper hand now, and we are simply playing in his dirty hands! We cannot do anything Shun!"

"Stop being pessimistic Yuto! If he did that, then we had more motivation to kidnap him! We strike him when he does not notice us, and we get the goal!"

"I'm tired of this Shun, I don't want to fight anymore!" Yuto tried to talk his friend down using the words he said earlier, hoping he would at least listen…

This time though, Shun did not… "Then screw you and your pacifism! I will do it myself!" He then stormed off. "You're too soft Yuto! You cannot win the war if you do not sacrifice part of your soul!"

" _Part of my soul…"_ Yuto thought about it while looking at his fading friend. _"Can't disagree with it. He was right. I was too soft. I nearly killed my comrade back then due to not carding them… I am really unsuitable to this war… Maybe… maybe… I should cast it away… Things should be easier…"_ He briefly thought about it. But he quickly snapped. _"No! No! I can't! I can't lose myself no matter what! I will be lost! I could not be worthy of my parents and Ruri anymore!"_

" _NO!"_

" _I cannot!"_

Filled with resolve, he immediately ran out, looking for his reckless friend. He could not let him harm innocent people anymore. And he knew a place where Shun would be…

* * *

"Argh! What the!?"

Ryoga jotted up to a feeling of something hitting his head. He got out of the ragged blanket and looked around. He finally found the source from something rolling. It was a small piece of rock, throwing from the other side of the road. He then saw some boys running away to the near building.

" _That was them… Haizz… Naughty kids. Do their parents teach them to know how to behave?"_ Ryoga sighed, rubbing his forehead. They were annoying kids, just like Rio.

" _Rio… Heh…"_

The mention of Rio brought back memories within him. The cute, adorable but annoying and bratty twin sister Kamishiro Rio. He hated Rio a lot. She never gave him the freedom he deserved to have in his free time, always nagging, pulling him to supermarket tours to buy new, fancy clothes, girly stuffs that he never liked. Even worse, he was sometimes forced to wear clothes Rio bought and one time, they had a huge argument, requiring his parents to step in and defuse the situation. They did not even talk for a day because of that. But at the same time, she is the closet sibling he has. Rio gave him a sense of manliness, the protectiveness he could give to someone, especially a vulnerable one, and someone he could confine in when he was in trouble. Despite the constant bickering, he knew that he had the honor to do that to a person to whom he loved unconditionally. Especially for his harsh personality to others, Rio was the only one to understand and support him, advise him and help him become kinder and more humble to his friends. As a result, he managed to be nicer and make friends with Yuto, Shun, Ruri, Kaito, Allen and…

Yuma…

He could never understand why Yuma betrayed him and others and deflected to Academia like that. To him, Yuma was the ideal kind of friend that anyone would want to have: hot-blooded, kind, full of hope, burning with enthusiasm and his motto "Kattobingu" that inspired him. Yuma was like the magnet that connected different personalities together and formed the best known group of friends in Heartland: Yuma, Kaito, Yuto, Shun, Ruri, Allen, Mizael, Vector, Rio and himself. They owned Yuma a lot, so they were very angry when Yuma did that and carded Mizael, Yuto's father, Shun's father and probably Vector as well. He never forgave him for that betrayal, and no matter what the cause and how severe it was, he would never forgive the person who connected them all and destroyed the chain himself. He will find Yuma and destroy him. This is the greatest lost to him that could never be recovered.

He was so angry in his mind that he almost forgot that his hands were clenching tightly, threatening to drop out blood. Ryoga released the fists and looked at his left ring finger, where a ring was staying. He smiled softly, remembering the time when he got it…

…

…

 _ **(6 years ago)**_

 _It was at the Heartland Tropical Land (Detective Conan reference). Ryoga did not want to go there but with the insistence of his parents and the begging of his annoying sister Rio, he finally came along. The place was just like usual with colorful settings, lots of places to play like roller coaster, ferris wheel and as usual, a ton of shops. His parents were talking at the bushes near him, Rio had bought something for him; she ran at him, her cupped hands hiding it._

" _Here, Ryoga!" She opened her hands, revealing two matching rings._

 _Ryoga looked on in disinterest. "Why do we become a couple by wearing rings? Besides, never heard the fact that boys do not wear rings?"_

" _What do you mean?" Rio became saddened at her twin brother's insensitive words. "Then forget it!" She threw the rings away and turned around. "Ryoga! You're stupid!" She cried and ran to her parents._

 _Ryoga quietly looked at his sister, a feeling of sadness swept over him shortly. He sadly looked down at the rings and after thinking for a short while, he picked them up and went to Rio._

" _Mom, Dad, can you two give me some time with Rio?"_

" _No! Go away Ryoga! I don't want you to be near me now!" Rio heavily protested._

" _Rio, don't be that stubborn!" The mother patted her, calming her down._

" _He wants to say something to you, so try to take it in okay?" The father said. They then left her with Ryoga and walked away._

 _Ryoga approached Rio. "Look Rio-"_

" _What do you want Ryoga?"_

" _Look, Rio, I know I was insensitive then, I'm sorry! I'm sorry okay!" Ryoga apologized. "I just didn't think that I should wear rings, but now I understand! I understand now! I know why you want me to wear these! It's just… I know why now, so please don't be harsh like that okay? I don't like seeing you like this!"_

 _Rio looked at Ryoga in surprise, not knowing that the tears had stopped. "Ryoga…"_

 _Ryoga then took her left hand and wore the ring on her ring finger. He then did the same to him._

" _I know now, and I know you care about me, just like I always care about you."_

" _Ryoga…" She then smiled brightly and hugged him close. "You're really stupid! You really are!"_

" _I know. I will not hurt you like this again okay? I promise!"_

…

…

Ryoga continued to wear the ring since then. It was the proof to the strong connection between him and Rio. And during the war, the ring was like a sign of hope to him, telling him that Rio would be waiting for his arrival back to the base and smiling brightly at him when he returned. And he was 100% sure that Rio would think the same as well. When things happened, he was scared that Rio was not strong enough to protect herself against Academia soldiers, but she proved to be more than that. She could kick ass just as well as he could, and he was extremely proud. At least for now he was sure that Rio was still alive back in Heartland and she would be protecting the base with others. He dreamt about that day, they day when he came back with the news that the war is over, they would run to each other and hug tightly, a powerful and heartwarming scene to anyone...

" _Come on Ryoga! You know she is very bratty to you right! She would not do that to you! Wake up from your stupid dream stupid Kamishiro Ryoga!"_ Ryoga childed himself and chuckled, knowing how annoying she always was to him. At last, he had a good boost-up for the upcoming boring day. Yesterday he was called by Ruri to You Show Duel School in the afternoon to teach Yuzu, Yuya and the kids lessons about Xyz Summon. They then had a mock Action Duel to demonstrate since they are Xyz users. It was pretty fun, they had not experienced the fun of Dueling for a pretty long time and thanks to Yuya, they could regain it again. They thanked him, the son of teacher Sakaki Yusho for forever for bringing back to them the feeling that they thought they had forgotten since the war. Wish they could have avoided dragging him to the unnecessary bullshit they were facing though, but since Sora was there, they could not. Besides, from what he got from Ruri, Sora had somehow convinced Yuzu to use Fusion, he could potentially recruit her to Academia and turn her into one of them. As long as they are here however, Sora will not do even a single stupid thing to Yuzu and Yuya.

" _Reiji forced me and Ruri not to meet Shun and Yuto, and there was no need to find him anymore, so… I got nothing to do now…"_

He decided to walk around Miami City and explore it as much as possible. Thanks to the clothes Rio brought to him before he left, he did not need to buy new ones unlike Yuto, who he was sure he would tease later for his pretty fancy choice of clothes. The city was pretty lively in his opinion, even though it was not as colorful as Heartland City, it was pretty alright. He visited places, went to building after building, trying his best to relive his former life. And he did succeed somewhat. He internally thanked Miami City.

" _Thank you… thank you for saving me from despair…"_

Afternoon came, and as he was about to go to You Show Duel School for some time with Ruri, Yuya, Yuzu and the kids, he suddenly felt someone stalking behind him. His war instincts clearly helped him, and he looked at the mirror in the shop near him to see that what he predicted was correct. There was one, no, three tall guys trailing behind him. The people near them quickly ran off, confirming that they seemed to be delinquents. He quickly looked to his right and saw a road there. He walked slowly as usual and as he was about to turn right, he suddenly ran as fast as possible, causing the three goons to run after. Ryoga found an alley and hid there. When they came to the alley, they were surprised to find no one there.

"What the? Nobody here?"

"I'm sure that guy just went to this alley!"

"Shut up! Just walk in!"

They slowly walked further, carefully looking around. There was one place they forgot to look up though:

Above.

And it bit them hard when the teenager in yellow jacket suddenly jumped down from the ceiling above them and kicked them hard. The leader of the group, indicated by his darker shirt and bigger stature, managed to put up a fight, forcing Ryoga to step back.

"Who are you? Why are you tracking me?" Ryoga loudly questioned.

"Don't know? To beat the hell of you up!"

"Oh… And now it seems that you cannot beat me like usual. How about a different way?"

"Different way? What the hell?" The guy talked in the harsh manner, the way that annoyed Ryoga so much. He had to deal with a lot of assholes harassing Rio that way.

"With this!" Ryoga then pulled out his purple Duel Disk and set it on his left arm, activating it. He expected them to be annoyed and pull out theirs as well, but instead, they spoke with interest.

"Oh!" One guy noticed.

"That Duel Disk!" Another guy said.

Ryoga became intrigued. "My Duel Disk? What do you mean?"

"Don't know? It means it'll be interesting to beat you up!" The leader smiled creepily and activated his own Duel Disk as well. "You two stay back! I'll beat this asshole myself!"

"In your dreams!" Ryoga declared.

 **DUEL!**

 **Ryoga** : 4000 [5]

 **Goon** : 4000 [5]

* * *

"I will surely beat you down to a pulp! Ready for that!" The leader smiled arrogantly.

"We will see about that! You better be ready that I will beat all three of you!" Ryoga spatted back.

"Such a powerful yet stupid mouth! I will take the first turn!" The goon said. "I summon Fuse Ray Musketeer!" He slapped a card down to the blade, summoning a toy-face mannequin in musketeer clothes and a gun.

 **Fuse Ray Musketeer** EARTH Effect LV4 **1600** /800

"And then Magic Card, Drain Call activate!" He activated another card in his hand.

 **Fuse Ray Musketeer** ATK 1600 - 0

"By changing its ATK to 0, I can special summon two more!" The bad guy slapped another two cards down, calling out two identical musketeers like the first one.

"And now their effects will activate! Shooting!" The two summoned monsters aimed their guns at Ryoga and fired at them, causing him minor pain since there was no Action Field available.

 **Ryoga** : 4000 - 2400 [5]

"Hahahahaha…"

"What?" Ryoga found another hidden message behind that smile.

"You're DONE now!"

"Done? What are you talking about? You have no cards in your hand and you cannot attack on your first turn!"

"Battle!" All of the three goons said, shocking Ryoga.

"The hell!? You cheating snake!"

"Whatever!" He shamelessly said. "As long as we can beat you, we can do whatever we want!" The three monsters reloaded their guns and fired simultaneously at the Shark duelist, creating a huge explosion. There was smoke on his side of the field, the three assholes were certain that they had won.

"Hehehehe…"

"Hahahahahahaha!" A loud laugh from Ryoga suddenly caught them off guard. The smoke disappeared, revealing a still alive and shine "Shark" smiling and a literal blue shark with a rounded mid-body, shaped like a shield.

 **Shield Shark** WATER Fish Effect LV4 0/ **0**

"What… what happened?"

"Surprise?" Ryoga mocked. "When I am about to take battle or effect damage, I can special summon this card from my hand and you cannot do anything to harm it and my LP this turn!"

"Dammit…" The goon swore. "I will beat you during my next turn! Turn end! At this moment, Drain Call's effects ends, my first Fuse Ray regains its original strength back!"

 **Fuse Ray Musketeer** ATK 0 - 1600

"There is no next turn for you asshole!" Ryoga widened his angry eyes, scaring them. His war instincts finally returned, rising dangerously in the angry spirit of Kamishiro Ryoga. "Ore no turn, draw!"

"Double Fin Shark summon!" Ryoga summoned the purple shark with, true to its name, two fins instead of the usual one.

 **Double Fin Shark** WATER Fish Effect LV4 **1000** /1200

"I, using the level 4 Shield Shark and Double Fin Shark, overlay!" The two sharks turned blue, crashing down to the Overlay Network.

"Dammit! Xyz Summon!" One guy noticed.

"It's him!" The other lackey commented in slight fear.

"Xyz Shōkan! Appear now, Numbers 32!" A large pillar of light shot out. Ryoga's signature monster, the large dragon-shark hybrid with four long flat arms appeared. "Rank 4! Marine Biting Dragon Shark Drake!"

 **Marine Biting Dragon Shark Drake** WATER Sea Serpent Xyz Effect R4 **2800** /2100

"Shit!"

"And now Equip Magic, Shark Influence activate!" Shark Drake got a purple aura around it.

"This is the end now! Shark Drake, attack Fuse Ray Musketeer! Depth Bite!" The monster charged forward, biting one of the three musketeers.

 **Goon** : 4000 - 2800 [3]

"Boss, are you okay?"

"No way… He… He… He can cause real damage!" The leader noted in fear.

"Really!? Real damage? There was no Real Solid Vision around?"

" _Real Solid Vision?"_ Ryoga thought about it. He remembered the 3 vs 3 Duel the You Show squad had before. Yuya requested to have the Action Duel setting so that LDS could duel in equal terms. And since Real Solid Vision was involved, they took real damage from attacks. _"Interesting… they did not know Resistance Duel Disks can cause real damage…"_

"At this moment, the effect of Shark Influence activate! It destroys all of your monsters and inflicts the highest ATK among those monsters as damage to you!" Shark Drake glowed up with energy. It then released it as multiple purple blasts at the leader's field, destroying everything in the front row, knocking him backwards.

 **Goon** : 2800 - 1200 [0]

He weakly got up, grasping his pained stomach. "Huh… But you cannot attack anymore!"

"Wrong!" Ryoga denied. "Shark Drake's effect activate! I special summon your Fuse Ray Musketeer back, but it loses 1000 ATK!"

 **Fuse Ray Musketeer** ATK 1600 - 600

"What the…"

"Then, if I use this effect, Marine Biting Dragon Shark Drake can make a second attack this turn!"

"No way!"

"The boss will lose!"

"Receive the punishment you filthy piece of disgust!" Ryoga roared in rage. "Shark Drake!" The Numbers monster complied. It charged energy on its mouth.

"Depth… BITE!" The shark released energy manifested as a head of a shark hungry for any unlucky preys ahead of it. It collided against the poor shooter, destroying the mannequin. Ryoga intentionally directed the blast so that it affected all of those three guys to avoid any potential trouble. They were painfully knocked back, screaming in pain.

 **Goon** : 1200 - 0 [0]

Ryoga slowly walked to the downed goons, threatening them with his Duel Disk. He said in a creepy monotone and an emotionless face. "Now… tell me, why are you chasing me? What are you going to do with ME?"

The leader jotted back in fear. "Please! Please! Don't do it! Don't do that stuff with your Duel Disk! No!"

"What? My Duel Disk? Why?" Ryoga wondered. He just wanted to freak them out of their minds, he did not have any intention of carding them.

"There…" Another goon managed. "Rumor said there… there is an attack on some place. The attacker does something with his Duel Disk… Disk that make them disappear! And…"

"And what? What about this Duel Disk?" He pointed at his own. However, he slowly figured out why they said that. _"Can't be…"_

"It's…" The three quickly got up and ran away. "The same! Please don't kill me!" They ran as fast as possible for their lives.

Ryoga looked at them then the place where they lied down before. There was a small yellow pool. "Huh! They crapped their shit out of their brown pants! Chicken-hearted! But why did they talk about my Duel Disk? It's the same as Yuto and Shun, and they are here… no…"

A light of revelation hit him. "Dammit! Yuto! Shun! No! Don't tell me!"

Ryoga hid his Duel Disk behind his purple shirt and immediately ran around, looking for Yuto and Shun. He was sure that they attacked LDS and caused this freaking mess. After running around the city with no success, he decided to run to the outskirts, and there was a place he would like to check it out first…

* * *

"There it is! Finally!"

Ryoga said between breath intakes. It was the pier where he was brought to earlier. Ryoga ran into the pier and began searching around, warehouse after warehouse. No success. "Dammit… where are they? Maybe they're not here-"

"Argh!"

A female voice caught his attention. It was pretty similar. "That voice… It's quite similar… Yuzu?" The voice came from the place on his left, behind a warehouse. He quietly ran to the farthest warehouse and hid behind the wall, watching the event unfolded. There were four people there, and he was shocked when he found one of them.

"Shun! Dammit, what are you doing here?" Ryoga whispered. He decided it was best to stay behind and watch.

From what he could see, there were Masumi from LDS, Yuzu from You Show, Sora from Academia and now Shun from Resistance was involved. Shun had probably knocked Yuzu down during his charging, hence the scattered cards and her Duel Disk; and now he was facing Masumi.

Shun touched the screen of his Duel Disk, shooting out the blue blade, ready for battle. "If you are in LDS… then you are my enemy!" Masumi became afraid after that fierce declaration.

Shun slowly stepped forward, sending the feared Masumi back.

"Are… are you the culprit of the repeated attacks?"

"Sa, come! Duel with me!"

" _Dammit, gotta-"_ Ryoga attempted to run out to stop when suddenly, Yuto jumped down from a rooftop of a warehouse nearby, holding Shun's Duel Disk. He was still in his civilian clothes two days ago along with his mask.

"Stop it Shun! Don't act so reckless like this anymore!"

"Yuto!" Shun roared.

Yuto took off his mask. "I told you this is not our battlefield! They are not our enemy!"

" _Exactly one now…"_ Ryoga thought, eyeing Sora.

Shun knocked Yuto's hand off, took out his red scarf over his face and yelled. "This is my BATTLEFIELD! To rescue Ruri I have to do it! If you step in my way, I will beat you!"

"Ruri?" Yuzu suddenly spoke up, causing Yuto and Shun to turn to her. Shun was dead on tracks when he saw Yuzu's face. It was exactly like his one and only younger sister.

" _Ruri…"_ Shun immediately lit up with hope and happiness. _"Finally I have found you…"_ He stepped to her, attempting to remove his glasses so she could see her beloved brother when…

"Argh!" His face became pained, and pale, and the cause was Yuto's powerful left hook to his stomach, knocking him unconscious.

"She is not Ruri…" Yuto said loud enough so that only the slowly passing out Shun could hear. When he finally lost unconscious, he carried him on his shoulders and whispered. "Ruri is here, but we cannot see her now…"

Ryoga watched the entire thing, still keeping himself hidden. _"Screw you Shun! You just brought us trouble after trouble!"_

Yuto then looked at Yuzu's dropped cards and noticed one of them in particular, the card he hated the most:

Fusion.

He picked it up and showed it to Yuzu. "This card does not suit you!" Understandably, Yuzu became bewildered.

"Such a painful thing to hear!" Sora suddenly said, holding his lollipop. "I don't like someone else hating my presents like that!" He licked the lollipop. "If so, I am not hesitant to show you how amazing that card is!"

"Sora!" Yuzu berated the kid. Ignoring Yuzu, Sora and Yuto exchanged glares, knowing full well that there was much more behind that usual talk. Yuzu stepped between the two. "That's enough Sora! You too!"

"Masumi!" Hokuto suddenly spoke from her left, causing everyone to turn at that direction. She saw Hokuto, Yaiba and Yuya running to her.

"Everyone! The culprit is here!" Masumi yelled.

"What? You called them? How?" Yuzu wondered.

"I called while you guys were busily dealing with that culprit!" Masumi revealed. While the situation was happening, she secretly called Hokuto and Yaiba through her Duel Disk, and now for some reason, Sakaki Yuya was running with them too. At least having more men to capture the culprit was good, he and that masked guy would not run away anymore.

" _Shit! They're going to capture Shun and Yuto! I gotta rescue them!"_

All of the effort came to waste though when suddenly, Yuzu's bracelet shone up purple, blinding anyone in the vicinity.

" _Dammit again?"_ Yuto thought. He was tired of this already.

" _What the hell?"_ Ryoga looked on with shock. The light became brighter, consuming Yuto and Shun. After that, they were gone, leaving the bewildered Sora, Yuzu, Masumi and Ryoga behind.

Masumi's trio finally ran to there. "Masumi! Where is he?"

She could only respond. "Gone…"

Yuya ran to Yuzu. "You're alright Yuzu?"

"Gone again…"

"What? Who?"

"I don't understand…" Yuzu whispered to Yuya. She put her hand on her face. "I don't understand everything Yuya! The bracelet shining up, they are gone everytime you come near!"

"Yuzu…"Yuya looked at Yuzu's dropped cards. He crouched down and grabbed them. "Tsk… why are they scattered like this…" Sora simply watched. After a while, Yuya gave Yuzu's deck and her pink Duel Disk back. "Here Yuzu!"

Masumi noticed an LDS car stopping at the bridge. She beckoned Yaiba and Hokuto to run to it, leaving the You Show trio and Ryoga behind.

Sora said to Yuzu. "Things are complicated now…" He pulled Yuzu and walked off the area. "Hurry Yuya!"

"U-Uh!" Yuya attempted to run but he suddenly stopped when he saw Yuzu's card Fusion lying under the crate. He picked up and examined it.

"Is this… the card Yuzu forgot to pick up?"

"Fusion…"

Yuya put the card to his pocket and ran out of the pier as well. Ryoga secretly looked on with a lot of things on his head.

" _Things are slowly out of control now… This secret cannot be kept any longer… Gotta call her!"_

Ryoga pulled out his Duel Disk and contacted Ruri. As for the receiver, she was staying in the guest room watching TV. She picked up her Duel Disk and answered it.

"Hey Ryoga! What's going on?"

"Not good Ruri! Go to the pier and I'll tell you!"

"The pier…? Hell no… Okay, I will go there!"

"Will be waiting! Just come soon!"

"Got it!" Ruri cut off the call and immediately went to the pier.

Ryoga stood at the bridge, waiting for Ruri. A short while later, she finally came.

"What's wrong Ryoga?"

"A lot! Come here!" He waved his hand.

"Okay, you tell me now!" Ruri said.

"Good. First thing is, Yuto and Shun attack LDS and card them!"

"What?" Ruri shocked. She could not believe it, her fear had become true. Her beloved older brother and her boyfriend had gone too far. "No, no, it's not true!"

"It's true Ruri…" Ryoga looked away while Ruri shook her head in denial. "They caused this mess, and who knows what punishment Reiji would do to us!?"

"No…" Ruri whispered sadly. "No… it's all my fault! It's all my fault!"

"Ruri stop!" Ryoga held her shoulders, forcing Ruri to look at him. "It's not and it will never be your fault! They acted on their own, you are not to blame for that! And if someone accuses you, I will protect you okay?"

"I… I know Ryoga… it's just that… they did this to find me, and now I have found Yuto yet I cannot see him! I cannot tell them that I'm here. I'm just as guilty Ryoga!"

Ryoga shook his head. "If you say you're guilty, then stop. Reiji is! Akaba Reiji! Akaba Reiji is guiltly! He was responsible for putting us in this situation like this! He harmed us, he threatened us with electrocution and he separated us from them! He was responsible Ruri, and we will make him pay later! Okay? It's not your fault and it will never be!"

Ruri relented. "Yeah…"

"One more thing Ruri, Shun had slipped your name in front of Yuzu."

"What? Which means…"

"Which means she may know you and Shun are related now."

"Dammit… It seems that this secret is slowly being uncovered…" Ruri said. "That day may come. The day we must confess the truth to them…"

"Yeah… But now she may not know yet, and she probably would just keep it a secret to you for now. You need to keep this secret as long as you can. And look, I know you hate it. We all are, but things are very messy now. We can only hope that things would not get any messier than this."

Ruri had no choice to but agree. She looked far away, thinking about the harsh time ahead of her. "We can only do our best Ryoga…"

"I will support you Ruri. And I'm sure Yuto and Shun will do the same too."

"I know…" Ruri bid Ryoga goodbye and walked off the pier. Ryoga sighed heavily, leaning himself against the wall and thought about the following days, the days he was sure that would not be easy for him and for anyone involved.

" _I only hope things will be over soon… Please help me…"_

" _Rio…"_

* * *

Ryoga stood still, watching the sunset, the view that he had not seen for quite a long time back then. He relished every second of it, the fading light, the blackening sky and the yellow full moon; in that moment, he felt he was back at Heartland again. He then walked off the pier and went to the nearest street market for dinner. The food was pretty decent for him, filling his stomach the energy he needed to refill for the rest of the day. After wasting some useless hours on equally worthless stuffs, he returned to his sleeping spot in front of a shop, playing the role of a homeless person again. The entire situation was now beginning to speed up, the wheel of fate rolling forward, setting everything in motion. And he and others needed to act fast, or else their entire lives would be at risk.

But first, sleep is mandatory, and Ryoga knew it better than anyone. The war had taught him that he had to take every chance to rest whenever there was no danger in order to be ready for anything, even then not letting his guard down any second. That was the reason why he could survive then, and he would continue to, for anyone close to him. Ryoga curled himself around the corner and finally slept. The face he made when he slept resembled the opposite side of his usual personality. It was warm, natural and his lips were curling upward, the smile of sleep, the kind of sleeping face that connected his broken current mood with his former past. Rio had told him that in one occasion, and she told him that she liked it a lot, so he made sure that he would keep that beautiful face. It would be the sign of hope to him, to Rio, and to anyone he knew.

* * *

Ruri could not sleep for most of the night. The painful, guilty feeling had come up again, the feeling she wished she had not felt in first place. She now thought she had made a huge mistake of staying in Yuzu's house. She thought it was the best option at that time. Not only did she have to lie to them repeatedly, now things are slowly breaking apart. Too much things had happened, and it all involved her, and as much as she wanted to believe in Ryoga's words, as much as she wanted to remove the guilt, she could not. She is too kind to do such a thing anymore. She had sacrificed part of her conscience for that awful lie already, and she did not know whether she could continue messing Yuzu and her friends up anymore. She quietly cried for the rest of the night, until it was 3 AM when the tears were dried and the sleepiness took in its place, she closed her eyes and slept a late sleep.

The next morning, Ruri could not wake up early as usual. Not even Yuzu or Shuzo could, and Yuzu decided to let her sleep after seeing her sad sleeping face. Ruri did not wake up until afternoon, when Yuya and his friends participated his third Duel with a kid called Mieru as Yuya told her. Too messed up literally and emotionally, she made a pretty long bath, trying to erase any guilt in her to play that useless and painful game again, the game she was sure she would never play anymore after this. At least for now, Yuzu and Yuya were not pressing about that information, she could at least prolong the lie for a little bit longer. After the shower, her Duel Disk on the table nearby beeped. Ruri stepped out of the bathroom and took it, realizing it was a call. She quickly took it and brought it to her right ear.

"Ryoga?" She disinterestedly whimpered.

"Wish it was…" The voice, the dreaded voice walked her up to reality. She knew that voice to well.

"Akaba Reiji?" Immediately, anger rose within her. "What the hell do you want from me? How much more do you want to screw me up!? I'm quit!"

"Relax girl. I call you to bring you to LDS. There is something important."

"Screw that! I'm done with you! I will tell them the truth-"

"Then let Ryoga, Shun and Yuto die?" Reiji reminded her. "I don't think so right? Is that what you are thinking right?"

Ruri clenched her fists, hardening her face. He controlled her too easily, as if she and Ryoga were puppets for his marionette trick. And of course, she had no other choice. "What do you want? Why do you want us to go to LDS?"

"Just come to this place. A car is waiting for you outside. And if you do not believe this, then firstly, they will not harm you, I will kill them too if they do; secondly, it involves your comrades."

"My comrades?" Ruri let that sink in. She could not risk it anymore, if what Reiji said was the truth, then he could do anything to harm them if he wanted to. She had to stop this madman from hurting her precious people. "Okay, I will. Just don't harm any of them, and one thing: don't think that it would force me to do whatever you want!"

"Good enough." Reiji decided to do something else, something that he could not resist doing. The temptation was really great, and he realized sometimes he would just play along to satisfy his own needs. "Just imagine the scenario which I torture your brother and force you to take off your clothes, it is good…" Reiji crept her out, playing with her obvious fears.

"STOP! YOU SICK ASSHOLE!" Ruri roared. She nearly dropped the Duel Disk when Reiji reminded her.

"Okay okay sorry… But I would love to push the button. Do you want it?" Reiji joked while waving the button on his left hand.

"Damn you Reiji! Stop messing around! Get straight to the point!"

"Fine. Just get in the car and things will be clear soon." Reiji stopped the call, smiling.

Ruri angrily got prepared herself. She put on her clothes, consisting of a purple shirt and blue jeans, the second clothes she got since she went to live in Yuzu's house. She went out of the Hiragi residence and got in the car already parked outside, not even bothering to hear the obligatory hello from the guard.

10 minutes later, she was at LDS' garage floor. The driver escorted her to the basement and to the white room again, which, to her surprise, Ryoga was there also.

"Ryoga!" She expressed her shock and happiness.

"Ruri! You're finally here!" Ryoga let out a smile.

"You know why we're here?" Ruri asked him.

"Will soon." A deep voice stopped the conversation. Ruri and Ryoga both turned to their right to see the person they hated the most now…

Akaba Reiji…

"Today, we will have a lot of fun…"

* * *

 **Fanfic OC Cards**

 **Drain Call (Magic Card)**

Target 1 level 4 of lower monster you control; change its ATK to 0 and negate it effects until the End Phase, then special summon up to 2 level 4 or lower monsters from your hand.

 **Shield Shark**

WATER Fish Effect LV4 0/0

When you are about to take battle or effect damage; you can Special Summon this card from your hand, and if you do, WATER monsters you control cannot be destroyed this turn, also you take no damage this turn.

 **Shark Influence (Equip Magic)**

Equip this card to a "Shark" monster you control. When this card destroys an opponent's monster by battle; destroy all monsters your opponent controls, and if you do, inflict damage equal to the highest original ATK among those destroyed monsters (your choice, if tied). Destroy this card and the equipped monster during the End Phase of the turn this card was activated.

* * *

 **Well that was a huge reveal to everyone in-universe right? Now Yuzu found out the connection between Ruri and Shun, lucky to the poor war-torn girl that she did not force her to spill out anything for now.**

 **For a supporting protagonist like Kamishiro Ryoga, I tried my best to give him as much characterization as possible in this chapter. If there is anything that I miss, please let me know.**

 **In case you wonder why Masumi did not say anything about Ruri, remember that Masumi only heard the name briefly from Yuzu and did not think about it much. She only thought that Yuzu and Ruri were probably twins or simply having the same faces, which is not that rare in real life. Besides, can you really trust the words from the man who wants to make you dead more than anything else?**

 **Also, Reiji is slightly more sadistic as you can see, though I don't want to overdo it like last time. Also, Vector will not play any role in here if you wonder.**

 **Hope you guys could review this chapter, this will truly help me a lot in the near future.**

* * *

 **Next Chapter Preview**

 **The Falcon of Recklessness**

The continuous attack finally stopped when Kurosaki Shun met Akaba Reiji in person. To try to progress things further, the two strong men conducted a duel, one that would make Shun rethink about himself again.

 **This is matrixnis, out!**


	22. Scale 22

**Hello everyone! I am back!**

 **Man, I guess the first part of this chapter was pretty well-written in my opinion. Things were very good for me at that time and my head was clear. Ready to hear any negative responses about this opinion though (LOL^^).**

 **I have received some reviews about Reiji about how I have made him quite cruel. What I can say is: as the President of LDS who is planning to stop a war, Reiji is a person who would be willing to use any dirty tactics to get people working under his wings, as clearly shown in the anime where he forced Shun to work under him and heartlessly stole Yuto's Duel Disk for experiment, an action made me hate him a lot. To be honest, he sometimes crept me out, reminding me how dark human can be (basically, every member of the Akaba family is horrible to some extent), and I simply imagined what he would do.**

 **To Yuka Kuroshiro: Reiji will get called out of this soon, by whom? Feel free to guess.**

 **To Playerhood18: all I can do now is to give Shun some very good fight.**

 **To Gentyman: your question will be revealed at the end of the chapter. I don't think it would satisfy you though.**

 **Okay, hope you guys enjoy my newest chapter!**

* * *

 **Chapter 22: The Falcon of Recklessness**

"Battle! Go now, Rise Falcon! Rend and tear all enemies opposing you! Brave Claw REVOLUTION!"

The fiery falcon slashed through the small squad of Xyz, Synchro and especially Fusion monsters on his opponent's field, destroying them in a huge explosion, along with the loud, defeated screams of three LDS representatives. To him, they were nothing, they were not even worth a single percent of the enemies he routinely faced before. They were too arrogant to fall into his trap, unleashing all of their resources without even considering Reverse Cards as Plan B, C, D or the entire Alphabet. He finished his turn in tranquil fury, watching the three teenagers dropping down painfully to the ground, unconscious, and even though the serious demeanor he made while looking at them obviously did not say much, he was insanely mad and angry inside at the only girl of that trio in particular.

Kotsu Masumi.

The alpha kind of girl who used Fusion, the summon method that destroyed everything he knew. And it was even more shocking to him that she and those two useless big-mouth assholes tagging along with her were teenagers. Almost every bastards in Academia was in that age range. Those teenagers, who are supposed to be at home with loving parents and siblings in the kitchen table, talking and smiling to each other, thinking about their stupid gossips or their own future ahead, was now ax-crazy, lunatic, insane soldiers in the battlefield. They mercilessly attacked Heartland and destroyed everything, turning innocent citizens into cards for apparently no reason at all. Just who the hell did they think they were to use Dueling to harm people, and just who did that girl think when she used Fusion? What did LDS think when they even use it, the thing that would remind him of the massive loss he had experienced? What the hell is wrong with that asshole Akaba Reiji?

Those questions haunted Kurosaki Shun to this day, and he is damn sure that he is going to find out. He will, and he will capture that son of a bitch.

Behind him, multiple footstep sounds could be heard, slowly louder in volume and steadily coming closer to him. Under the dark sky and the faint light of the moon, it would surely creep the hell out of a frail, weak person and force him to find a hiding spot or run away in an instant. Shun chuckled to himself, knowing that if someone had the good mood to set up an ambush like this to him, they would have made a grave mistake, as he could just simply spot the ambush spots at the rooftops quickly and improvise his way out, eliminating them along the way. With that tremendous confidence, he turned around to see six people, five in blue shirt and one, seemingly a bodyguard, in black tuxedo and glasses. LDS. Which meant Akaba Reiji would be here. It seemed that they did not come here to attack him though as they did not carry Duel Disks with them, and he was sure that going straight to the brawling option was not going to be as easy as he had envisioned. He decided to be as polite as he could for a serial killer before resorting to the (much more anticipated) way.

"So on time… But I had fought a lot of your weaklings already! Call your boss!"

"If you want to, then I'm here." A calm, deep male voice caught his attention. Immediately after that, those six people stepped their feet back a bit, welcoming their boss' dramatic introduction. From the open space they gave, he could see a silhouette of a tall man with his scarf over his neck flying, defying gravity with every move he made. The man slowly walked forward, casting the darkness from the lack of proper light away, revealing the calm yet serious face of a young man with silver hair and glasses.

"Are you…?" Shun said, although he had got what he needed to tell who that man was anyway.

The man adjusted his glasses with his right hand in an arrogant manner, saying two words of a name of a person that he was sure the ragged culprit would respond very happily.

"Akaba Reiji. The President of Leo Corporation!"

Shun tensed his eyes, finally getting what he needed in his bloodless yet equally deadly journey. "Akaba… Reiji…"

Not giving Shun any second to whimper, Reiji continued his grand speech. "Probably since you knew that I was in this Miami City so you repeatedly attack people related to LDS, originally from Leo Corporation so that you can see me."

"Right?"

Shun gave out a smile, closing his eyes in pure relief and opened them again in his second sentence. "You are… Akaba Reiji… The son of Akaba Leo?"

Shun waved his right hand and pointed the thumb at himself. "I have been waiting for this moment! Sa, come!"

"Duel with me!"

Still keeping a straight face, the current President of LDS went around. "Before that, please let me know… why do you want to duel with me…"

"I don't need to answer you!"

"Probably to save your comrades." Reiji said, stopping Shun on tracks. He knew he had hit it, the button from Kamishiro Ryoga and Kurosaki Ruri. He would love to torture him more, partly for his amusement, partly for the payback for the innocent people he had killed.

"The unconscious girl over there has confirmed that the last time you two crossed paths, you froze at the sight of the girl Hiragi Yuzu, and the name Ruri. Maybe… that girl bears some similarities to your sister. From this, I assume that Ruri for you… no, for all of you, is a dear comrade. She was captured by the enemy I guess." He loved to lie to Shun a lot, and he did not know when to stop this lying game, but he was damn sure that he would not show that sadistic pleasure from his now still stoic face. "Furthermore, as of now, Ruri has not gotten out of the enemies' hands. That's why you attacked LDS."

The conclusion from Reiji did not bother Shun one bit, he had no intention to lie anyway, and he was very confident now. He recalled the moment Yuto talked to him the previous day after their escape from Masumi and the subsequent argument immediately after.

…

…

" _That girl is not Ruri! I have seen her learning Fusion Summon. Ruri, our comrade, your beloved younger sister… would never happily learn the summon method of the enemy!"_

…

…

Shun smiled, about to show Akaba Reiji one fatal mistake he made during his explanation. "You deduced very well, but there is one thing that you were wrong."

"Oh? I would love to hear what that was…" Reiji sparked up an unnecessary question to him and to Shun.

"Ruri had escaped! And I know she is here now, right in Standard, and somehow you got a hand in this!" Shun pointed at Reiji, forgetting the thought that Reiji had done something to Ryoga and her that forced them not to see him and Yuto at the moment. "And for that! I will get you!"

"Obviously… In short, you want to use me as a hostage to trade right?"

Shun confirmed. "Of course. The reason I attacked LDS… and the sending of those sealed souls, all is to draw you out of your stupid hiding spot in that stupid building. If the trade is the son… then even Akaba Leo cannot say "No" to that question!"

Reiji closed his eyes, revealing a fact. "Don't be that sure!"

"What?"

"That the man loving me like that is horribly unbelievable, one that I would surely die of laughing all the boring day!"

Shun wondered if Reiji attempted to bail out by giving him an ambiguous reply. "What do you mean?"

"Anyway…" Reiji adjusted his glasses again. "If you wanna duel then I am ready. Haven't done that seriously for some time… There is a condition though."

"And that is…?"

"If you agree with that, I am willing to be your opponent tonight." He turned around, giving Shun one last warning. "And if you win… then you can do whatever you want…"

"Oi!" Shun protested at Reiji, who slowly walked away with the bodyguard. He had lost interest with that man, he could simply walk away as well, but what that President said next forced him to change his mind.

"Don't you care about your sister? The one you accused of being done something by me?"

"What? My sister? What do you mean?" Shun said.

"From what you said, she could probably be here, running around this city for some reason. She is like a street girl now, many dangers ahead of her. Capturing, molesting, prostitution of something similar-"

"Stop!" Shun yelled. That man's attitude suddenly changed to be more creepily and his still emotionless expression scared Shun even more.

"Yet you ignore your only lead to your sister-"

"ENOUGH!" Shun lost his temper. From behind, Reiji smiled, finally able to make Shun snap. "All right! I accept the duel!"

"Thank you very much!" Reiji turned around, enjoying the angry face Shun made now.

"And this is my condition in return! After I beat you in the duel, I will beat the crap out of you for saying that to my sister! Hear me asshole!?"

"Hear well birdbrain!" Reiji broke his usual saying a bit to annoy Shun further. He noted to the six LDS people to go away. "We will have a duel soon, LDS is this way, just follow me if you like."

"No need to tell!" Shun gave out a harsh response. He then slowly walked behind Reiji and the bodyguard to the LDS building five blocks away…

* * *

"So this is LDS? I'm sure this is still small!" Shun growled, attempting to annoy that batshit President back.

"I am planning on remodeling this building, no need from you to be reminded." Reiji replied back.

"Whatever…" Shun went with them to the basement. They slowly walked along the silent hallway and stopped at one steel door, where a dark room behind it was waiting for all of them. Reiji swiped the card, opening the door to the room. The moment Reiji and Shun stepped into the room, the lights opened simultaneously, revealing a large rectangular blue room with some watching rooms on the left, right and above. This was the testing room Reiji used to experiment with Pendulum Cards earlier.

"Ready?" Reiji pulled out his Duel Disk and touched the screen, activating it.

"No need to question!" Shun did the same as well, a blue blade shot out form the front of his Duel Disk.

"Before the duel, there is one thing!" Reiji suddenly said, catching Shun's interest.

"What is that?"

"This is my field, so I will give you one unique thing about this field!" Reiji snapped his fingers, the ground suddenly lit up in purple. Shun could see a large machine under the ground doing something, then the room he and Reiji stood suddenly changed into an old oval stadium. From the spectator seat, a lot of people in old costume were seen yelling loudly.

"Field Magic, Spartan Colosseum activate!"

"The hell is this thing?" Shun wondered.

"This is an Action Field. How it is going to affect our duel, you will know soon."

"Whatever…"

 **DUEL!**

 **Kurosaki Shun** : 4000 [5]

 **Akaba Reiji** : 4000 [5]

* * *

"Oh, hello Chairwoman Akaba Himika!" Nakajima politely said hello.

"Hello Nakajima-san! What the hell is wrong today?"

"The President had finally found the attacker. His name is Kurosaki Shun, and he is dueling with him now!"

Himika looked at the room, confirming that what he said was right. "Hmm… so there he is… that culprit… but…" She turned to her proud son. "Even for a relentless person like him, Reiji will not lose, at least not that easy. The urge to find his sister may boost him up greatly, but I know Reiji. He is my son, and he is way stronger than that guy over there!"

…

"As my guest, you have the right to conduct your first turn!" Reiji gave Shun the first shot.

"Fine by me!" Shun said back. Ignoring the bubble breaking apart below him, he took out a card and slapped it to the blade. "From my hand, I summon Raid Raptors - Vanishing Lanius!"

 **Raid Raptors - Vanishing Lanius** DARK Winged Beast Effect LV4 **1300** /1600

"When this card is summoned, I can special summon another Vanishing Lanius!"

"And then Continuous Magic, Raid Raptors - Nest activate! I can add the third Vanishing Lanius to my hand!" Shun revealed the card from his Deck.

" _3 level 4 monsters… and they have the same name…"_ Reiji commented in his mind.

"With the effect of the second Vanishing Lanius, I special summon the last Vanishing Lanius in my hand!"

"And I set down two cards and end my turn!" Two set cards materialized in Shun's field.

"You let the last two Vanishing Laniuses in Defense Position. Are you protecting yourself?" Reiji said.

Shun instead gave him a death glare, noting to him that he would not discuss about it no matter how much he wanted. _"This Akaba Reiji is clearly not someone to underestimate… I need to slow down a bit…"_

"Watashi no turn, draw!" Reiji immediately activated his drawn card, knowing how pissed off Shun would be. "I activate two Continuous Magic Cards, Covenant with the Swamp King and Covenant with the Hellgate!" The two cards materialized and spun around, shining up. "With Hellgate, I add DD Necro Smile to my hand." Reiji showed the card. "And with Swamp King, once per turn… I can conduct a Fusion Summon…"

"What the hell? Fusion Summon without a Fusion Magic?" Shun exclaimed. He had a furious expression on his face upon hearing the name "Fusion" again. _""Damn it Reiji? Are you freaking kidding me!?"_

Reiji said nothing to Shun's expression though, instead he calmly chanted. "The dark shape-shifting smile, join together with the ancient deity, and give birth to the almighty warrior!"

"Yūgō Shōkan! Be reborn, Level 7! DDD Oracle King d'Arc!" A female warrior showed up. It looked like a demon-human hybrid with the two demonic wings behind and two pointed ears. It had white short hair, a mask on its face, white armor, large boxoms and it wielded a long silver sword.

 **DDD Oracle King d'Arc** DARK Demon Fusion Effect LV7 **2800** /2000

Shun struggled to keep his face calm and his emotions stable when the Fusion Summon of the monster bearing the name of the great French female finished. How could that historical name of the 19-year-old saint be used for the name of the Fusion monster? Shun could never know why.

"And then!" Reiji pointed downwards. "With the effect of DD Necro Smile, I banish it and Baphomet to Fusion Summon again!"

"What! Two Fusion Summons in one turn!?"

"Not a big deal to me." Reiji simply commented in a low voice. "Yūgō Shōkan! Appear now, Level 6! DDD Flame King Temujin!" One of Reiji's preferred Fusion Monsters with a more versatile effect got summoned. As Shun had expected, Shun was trembling with anger like Ruri and Ryoga.

 **DDD Flame King Temujin** FIRE Demon Fusion Effect LV6 **2000** /1500

"Battle! Flame King Temujin, attack the Attack Position Vanishing Lanius! Fire Stroke!"

"Trap Card, Raid Raptors - Readiness!" Shun quickly acted. "My monsters are safe from battle this turn!" He then covered himself from the damage caused by the attack.

 **Shun** : 4000 - 2500 [0]

"And then another Trap Card, Raid Raptors - Push activate! All monsters on the field are changed to Defense Position…"

"And I can draw a card!" Shun drew a card from his Deck with more force than necessary.

"Hmm… Very well… I set down 2 cards and end my turn!" Two cards materialized face-down.

"Get ready Akaba Reiji, I will beat you very badly!" Shun declared. "Ore no turn, draw!"

"It's here! Magic Card, Raid Raptors - Sanctuary activate! 2 cards DRAW!" Shun loudly drew out two cards from his Deck.

"And now the effect of Nest will let me add "Raid Raptors - Heavy Vulture to my hand!"

" _It's here!"_ Reiji got ready.

"I, using the three level 4 Vanishing Laniuses, Overlay!"

"Xyz Shōkan! Appear now, Rank 4! Raid Raptors - Rise Falcon!"

 **Raid Raptors - Rise Falcon** DARK Winged Beast Xyz Effect R4 **100** /2000

Reiji said nothing at the sight of the mechanical falcon.

"Rise Falcon can attack all special summoned monsters once each! And now its effect! Rebellious Rising!" An Overlay Unit flew over to Yuya's field and disintegrated, fire appeared from d'Arc and Temujin and flew to Rise Falcon, bathing in fire.

 **Raid Raptors - Rise Falcon** ATK 100 - 4900

"What?" Nakajima exclaimed.

"4900 ATK… " Himika commented. "So that's why…"

"And then, the effect of Push will allow my "Raid Raptors" monsters to inflict piercing damage this turn!" Shun revealed. "Battle! Raid Raptors - Rise Falcon! Rend and tear all enemies opposing you!"

"Brave Claw… what?" Shun stopped his words when he suddenly saw Reiji using Temujin as a push to jump to the wall behind and grabbed a card with the backing "A" and activated it immediately.

"Action Magic, Evade!"

"Action Magic!?" Shun exclaimed in shock as Temujin traded blows with his monster using its blade, knocking the bird back.

"This card negates an attack." Reiji revealed.

"What… that is an Action Card right… So when that bubble broke… The light scattering around are those cards…"

"You are correct." Reiji confirmed. "And we both can grab and activate them anytime, but we can only hold one Action Card at a time."

"Such unnecessary equipments…" Shun muttered, finding the concept of Action Card rather questionable. In one way, it can help a duelist enhance his playstyle more and potentially avoid losing, however, it may lead to said duelist relying on them too much, losing one's own uniqueness in dueling. "But no time to make a fuss about it! Rise Falcon, attack d'Arc!"

"Not gonna happen! Continuous Trap, Covenant with the Great Devil!" The trap shone up and created a barrier around the great warrior, shielding it from the strong slash from Rise Falcon. "I can negate an attack and return DD Baphomet to my graveyard!"

"Huh! I set down 2 cards, turn end!"

"Watashi no turn, draw!" The malicious President of LDS proceeded his turn. "During my Standby Phase, all of my "Covenant" cards will deal 1000 damage for each one!" Reiji said, shocking Shun.

"What…? No…" Shun composed himself upon seeing the calm look on Reiji's face.

"Yes…" The three cards charged purple energy and blasted them at Reiji, only for d'Arc to absorb it and flew upwards, turning it into warm energy.

"Life Elation! Oracle King d'Arc negates any effect damage and turn it into LP gain for me."

 **Reiji** : 4000 - 7000 [2]

"With that out of the way, I hope you are not disappointed with the hope spot that I would lose, because I am not going to do that! Once again, Covenant with the Hellgate will let me add a DD monster! I choose to add the…" Reiji drew a card and showed it to Shun.

"Tuner Monster, DD Night Howling!" Reiji slapped the card to the blade, calling out the monster that he could only tell that it came from a nightmare story. It consisted of a literally big mouth with large sharp teeth that always seemed to be ready to devour anything on its randomized meal.

 **DD Night Howling** DARK Demon Tuner Effect LV3 **300** /600

"Tuner Monster!?" Shun was once again out of the blue. He never thought that Reiji would use Synchro Monster. _"Tuner… then there must me Synchro… only Yugo, the Pawn of Fusion uses that… then… is that asshole connected to Reiji somehow? Did Reiji order him to kidnap Ruri and brought her here? I gotta find out soon!"_

"When this card is Normal Summoned, it can special summon DD Baphomet from my graveyard!" The monster bit the ground, opening a portal, where a black human-lion hybrid showed up.

 **DD Baphomet** DARK Demon Effect LV4 **1400** /1800

"But its ATK and DEF become 0."

 **DD Baphomet** **1400** /1800 - **0** /0

"But it would not matter since I, using the level 3 Night Howling and the level 4 Baphomet, tuning!"

"Howls that tears through the night, become the cry of birth of a new king with swiftness of gales! Synchro Shōkan!"

"Be born, level 7, DDD Gust King Alexander!" From the piercing light, a monster with a teal cape and a sword appeared, swinging its sword around in pride. Teal wavelengths surrounded it.

 **DDD Gust King Alexander** WIND Demon Synchro Effect LV7 **2500** /2000

"Synchro… Summon…" Shun muttered.

"When a "DDD" monster is special summoned, Temujin can special summon Night Howling from my graveyard! Appear now, Night Howling!"

"And Alexander has the same effect as well! Appear again, DD Baphomet!"

"Baphomet can change Night Howling's level from 3 to 4!"

 **DD Night Howling** LV3 - 4

"Two level 4 monsters… can't be…!" Shun realized.

"I, using the level 4 DD Cerberus and DD Lilith, OVERLAY!" Two demon creatures turned into purple before flying up to the overlay network above them.

"With these two monsters, overlay network constructing!" A large pillar of light struck down.

"To conquer this entire world, descend now onto the peak of this realm!"

"That… that is…" Shun said.

"Xyz Shōkan! Be born now! Rank 4! DDD Wave King Caesar!" A monster came out of the pillar of light by slicing it open.

 **DDD Wave King Caesar** WATER Demon Xyz Effect R4 **2400** /1200

"What the hell… Fusion… Synchro… and even Xyz…"

"Battle! DDD Temujin, attack Rise Falcon! Fire Stroke!"

"Trap Card, Energy Shield!" Shun countered. "Rise Falcon is changed to Defense and it gains 700 DEF!"

 **Raid Raptors - Rise Falcon** ATK 100 - DEF 2000 - 2700

"And the battle continues!"

 **Reiji** : 7000 - 6300 [2]

"I order DDD Oracle King d'Arc to attack Rise Falcon! Oracle Charge!"

Reiji expected Shun to use an Action Card around but what he did next took him by surprise this time. "Quick-Play Magic, Rank-Up-Magic Battle Up Force!"

"During the Battle Phase, I can rank my monster up by 2 ranks!" Rise Falcon flew down to the Overlay Network and shot out a beam of light. Fire erupted from behind Shun.

"Prideful falcon! Spread your wings dyed in the blood of heroes! Advance through the path of revolution! Rank-Up Xyz Change!" The fire got higher.

"Come forth! Rank 6! Raid Raptors - Revolution Falcon!" From the flame, one of Shun's most versaltie monsters rose up, clearing the fire around it by its wings.

 **Raid Raptors - Revolution Falcon** DARK Winged Beast Xyz Effect R6 **2000** /3000

"Good luck trying to attack this monster. Your monsters will lose its ATK and DEF at the start of the Damage Step! And there is no way to return it during the End Phase!" Shun said.

"Well… d'Arc, please stop your attack!" The warrior complied, stopping the charge.

"Sorry to say that it will disappear soon!" Shun revealed. "When Revolution Falcon is summoned by Rank-Up, it can destroy your d'Arc and deal half of its ATK as damage to you!" Revolution Falcon flew upwards and releases bombs from its wings, levelling the historical warrior.

 **Reiji** : 6300 - 4900 [2]

"I set down a card and end my turn!" Reiji slid a card from his hand to his Duel Disk face-down.

"Ore no turn, draw! Revolution Falcon's effect! By detaching an Overlay Unit, this turn it will level your whole field!" The falcon absorbed an Overlay Unit, charging with power, readying to win the war.

"Battle! Revolution Falcon, attack Flame King Temujin! Revolutional Air Raid!"

"Useless! Great Devil will negate the attack! And since the attack was negated, there is no Damage Step to steal away Temujin's power!"

"Good move, but I can still attack! Now Revolution Falcon! Attack Gust King Alexander!"

 **DDD Gust King Alexander** **2500** /2000 - **0** /0

 **Reiji** : 4900 - 2900 [1]

"You know what?" Shun said to Reiji. "Your deck has a weakness of expanding your resources too much without regarding backup. That was the same thing your annoying lackeys do all the time. It seemed that you had thought ahead and add Great Devil to your Deck, but sadly, it will not stop my advance!" Reiji nodded at that observation. Having thought about the attack, he knew that Shun must be really strong and his deck must have a way of countering the Extra Deck, and Rise Falcon is a prime example.

"Revolution Falcon, attack Caesar!" The moment the bombs hit the ground, a shield formed around the field and an Overlay Unit from Caesar disintegrated. The smoke cleared, revealing Reiji's LP still stayed at 2900, Alexander and Caesar suddenly appeared again.

Reiji explained. "Trap Card, DDD Covenant Change! By banishing d'Arc, I take no battle damage! And then I add a level 4 "DD" monster to my hand! And I have activated Caesar's effect earlier when you attacked. By detaching an Overlay Unit, it can special summon as many monsters destroyed during this Battle Phase as possible."

"What the… that ablility…"

"But during my next Standby Phase, I will take 1000 damage for each."

"I don't think so, you must have a backup plan right?"

"Good notice! Trap Card, DDD Human Resources! I return 3 "DDD" monsters to the Deck and add 2 "DD" cards to my hand!"

" _Those two cards… why are they so similar…?"_ Shun wondered, thinking back about his duel with Yuya. "One card set, turn end!"

"Watashi no turn, draw!"

"Don't forget!" Shun interrupted. "Since d'Arc is gone now, you will take 3000 damage this time!"

"Really?" Reiji cryptically said as he slapped down a card to summon a new monster. A female monster with probably the grossest feature possible: the face was dark green with full of scales, the eyes were pale like those of the dead, the lower skin was very sore, uselessly concealed by a black piece of fabric that was up to its chest. It sat on a chair decorated by numerous skulls of the living, probably made of many innocent human beings who were unlucky enough to even catch a glimpse of that abomination. In short, for Shun, this thing was straight out of a horror movie, it would definitely scare the hell out of his sister Ruri.

 **DD Hel** DARK Demon Pendulum Effect LV5 Scale 6 **2300** /1500

 **Reiji** : 2900 - 1400 [3]

"When I am about to take effect damage, I can special summon this card and halve that damage."

"That was the card you got from Covenant Change…"

"Correct. And you know I can add another "DD" card to my hand thanks to the effect of Covenant with the Hellgate right?"

"No need to say those trivial things!" Shun said as Reiji took out a card from his Deck.

"Calm down angry head… And now, with the effect of Covenant with the Swamp King, I banish Necro Slime and Night Howling to…" the two mentioned monsters materialized before joining in the Fusion spiral.

"Yūgō Shōkan! Be reborn, Level 6! DDD Flame King Temujin…"

" _It appeared again… Temujin…!"_ Shun hated seeing that annoying Fusion Monster again.

"And then from my hand, I normal summon the Tuner Monster, DD Lamia!" A female monster in a form of a snake appeared. It had purple hair, long scaly blue and white tail, a brown mask with six yellow dots covering its face, two large hands taking the form of two large blooming flowers. It was pretty cute to be honest, but its name, Lamia was not, since it was associated with a sad Greek mythological story.

 **DD Lamia** DARK Demon Tuner Effect LV1 **100** /1900

Reiji showed to Shun two cards from his hand, the two Pendulum Cards. ""I, using the scale 1 DD Magical Savant Galilei… and Scale 10 DD Magical Savant Kepler!" This time, only Shun was shocked at those cards.

" _What!?"_

"Pendulum Scale setting!" He slapped them to the blade, the word 'Pendulum' appeared and two savants flew up to the two tubes. "With this, I can summon multiple monsters with levels between 2 and 9!"

" _Pendulum Summon!? Only Yuya uses that… How can that bastard…?"_

The savants began to work. "O the grand power shaking my very soul! Become the new light residing in the body and crush the darkness creeping inside this forgotten soul Pendulum Shōkan! Appear now, my monsters!" Reiji slapped two cards down to the blade to call out two monsters from his hand.

"DD Proud Chevalier!" A knight in shining armor appeared.

 **DD Proud Chevalier** DARK Demon Pendulum Effect LV5 Scale 6 **2000** /700

"Pen… Pendulum Summon…" Shun whispered. "How can you have those cards? Only a guy named Yuya uses that!"

"Sakaki Yuya?" Reiji was surprised that Shun seemed to know Yuya. _"Did he meet him and duel him somehow…? If I remember… a few days ago… some strong signals of Xyz and Pendulum were detected at that alley…"_

"I don't know what you mean with that Yuya, but we are not here to discuss about those trivial things! Let's get back to the duel!"

"Since Proud Chevalier was special summoned, Temujin's effect activates!" Temujin raised its sword and swung it in a circle, creating a portal to allow Baphomet to appear again. "And Lamia's level changes to 4!"

 **DD Lamia** LV1 - 4

"And now, level 4 DD Lamia and DD Baphomet, tuning!" Lamia turned into four Synchro rings and performed a Synchro Summon along with Baphomet.

"Climb over the corpses of heroes, and carry your bloodstained blade! Synchro Shōkan! Be born! Level 8! DDD Cursed Blood King Siegfried!" From the Synchro light, came a blue armored warrior with long white hair, a mask over its face, a red scarf over its neck similar to the one Akaba Reiji owned and a large sword over its left shoulder.

 **DDD Cursed Blood King Siegfried** DARK Demon Synchro Effect LV8 **2800** /2200

"Temujin… d'Arc… Lamia… Hel… and now Siegfried… such historical and fictional figures! You seemed to love History a lot!" Shun mocked the President.

Reiji calmly snark back. "I love History during dark times. It's good to know what had happened before going with what is going on."

"And now, DD Hel will show its power!" The said monster glowed a blue aura. "Once per turn, by destroying two Covenant cards…" Covenant with the Hellgate and Covenant with the Swamp King destroyed themselves. "… it will negate the effect of your Raid Raptors - Revolution Falcon!"

"What the…!? Which means…"

"Which means my monsters are safe to attack that monster!" Reiji finished what Shun wanted to say. "Besides, it deals 800 effect damage!"

 **Shun** : 2500 - 1700 [1]

"Finally, level 5 DD Proud Chevalier and DD Hel, overlay!"

"Hero of legends, with your profound justice, pierce through all things! Xyz Shōkan! Descend! Rank 5! DDD Marksman King - Tell!" The summoned monster had dark green hair with long bangs parted to its left face, a shoulder plate on its right shoulder, a stomach shaped in an apple with three yellow arrows pierced through the place where its heart was supposed to be, a dark green lower cape and armors on its legs. It wielded a toyish yellow crossbow on its right hand.

 **DDD Marksman King Tell** DARK Demon Xyz Effect R5 **2300** /2000

"Battle! Cursed Blood King Siegfried, attack Revolution Falcon!" The monster raised its sword upwards and slashed down, sending an energy beam at the slim falcon.

Shun immediately activated one of his set cards. "Quick-Play Magic, Rank-Up-Magic Escape Force, activat-"

"Not gonna happen!" Reiji interrupted. "Cursed Blood King Siegfried's effect! It can negate the effect of a Magic Card until the next Standby Phase!" The beam slashed through the materialized magic card, crackling it with electricity. "And the battle continues!" The beam turned around, hitting Revolution Falcon from behind, making it explode.

"Dammit!" Shun exclaimed while covering himself from the blast.

 **Shun** : 1700 - 900 [1]

"He only has 900 LP now!" Nakajima said.

"Which means the next attack will ensure my son a win!" Himika told to the bodyguard. "But why did not he finish the duel right now?" She whispered. Reiji could have used the effect of Tell to end the game.

"Endgame! DDD Marksman King Tell, direct attack! Forbidden Break Shot!" The monster materialized an energy arrow and fired it at Shun, who quickly took out a card from his graveyard.

"From the graveyard, Raid Raptors - Readiness activate!" A barrier formed around Shun, shielding him from the explosive arrow. "By banishing this card, I take no damage this turn!"

"Damn…" Nakajima said.

"He still has a last trick!?" Himika exclaimed her frustration.

"It seems that you always reserved something for the worst scenario… that is a tactic taught by the army…" Reiji observed. "Normal duelists cannot think this far ahead every time they duel."

"Yes. We have always been in adversary since Academia attacked us. We lost our friends, our family, our reason to live, thanks to your freaking FATHER!" Shun yelled. Both Reiji and Himika hardened their faces, clearing hating the mentioning of the man who had abandoned them. "And today, I am gonna make sure that I will beat you down and take you hostage, no matter what! Now end your turn!"

"Fine by that, but I disagree the "father" part, I don't consider him my father anymore…" Shun could notice that Reiji sounded slightly harsher than what he normally said. "Just one thing, I will give you one more turn to beat me, and only ONE MORE! Use that chance at your fullest capabilities! Turn end!"

Shun looked at his Deck. _"I only have Heavy Vulture on my hand now… it will not do much… the next card I draw… will decide everything on this duel… my Deck… please help me…"_

"Ore no turn…" Shun drew his destiny card. "DRAWWWW!"

Shun eyed at the card, a smile formed on his face. "Good!"

"Since I control no monsters, I special summon Raid Raptors - Revive Eagle!" Shun summoned a grey armored eagle with red eyes and boosters on its wings.

 **Raid Raptors - Revive Eagle** DARK Winged Beast Effect LV4 **1600** /1200

"Its effect will revive Vanishing Lanius!" The green and gray falcon returned.

"I, using the level 4 Revive Eagle and Vanishing Lanius, Overlay Network constructing!"

"Avian hunter of the afterlife, seek the truth with your dark eyes, and grasp glory with your sharp talons! Xyz Shōkan! Take flight!" A surging wave of energy erupted form the ground.

"Rank 4! Raid Raptors - Force Strix!" A green armored strix with multiple yellow pads on its wings appeared.

 **Raid Raptors - Force Strix** DARK Winged Beast Xyz Effect R4 100/ **2000**

"Once per turn, by detaching an Overlay Unit, I can add 1 Level 4 DARK Winged Beast monster from the Deck to my hand!" One Overlay Unit disintegrated, a card got pulled out. Shun showed it. "I add Raid Raptors - Fuzzy Lanius! And when Revive Eagle is sent to the graveyard, I can draw a card!" Shun became happy at the sight of it.

"It's here, the card that will beat you! Rank-Up-Magic Starlight Force, activate!"

"With this card, I can target a "Raid Raptors" monster in my graveyard, and special summon a DARK Xyz Monster with two ranks higher than the target, using this card as an Xyz Material!"

"Do you forget that Siegfried can negate the effect of that card?" Reiji reminded Shun.

"Of course I know, but the activation and effect of Starlight cannot be stopped! Besides, the effects of your Magic and Trap cards are negated until the end of this turn!" The Rank-Up card turned purple and flew down to the Overlay Network, creating an explosion.

"Dauntless falcon. Hoist up the flame of anger, and become the flash of light that sears the land to ash! Rank-Up Xyz Change! Soar! Rank 8! Raid Raptors - Satellite Cannon Falcon!" From the depth of the Network, a slimmer yet larger and more destructive falcon appeared. Its crotch was similar to Revolution Falcon, but it was in white paintjob now, it had two wings with three barrels attached to each, two energy boosters on its sides and sharp wings folded behind its back.

 **Raid Raptors - Satellite Cannon Falcon** DARK Winged Beast Xyz Effect R8 **3000** /2000

"Amazing…" Nakajima exclaimed.

"Rank-Up to a Rank 8 Xyz Monster…!" Himika said.

"Force Strix's ATK and DEF increase by 500 points for another "Raid Raptors" monster on the field!"

 **Raid Raptors - Force Strix** 100/ **2000** \- 600/ **2500**

"Once per turn, by detaching an Overlay Unit, it can reduce the ATK of your Siegfried by 800 points!" The only Overlay Unit it had disintegrated.

"Only 800?"

"For each "Raid Raptors" monster in my graveyard!" Shun revealed, earning a shock look from Reiji. It was the look he had wanted that bastard to show ever since he came here to find him. "There are 5 now, which means Siegfried loses 4000 ATK!"

"Go now, Satellite Cannon Falcon! Unleash the wrath of the fallen comrades! Fallen Drain!" The falcon readied its barrels, pointing them at the long hair monster before blasting it five times, each slowly draining it of its power. After that, Siegfried was reduced to a damaged wreck. Its armor was badly burned, its sword was blackened and was used as a crane to support the threatened-to-fall-down warrior.

 **DDD Cursed Blood King Siegfried** ATK 2800 - 2000 - 1200 - 400 - 0 - 0

"Finally, the monster summoned by Rank-Up-Magic Starlight Force can attack twice this turn! You will have no way to avoid losing this time! Battle! Soar, Satellite Cannon Falcon, attack Cursed Blood King Siegfried!" The falcon formed an energy "Raid Raptors" crest behind it and charged as much energy as it could, bringing the cry of the fallen souls of the dead comrades to this attack.

"Eternal Avenge!" The monster released the energy, adding the crest to it to increase the power and fired it at blazing speed at the weakened warrior. Reiji simply adjusted his glasses, an Overlay Unit from Tell disintegrated…

The impact created a huge explosion, nearly destroying the structure of the duel room and knocking back both Nakajima and Himika slightly. They opened their eyes after the attack had ended to see the result.

"President!"

"Are you okay son?"

"Don't worry!" A voice from Reiji calmed the two spectators down and did the opposite to the tired Shun. The smoke cleared, revealing a still clean Akaba Reiji, but Siegfried was gone.

 **Reiji** : 1400 - 4200 [0]

"What… what happened!? How did you gain LP!?" Shun inquired angrily. He had lost the chance to win the duel.

"When you declare that attack, I detached an Overlay Unit from Tell to destroy Siegfried, gain LP equal to its original ATK and end that battle." Reiji calmly revealed. "That's the effect it gained from DD Hel when it is detached to it as an Overlay Unit."

"Krugh! Damn you!" Shun yelled. "Satellite Cannon Falcon, destroy the annoying Temujin! Eternal AVENGE!" The cannon fired once again, this time sending the infamous overlord to oblivion.

 **Reiji** : 4200 - 3200 [0]

"Turn end…"

"Well… you have failed your mission to end the duel during your last turn, and this is your punishment! Watashi no turn, DRAW!"

"During my Standby Phase, I take 1000 damage thanks to my Great Devil!" Reiji held his chest in pain.

 **Reiji** : 3200 - 2200 [1]

"And thanks to this damage, the duel is settled! DDD Marksman King Tell's effect activates!" An Overlay Unit went to the crossbow and charged it. "During the turn I take damage from the "Covenant" cards, I can reduce an opponent's monster's ATK by 1000 points!"

"What!?"

"And also inflict 1000 effect damage!" Reiji finished, watching the pale Shun lowering his head down in shame.

"No…" Shun realized. "I… I would have lost… then…" Shun whispered badly.

"So that's why you said it!" Nakajima told the Chairwoman.

"That's right. He just wanted to give that guy Shun a chance, a futile chance, as he had ensured his victory already…"

"Piercing Arrow!" Upon the order of the President of LDS, the crossbow-wielding monster fired an energy arrow. It separated into two, one of them hit the falcon, and the other was slowly and eerily going towards Shun.

 **Raid Raptors - Satellite Cannon Falcon** ATK 3000 - 2000

" _Yuto… Ruri… Everyone… I'm… sorry…"_ Shun did not bother the fact that the arrow landed near him and created a small explosion, blasting him to the wall behind. He was too drown in his shame of losing the very important duel that he did not feel much pain from the impact.

 **Shun** : 900 - 0 [1]

The colosseum slowly disappeared in a yellow energy wave, returning the usual boring view of the usual Duel Practice Room. Shun continued to look down passively, contemplating about the turn of event just happened. He had tried his best to do the mission. He shed his humanity away to bring Ruri back and bring the peace back to Heartland. However, he had lost, he had failed bitterly.

Reiji slowly approached to Shun. "So you lost against me. You have to listen to my demands and do it."

Shun looked away. "Okay… what condition? Say it quick, I'm tired!"

"The condition… is to participate in the upcoming Miami Championship. You may have heard it during the time you attacked LDS. The Championship is due to start soon, a few days later. And I want you to be a competitor in the tournament."

"Wait!" Shun cut off. "Why do you want me to participate in that annoying tournament? What for? And what will I get from it?"

"The Miami Championship has its own purpose. I have a plan for it. And if you are still that stubborn, then you may find a lead to your comrades if you do…"

"My comrades? Ruri and Ryoga? What did you do to them? Answer me!" Shun inquired.

"I cannot say anymore to you!" Reiji raised his voice to prove his superiority in this situation. "And one more thing, since you are pretty popular to a small number of people, who are also participants of this tournament, it is inconvenient to take part in with your real name. I order you to change it."

"What? You want me to change my name? What for?" Shun asked. He suddenly realized something. "Or… you want to separate me from Ruri and Ryoga right?"

"That's right!" Reiji did not even lie, knowing that his next sentence will stop him from having any stupid idea not to follow his plan. "You cannot see them yet. Remember, you attacked LDS, which means we can hold you guilty anytime we want. If we do that, your mission will be failed, your friends will be desperate, and your hometown will be in complete despair for forever."

"Don't talk about my hometown in front of me again!" Shun yelled at the top of his lungs. "Don't ever do that! Or I will not go along with your stupid plan no matter how much you force me to!"

"Fine…" Reiji loved being in control of someone else, especially a hard-headed and unpredictable pawn like Kurosaki Shun. "Just remember, the kid Sora who you saw with Yuzu earlier was an Academia spy. He will be participated as well. Now you can leave. Take a rest and come back here tomorrow."

"Quit the goodbye procedure!" Shun abruptly turned around and hastily left LDS, still angry at his loss and Reiji's behavior. Shun knew he was basically Reiji's puppet now, and he had no other choice if he wanted to find Ruri and Ryoga back. He knew Reiji had done something to his friend and his sister, yet he could not control the situation. Now he had to be a pawn…

* * *

Yuto was sleeping pretty soundly when he heard footsteps near him. He opened his eyes and was relieved to find Shun. However, something was off.

"Shun!" Yuto attempted. "What's wrong? What happened? Did you find them?"

Shun sighed, before proceeding to say everything to his friend.

After that, Yuto got up, angrily walked around and banged the wall. "Dammit Shun! You caused us trouble, and now you got another trouble by losing to Akaba Reiji!? I could not believe it! You're smart, really smart Shun!"

"Things have happened, it cannot be returned back to the way it was. Anyways, I will go to LDS tomorrow and participate the Miami Championship. You wanna take part in too? It's been a while since we last did one."

"No, I will not. I will stay in the dark, probably watching the tournament from afar. I don't have any mood to participate in any tournament now, the war is still going on, and we have gone out of Heartland for pretty long. I want to go back there to find my comrades!"

"Good for you…" Shun mumbled and quickly went to sleep, ending a very active day for him. Yuto looked at the sleeping Shun, thinking about the hard days ahead without him. Today, he let Shun do the attack and guarded him at the alley nearby. Then Yuzu suddenly came, forcing him to reveal himself. They then had a long talk about what happened recently, why Shun attacked LDS and especially, the condition of Ruri and Ryoga.

…

…

" _So Ruri and Ryoga are your comrades. Ruri was kidnapped but for some reason, she was here and now she lived in my father's house. Ryoga found her but before telling you two, they were kidnapped by Reiji and for some reason, they did not see or say anything to you two." Yuzu could not believe what he was saying._

 _Yuto confirmed. "Yes. I don't know what Akaba Reiji did to them. Now things are very messed up now…" He sadly thought about what Ruri were going through now. He could not imagine it. He did not blame her, he only felt pity since he was not there for her when she needed it the most…_

" _So that's why…" Yuzu realized._

" _What?"_

" _Ruri became saddened recently. She did not even wake up early morning. We did not know what happened to her. Now I know why…"_

 _Yuto sadly shook his head, looking away. "I don't know the full extent of the story, but don't trust Akaba Reiji! You will understand later."_

" _I will…" Yuzu agreed. She had to admit that Reiji seemed to be pretty mysterious and unreliable. "Poor Ruri and Ryoga… they have to lie to us like that… they shouldn't have done that. "_

" _Well Yuzu…" Yuto said, causing Yuzu to look up at him. He had a sad look on his face. "I'm sorry for putting you in this situation, and all of the lying my comrades did. I don't want to put you in this war, but please understand, we never wanted to do that, we never wanted to lie to anybody. Things just happened, and we lost control…"_

" _It's okay Yuto… I understand…" At first, Yuzu was understandably angry at Ruri and Ryoga for doing that to her and her friends, but after hearing what Yuto said, she sympathized with them. She knew she would do that if she were put to that situation._

 _Yuto sighed, feeling his guilt had gone away somewhat. "We really care about them, we want them back as soon as possible. But now the best way is to avoid seeing them. You said the Miami Championship would be opened soon right? Reiji would have a plan for it, probably involving them as well. He would force them to participate or something similar. I will be a spectator, watching over the tournament to see if there is anything wrong. The clothes I got here would help me. And if there is a chance, I will rescue Ruri and Ryoga."_

" _Or you could just directly see them." Yuzu tried to make Yuto choose the other option._

" _I wish I could, but I cannot risk it. Reiji would do something to harm us if I do that, so the best way is to let them be… they will have protection from… you know…" Yuzu nodded, knowing that if Ruri and Ryoga continued to be near her and her friends, they would be safe from Reiji. "So Yuzu… I know we have owned you a lot, but I really want you to do one more thing. Please keep this a secret for now. They have gone through too much, and now is not the time to reveal things. It will be later when they are ready. I will find a way to connect them as soon as I can. Please do it…"_

" _I will Yuto. But there is one thing." Yuzu declared._

" _Just tell me."_

" _I will buy the ticket for the entrance to the stadium for you, but this secret will not be forever, it can be revealed at any time, and if it does, all of you will have to say anything to us. I will not hold back if it happens. I know it's not good, but you will have to do it for everyone's sake, especially the kids. I know what Ruri and Ryoga had gone through to lie to us, but they still lied, and they must hold responsible for it, of course you and Shun as well! Got it?"_

" _I know… And there is one thing I need to talk to you… I don't want you to be thrown into this war. However, if you must fight, I want you to survive! Even if you have to use Fusion! It's not wrong if you use Fusion for your comrades, and to get stronger!" Yuto said to the surprised Yuzu as the wind began to blow in the alley. Yuzu covered her eyes from the dust spinning around her and when she opened them, Yuto was gone..._

…

…

At least for now, Yuto was sure that Yuzu would not say anything. He knew he would have to reveal eventually, and he hoped when it happened, he would be by Ruri to help her and to confront her when she began to feel uncomfortable. Despite the dark times ahead, he knew that Ruri was near, and she got protection from Yuzu. He owned the pink-haired girl a lot. She was like Ruri, gentle, kind and understanding. She did not make a fuss and promised to keep secret for now. He would have to repay in kind later, probably in the form of an apology.

" _I trust you… Yuzu…please keep them safe… and Ruri… I will come for you soon…"_

* * *

 **Fanfic OC Cards**

 **Raid Raptors - Push (Trap Card)**

When you take battle damage from an attack involving a "Raid Raptors" monster you control: change the battle position of all monsters on the field, and if you do, draw 1 card. During your next turn, "Raid Raptors" monsters you control can inflict piercing battle damage.

 **Covenant with the Great Devil (Continuous Trap Card)**

Once per turn, when an opponent's monster declares an attack: you can negate that attack, then target 1 of your banished "DD" or "DDD" monsters; return it to your graveyard. Once per turn, during your Standby Phase: take 1000 damage.

 **Energy Shield** **(Trap Card)**

When an opponent's monster declares an attack: target 1 "Raid Raptors" monster you control; change it to Defense Position, and if you do, it gains 700 DEF, then proceed to perform damage calculation.

 **DD Hel**

DARK Demon Pendulum Effect LV5 Scale 6 2300/1500

When you are about to take effect damage: you can Special Summon this card (from your hand), and if you do, halve that damage. Once per turn, you can destroy 2 "Covenants" cards you control; then 1 monster your opponent controls have its effects negated, and if you do, inflict 800 damage to your opponent. A DARK Demon-Type Xyz Monster using this card as an Xyz Material gains this effect:

_Once per turn, when an opponent's monster declares an attack: you can detach 1 Xyz Material from this card; destroyed the attacked monster, and if you do, gain LP equal to its original ATK, then negate that attack.

 **Raid Raptors - Revive Eagle**

DARK Winged Beast Effect LV4 1600/1200

If you control no monsters, you can Special Summon this card (from your hand). If summoned this way, you can target 1 "Raid Raptors" monster in your graveyard; Special Summon it, but it has its effects negated. You can only summon "Raid Raptors" monsters the turn you activated this effect.

 **Rank-Up-Magic Starlight Force (Quick-Play Magic Card)**

Target 1 DARK Xyz Monster in your graveyard; Special Summon from your Extra Deck, 1 DARK Xyz Monster that is 2 Ranks higher than the target, by using this card as an Xyz Material. The activation and effect of this card cannot be negated. After this card is activated, Magic and Trap cards your opponent controls have their effects negated until the end of this turn. The monster summoned by this effect can attack twice the first Battle Phase it declares an attack. (You can only gain this effect only once while that card is face-up on the field).

* * *

 **Finished! So the secret will be kept safe for a while. Yuto thought this is the best way to kee** **p his friend and his girl safe, but something inside me told me this would not work. Tell me if this worked nicely or not.**

 **And if you wonder why Reiji used an Action Card while Shun did not, the former intentionally misplayed to show Shun how Action Duel works; he cannot use Action Cards fluently like he did in his duel with Sora without using them before that right?**

 **That being said, things are slowly advancing now and what happens next will be beyond their capability to grasp.**

 **I know that I have made some pretty sub-par chapters recently, but sometimes you do good ones, sometimes you don't. I'm sorry if it bothers you guys.**

* * *

 **Next Chapter Preview**

 **Miami Championship - The Calm before the Storm**

Everyone takes part in the Miami Championship, including Ryoga, Shun and Sora. Things flow pretty good for them during the first day, until the fated duel that will change everything. The lives they are living will be gone forever…

 **This is matrixnis, out!**


	23. Scale 23

**Hello everyone! I am back!**

 **One thing I will say is that I will once again skip the first part of the Miami Championship for three reasons (like Yusaku hehe^^): one: my time in real life for this story is very short now; two: things will happen exactly the same as the anime until now (sorry for anyone who wants the third Yuya vs Sawatari, believe me, I really wanted to do it); three: in my opinion, the story telling before the main part is enough now, I will get straight to the plot as soon as possible. Thank you all, especially to Gentyman and Playerhood18, for following and reviewing my story so far and to thetiger39 for giving me advice for this story, I truly appreciate all of it. You guys have helped me a lot in a much stronger way that you may not think about.**

 **Also, for the flashback section of this chapter and future ones, the characters' thoughts will be not in italics (don't know the antonym of italics, trust me, I've tried to search the Internet).**

 **With that out of the way, let's get started!**

* * *

 **Chapter 23: Miami Championship - The Calm before the Storm**

* * *

When the day finishes its job, replacing the duty for the night for twelve hours, that is the time when the ground gets shine up lively and brightly with orange and yellow artificial light from electricity. The lively and busy Miami City got even more hectic when people got out from their beloved houses and enjoyed the fun outside the streets at the park, the playground or somewhere similar. Kamishiro Ryoga happily watched everyone enjoying their usual lives while eating some street food. It reminded him of the old times, replacing the currently heavy mood he was having right now thanks to the demand from Reiji earlier…

" _All right Reiji, what's your game?" Ryoga inquired the President of LDS, who sat down the chair in front of them and began to talk._

" _Thanks for coming. I'll get straight to the point." Ryoga nearly got out of his chair and punched that manipulative bastard when he sarcastically said that first sentence. "As you two have already known, the Miami Championship is about to start two days later, and you have already known that I have a secret behind the tournament. Shiunin Sora, the Academia spy, is going to participate too as a member of You Show Duel School, and I have arranged to have you take part in to as well, of course as a member of You Show to avoid confusion from them. There is a requirement of winning six consecutive duels, but I have removed it especially for you two. However, I can only allow one of you to enter."_

" _What? Only one of us?" Ruri wondered._

" _Yes. Sora knew two of you were from Resistance, and you need at least one person to avoid him spreading that information out. Only one out of you will be able to participate. Pick one!"_

 _Ruri turned to Ryoga. "Let me participate Ryoga. You stay behind to watch out for Sora."_

" _No Ruri." Ryoga detested. "I will. You have been in enough trouble, and I don't want you to go through any more. I will join in. Trust me, I can handle myself."_

" _Okay. Just be careful." Ruri nodded._

" _So Kamishiro Ryoga, you will take part in."_

" _Right."_

" _Good. Now you can leave."_

" _Wait! How long do you want to keep us in control?" Ryoga pointed at his hand, indicating the nano substance inside their blood._

" _As long as I see fit. Don't worry, when things are settled, I will remove them." Reiji tried to reassure them, which, as he predicted, did not._

" _Hell no! We will not listen to your demand anymore!" Ruri yelled._

" _Yes! Remove the substance now or I will- ARGHHH!" Electricity cracked within Ryoga, who jotted in pain before falling down. Ruri immediately went to him._

" _You're cruel Reiji! I cannot believe you can do this!"_

" _I can, as long as the war is stopped." Reiji reminded them while holding the button. "Call me cruel and immoral as much as you wish. All I want is to bring peace to your Heartland and stop the mad plan of the mad Akaba Reiji. Now go."_

" _We will force you to pay back for all of the things you put us in!" Ryoga warned Reiji and went off the building with Ruri._

…

…

Thinking back, Ryoga truly felt disgusted by that guy Reiji. The son of the madman Akaba Leo. He probably had a noble goal to stop his father as he had established, but the way he did it made him very uncomfortable. The willingness to do the extreme to get what he wants, those are the kind of people Ryoga would rather stay away despite having dealt with many similar assholes back in Heartland. And there was one thing that bothered him greatly, that was when he and the kids watched Sakaki Yuya's third qualification duel against the divination girl Hōchun Mieru…

…

…

 _The duel was pretty unique for him to be honest. Even though the girl Mieru seemed to have a childish affection with Yuya, she surely was a strong duelist with a special deck. It is a Reverse Effect and Ritual-based deck, a rare kind of Special Summon only monster that does not originate in the Extra Deck; instead it must be in the Main Deck and it can only be summoned by activating a Ritual Magic Card from, also originated from the Main Deck, then the player has to release a number of monsters whose total levels equal or surpass the level of the Ritual Monster that duelist wants to summon. Its main flaws are losing a lot of hand advantage and having to use a Ritual Magic Card to summon it again if it somehow returns to the hand or the Deck, which is why not many duelists use it. Ryoga had only heard about other summon methods like Fusion, Synchro and Ritual when Academia attacked and ironically, Ritual was used in the Fusion Dimension, albeit rarely. And Reverse cards are very slow to facilitate, it is surprising that Mieru managed to give Yuya a hard time with those slow and burdening tactics, reducing him to a mere 300 LP. Right now, Yuya had drawn a new card after neutralizing Draw Lock, but for some reason, he froze and seemingly become despair. But after a while, he got up, doing the usual "Ladies and Gentleman" quote from Sakaki Yusho and Pendulum Summoned Odd-Eyes Pendulum Dragon, Entermate Partgana and Entermate Kaleido Scorpion._

" _When this turn ends, with the Reverse effect of Ouikamorrigan, all of your Defense Position monsters will be destroyed, and you take 200 damage for each one. You only have 300 LP left, it would be over! You understand now? You cannot win this duel!"_

 _Yuya closed his eyes, thinking about the situation. It was harsh, but with the card he had just drawn, it would help him. Yuya smiled and looked at Mieru with a hint of manliness, the same kind of feeling Yuto usually gave out from his manners._

" _Is that so Miss?" Of course, Mieru blushed._

" _I activate the graveyard effect of Entermate Spring Goose! By banishing it, I return 2 Pendulum Cards on the field to the hand." The magicians turned into cards and Yuya picked them from the blade. "Return to my hand, Stargazer, Timegazer!"_

" _At this moment, I release Entermate Kaleido Scorpion to Advance Summon the level 5 Stargazer Magician!" The scorpion disintegrated and turned into the space magician in white robes._

 _ **Stargazer Magician**_ _DARK Magician Pendulum Effect LV5 Scale 1_ _ **1200**_ _/2400_

 _At that moment, Sora and Yuzu ran in, managing to watch the rest of the duel on time. Ryoga tried his best not to notice the boy._

" _Good! It's not over yet!"_

" _And now…" Yuya pulled out a card._

" _That's…" Yuzu said._

" _Magic Card, Fusion, activate!"_

" _What? Yuya will Fusion Summon?" Sora thought out loud. The kids and Yuzu all wondered the same thing while Ryoga gritted his teeth. Yuya would use Fusion?_

" _The monsters I will use are Stargazer Magician and Odd-Eyes Pendulum Dragon!"_

" _Wielder of mysterious powers, become the bright light in the eyes of the dragon." The two monsters turned into red and purple energy and joined together in the Fusion spiral._

" _Fusion Summon! Come forth! Arcane dragon wielder of ancient magic!" A yellow ring flew down and attached itself to the head of the new dragon. It color was red like Odd-Eyes but now it had yellow armor on its back neck, its head also had armor as a new decoration and protection, its body was bigger overall._

" _Rune-Eyes Pendulum Dragon!"_

 _ **Rune-Eyes Pendulum Dragon**_ _DARK Dragon Fusion Effect LV8_ _ **3000**_ _/2500_

" _A Fusion Monster with 3000 ATK…" Mieru said. "But how sad, it's not enough to defeat Mieru! Your fate has not changed!"_

 _Yuya smiled. "Miss, if Rune-Eyes Pendulum Dragon uses a Magician-type monster on the field as Fusion Material, its number of attacks will change depend on the level of that Magician monster."_

" _If the level is 5 or 6, Rune-Eyes can attack three times!"_

 _Mieru gasped. She realized she would lose._

" _It's showtime!" Yuya did his Entertainment style again. Rune-Eyes created three energy orbs and flew towards Mieru's field while Yuya jumped on the dragon's back. The orbs charged the three hollow spots on the ring with energy._

" _Battle… Miss…" The lights got cut out, a single one shone up and pointed at Mieru's monsters._

" _Attack Ouijamorrigan, Petalelf and Tarotray!"_

" _Now, it's climax! Rengeki no… Shining Burst!" The three orbs blasted energy at the three monsters, obliterating it and depleting Mieru's LP in an OTK._

 _ **Mieru**_ _: 4000 - 0 [3]_

 _The Solid Vision field dematerialized after Yuya jumped down to the ground. The kids ran up to him._

" _Oi!"_

" _Yuya-niichan won!"_

" _Fusion from Pendulum Summon… name it Pendulum Summon!"_

" _Oh! Pendulum Fusion? Shibiveru!" This time, Futoshi's annoying words did not bother Ryoga, as he had another thing to worry about._

"Yuya performed a Fusion Summon? Last time he said he did not have any Extra Deck monsters, yet when he dueled Reiji, he had an Xyz Monster, and now he had a Fusion Monster as well? What the hell is going on with him?" _Indulging himself in his thoughts in front of many people like this would not be the best idea, so he decided to approach Yuya and praised him as usual._

" _You did good Yuya!"_

" _Thanks Ryoga!"_

" _I did not think you would Fusion Summon!" Ryoga faked his interest, especially in front of the asshole Sora._

" _Hehe I did not think of that either, I just did it! I don't know how so don't pry!" Yuya rubbed the back of his head with a nervous smile. He honestly did not know why he could summon Rune-Eyes Pendulum Dragon, he just thought about it and he did it._

" _Fine…"_

…

…

The abomination of Academia, the abomination of the Akaba family, had spread to this dimension too. LDS used it and taught it to the students, the spy Sora had befriended Yuya and his friends, and now even Yuya himself had somehow acquired a Fusion card and performed a Fusion Summon, after that, Ruri had told him that Yuya summoned another Fusion Monster during his final qualification duel against Gongenzaka: Beast-Eyes Pendulum Dragon; he was not there at the time. Seeing the smile of his face though made Ryoga think that he did not have any malice when he activated the card, bringing hope to him that his new friend Sakaki Yuya, who he saw a lot of Yuto in, would not use Fusion for evil in the near future. He is the son of Sakaki Yusho, the great Entertainer after all, he would not think of it like that right? He would not use Fusion for evil right? He would not even use it anymore right?

Those questions haunted him, and he forced himself to drink some alcohol to calm himself down. He quickly got away though to avoid trouble from the delinquents and the law. Tomorrow is an important day for him, for Ruri, for anyone of the Resistance, and he had a feeling that things will get really bad soon…

* * *

"The You Show team is ready father! We have Yuya, Ryoga, myself, Ayu, Futoshi and Tatsuya, we will try our best this time!" Yuzu excitedly said to Shuzo, who smiled.

"Tomorrow is the important day daughter! Do your best! I only hope you can do best! You're my proud daughter!"

"Thank you father!" Yuzu nodded and hugged Shuzo. "Mother in the stars would be proud if I win." She whispered. She had not known her since childhood and Shuzo avoided this subject.

He did not even know her…

"Yeah… your mom would be proud… now get some sleep Yuzu." Shuzo told her, releasing the hug.

"I will soon… and dad?"

"Yes daughter?"

"Please…" She wanted to say that he would keep an eye on Ruri and take care of her. A survivor of a war from a different dimension, it would not be good to even say a bit about it though. "…nothing dad. Just get some sleep!" She faked a smile and ran to her room.

"What the… she's hard to understand sometimes…" Shuzo said to himself in a low tone.

Yuzu did not immediately go to her room though, as she stopped at the guest room to check on Ruri. She quietly opened the door, trying to eliminate as much noise as possible. She peeked inside to see Ruri sleeping soundly, not noticing her presence. Yuzu sighed in relief; Ruri had not been sleeping well for a few days and she found the blanket to be wet. She must have been crying a lot recently, and the reveal that she was a Resistance member from the Xyz Dimension fleeing to this place unlocked every chain of questions that had been squeezing Yuzu's mind.

" _She probably cried because she felt too much guilt for causing her comrades to worry and lying to us… poor girl… lucky that I did not force her to say now…"_

" _Ruri… When you have to reveal, and you'll have to… please… don't feel ashamed of yourself too much… I understand why now… I'll protect you…"_

Yuzu closed the door as quietly as when she opened it earlier and went back to her room. She walked to the table and took a piece of paper. It was a ticket to the stadium she reserved for Yuto. After meeting Yuto and understanding the situation happening right now, she went to the organizers and bought a ticket. She said she bought for a friend so she did not have any trouble from the ticket sellers who might have asked her why she did that despite being a participant of this tournament. After putting it back to the table, Yuzu calmly yet cautiously climbed to the bed and buried herself under the pink blanket. The next day, and the following days, things will get very harsh. She did not know why, but she had this feeling a lot recently, and it did not go away. She hoped anyone would be safe, her father, the kids, Gongenzaka, Ruri, Ryoga would be safe.

" _And Yuya… please be safe… I don't know what to do if you get hurt…"_

With those hopeful thoughts, Yuzu felt her eyes became heavy, and she allowed herself to swim deep inside the black river called sleep…

* * *

The next morning, Yuzu got up early. Ignoring the usual bathing at the moment, she grabbed the ticket and slowly got out of her room. She looked around, making sure that no one would notice.

" _Both Ruri and dad are still sleeping. Good!"_

Yuzu quickly went downstairs and got out of the house. She quickly ran to the alley near the house, where Yuto was waiting.

"You're here?" Yuto said.

"Yeah! And here's the ticket!" Yuzu handed him the ticket. Yuto took it and put it back to his pocket. "The seat is high enough for you to observe the entire stadium."

"Thank you Yuzu. I owe you a lot." He really did.

"Don't worry. It was for the best. What are you planning to do when you are inside the stadium?"

"Maybe just watching duels, I haven't done that for a while. And this is important: Shun will participate as well!"

"What?"

"Yep. He and Reiji had a duel and he lost, so he had to agree that he would participate this tournament as an LDS member."

"Dammit…" Yuzu muttered. "Now the secret will be revealed any time soon. Ruri and Ryoga will know immediately!"

"Thanks to his recklessness, we have this bullshit situation. But after all, Reiji was the main cause. Yuzu, please keep an eye on my friends okay? I will watch Reiji to avoid him doing anything stupid and find out what he did to Shun, Ruri and Ryoga. And don't worry about transportation, I can get a taxi easily."

"Okay I will. Just be careful, and remember the deal!" Yuzu reminded Yuto. She then ran back to her house and began the day like usual without anyone noticing. Yuto took out his pocket and looked at it, thinking about the following days.

" _It will get really big soon…"_

* * *

"Yuya, Yuzu, Ryoga, Sora, Tatsuya, Ayu, Futoshi, the day has finally come!" Shuzo excitedly said to his students. "All of the students of us You Show Duel School will be participated in the Miami Championship. I'm really proud!"

"Thanks Shuzo-san!" Ayu thanked the man.

"Just one thing I wonder Shuzo-san!" Ruri spoke up. "How will this tournament play out?"

"Ok, I'll explain again! Miami Championship is divided into three classes: Junior, Junior Youth and Youth. Tatsuya, Ayu and Futoshi are Junior Class; Sora is in Junior Youth Class; Yuya, Yuzu and Ryoga are in Youth Class."

"Oh, I see…" Ruri nodded.

"You may all know that since LDS sponsors the Miami Championship, the Duel Schools from Miami City are not the only schools participating, there are also duelists from Japan, no, from all over the world too! To popularize the Entertaiment Duel Style from our You Show Duel School, I would like that all of you try your best for the champion! From now, not only all of you are friends practicing with each other, but now you are also rivals! Try your best! Got it?"

"Hai!" All of the kids and teenagers, even Ruri, yelled and they quickly got in the bus. The students fastened their seatbelts, filled with hope, determination and excitement.

Shuzo said from the driver seat. "Sa, are all of you ready?"

"Yes!"

"Then let's go!" Shuzo said as he started the engine and drove the You Show Duel School bus to the Duel Stadium literally in the beach, the largest Duel Monsters stadium in Miami City, requiring a drive to the bridges to get there. The drive was filled with laughter from all of the passengers, especially Sora, Futoshi, Ayu and Tatsuya. All of them talked about the upcoming tournament and the hopeful thoughts that they would win and bring pride to their Duel School. During the fun however, three set of eyes were glancing at each other, trying to anticipate the others' movements and ready for anything that others may throw at each.

Shiun'in Sora, Kurosaki Ruri and Kamishiro Ryoga were the owners of those killer eyes. They each thought about each other deep inside, losing themselves in their imagined battlefield where they would think of million ways to defeat and card each other, Ruri and Ryoga for Sora and Sora for the two survivors. They did not notice one thing though: Hiragi Yuzu was eyeing them all the time.

The pink hair girl sat at the backseat, leaning herself to the back of the comfortable chair to try to relieve herself of the stress that was slowly building up inside her whenever she thought about her destined opponent that she had to defeat and prove her skill as a Duelist no matter what: Kotsu Masumi. The best way to kill a poison is to use that poison against it, and that was the reason the pink haired girl chose to practice Fusion from Sora. At that moment though, the hateful looks from Ruri, Ryoga and Sora made her wonder. If Ruri and Ryoga were survivors from a war, why did they hate Fusion so much, and why did they hate Sora, a Fusion user? Fusion is not wrong by any means, she had told Ruri that, and yet those three people continued their meaninglessly quiet squirrel. Did Fusion cause it? Yuzu wanted to talk to them to put aside the unnecessary tension, but she did not want to destroy the happy mood right now, so she did not.

Meanwhile, on Yuzu's left side, at the leftmost seat, Sakaki Yuya was looking outside of the window, his goggles over his eyes. He thought back about his dad.

" _Father… the day has finally come… the day that helps me get closer to you…"_ Yuya took off his pendant and let it swing continuously, remembering his father's words.

"It's me that it's important…" Yuya whispered. "I need to win… and I must win… no matter what… to evolve… and to honor my dad… so that my family's reputation is saved…"

" _But… where are you now dad…? After all of this time… why aren't you here now… to support me… when I need you the most…"_

…

…

"Argh!" Yuya let out a small gasp of surprise when he felt something touching his right shoulder. He gently turned around, knowing who did that…

"You're thinking about your father Yuya?" Yuzu whispered. She quietly moved to the seat next to him.

"Uh…" Yuya simply said a single word, answering what Yuzu wanted to hear. Yuzu knew the word was filled with sadness, she knew her childhood friend very well. "I don't know what happened to him, or why did he left me and my mom three years ago. I don't know why… and now I'm… I'm…" Yuya tried to speak.

He finally succeed, tightening his body. "…very weak… and lose hope…"

"Yuya!" Yuzu said to him, holding his shoulder tightly yet gently at the same time. "You don't have to feel that. I know this could be harsh, but what happened to your father, you are not responsible." She patted his back, trying to ease her best friend. "We all do not know what Yusho-san did when he disappeared, so don't blame yourself anymore. As I have said after you duel Reiji, we are here to help. I am here to help you whenever you get into trouble Yuya. I will help you as much as I can."

Yuya finally softened his body. Yuzu's words were more than just a medicine to his escapism, it was a strange but strong source of light and warm to him. "Thank you Yuzu." He wearily touched her hand on his shoulder, making her jot up very slightly at this sensation. Yuya slowly and carefully put it away and gathered all of his mental power and possibly manliness to carefully raise up his hands, resting one of them on her left shoulder, and another one, to her right face. The action made both Yuzu and Yuya blush very hotly, but neither of them wanted to force the hands off. They all knew one thing for sure: this made them feel good and surprisingly pleasant.

Yuya looked at her depthless blue eyes, the beautiful eyes. He muttered. "Thank you… Yuzu… I will try… not to give up… and smile from my heart…"

"For you…"

Yuya shyly smiled at Yuzu, who smiled back with equal shyness. It was this moment that they knew one thing, one beautiful thing.

They really care a lot for each other, and this is an undeniable truth.

After thinking blissfully, Yuya released the hand and looked at the front to see where had the bus come, only to find two bright smiles from Ruri and Ryoga. They were watching the entire thing for a while. Yuzu and Yuya blushed hot red, mouths and eyes widening in pure shock, trying their best not to yell. They confusedly looked at them, then at each other, before moving away from each other and looked at the windows uncomfortably. Yuzu did not forget to give the two survivors a warning in the form of a raised fist though. At least they respected the privacy enough not to alarm the kids and Shuzo, or this would have been a big mess for her and Yuya.

Ruri and Ryoga whispered about the beautiful thing happened moments ago. "That was nice Ryoga! They are getting closer!"

"Told you Ruri! They really love each other! Just like you and Yuto!"

"Yes…" Ruri slightly blushed, thinking about Yuto and her moments with him. "They reminded me of those beginning times…" She sadly said.

"Don't worry Ruri, we will see him and your brother soon!"

"I hope so Ryoga… it just… thanks to Reiji, we cannot see them…"

"I have a feeling that we will soon. Reiji may bring Yuto and Shun to this tournament, and this will be that moment. Trust me!"

"Yeah."

The bus continued in silence for a while. After crossing the bridge, the bus finally stopped at the stadium. It was really big. It had a lot of people and participants. They got off the bus and went to the stadium. However during the way, they met a large man named Ankokuji Gen who kept disrespecting Yuya for his father. Luckily, Gongenzaka stepped in and defused the situation. It seemed that these two used to be brothers in the dojo but for some reason they hated each other now.

The loudspeaker spoke. "It's time to get in the field. All the participants, please get in line and put the tag of the team in front of the line!" This thankfully completely stopped the tense feeling. Gen walked off and the rest followed suit.

* * *

Yuto got off the taxi and observed the large stadium. He had to admit, it was really large, probably larger than the one in Heartland.

" _Damn… this place is huge…"_

Yuto put on his cap to avoid someone misidentifying him as Yuya. He walked to the checkpoint and showed the ticket to the guard. He looked at it and glanced at Yuto for a bit. It seemed that he did not recognize him though thanks to his serious demeanor. The guard allowed Yuto to enter after checking and he quickly put on his sunglasses.

" _Phew… I thought I was burned back there…"_

Yuto then looked at the big screen in front of the outer wall of the stadium. It currently showed the opening ceremony where many participants entered the field.

* * *

At the stadium, the MC Nico Smiley did his usual job and the teams began to enter the field. The first one is the LDS team. The members slowly walked in, but there was one person that shocked the entire You Show team out, especially Ryoga and Ruri.

Kurosaki Shun was there.

"He's…!" Yuya gasped.

"Why is he in LDS?" Yuzu wondered. She quickly glanced at the two Xyz duelists, who were obviously out of their minds.

" _The hell?"_ Ryoga thought.

" _My brother is participating? Why?"_ Ruri thought with half relief and half shocked. She never expected this to happen.

" _Here you are Shun…"_ Yuto thought while looking at the screen outside the stadium.

After that, more Duel School teams entered. The Ryozanpaku in particular made Ruri and Ryoga gritted their teeth in anger, they never forgot what they did to them in the pier. And then a team from outside Japan, Knight of Duels, true to its name, they wore cloaks and masks like a knight; the Surprise Duel School, a school specialized in Trick Duel.

"So you know him?" Yuzu asked Yuya.

"Uh! He attacked LDS right in front of me, and we had a duel. A duel to the death…"

"Really!?" Ryoga said loudly. He never thought Shun would do it.

" _Brother…"_ Ruri thought sadly.

"It's time! Get inside the field!" Shuzo said to his students from behind.

"Hai!" They replied back and slowly got inside as well. Ruri stayed with Shuzo and Yoko as they cheered them from the sidelines. As Yuya walked, he looked at Reiji hatefully. The man who stole his father away, the man who nearly beat him and stole the legacy of his dad, the You Show Duel School. He would pay back one day.

" _Wait for me Reiji! I will beat your ass like a charity drum!"_

" _So here you are… Yuya… the proud son of Sakaki Yusho…"_ Yuto thought. He was now sitting down on the chair at the 30th row under the glass dome.

After all the team assembled at the field, Nico Smiley did the opening ceremony. He gave the privilege of conducting the compulsory oath of fair play to Sakaki Yuya, who became surprised and had a hard time saying, but after some nerve swallowing, he managed to give a heartwarming and meaningful oath, making everyone clap their hands in approval, even Reiji was impressed by it as well. He got off his chair and clapped.

"Nice Yuya!" Shuzo said from the sidelines. "Yoko-san! Yuya will surely become a great Duelist, he will catch up with Sakaki Yusho soon!"

"Don't be kidding!"

"Eh?"

"Not catch up, but surpass!"

"Yoko-san…"

"If he does not have that will, he cannot become the champion!"

"I'm sure he will become a great Duelist Yoko-san!" Ruri said.

"I hope!" She said back.

Nico Smiley then announced the duels. He instructed the Duelists to put the registration cards to their respective Duel Disks, they would find their opponents. Yuya would duel Sawatari tomorrow, Yuzu would duel Masumi this noon, Gongenzaka would duel Ankokuji tomorrow, Futoshi would duel very soon with Ayu following after, Ryoga would duel Charles tomorrow. But with Sora, things turned upside down for him greatly when he found out his opponent.

"I will duel tomorrow… with… that man…"

"Who?" Ryoga wondered. _"Is he going to duel Shun?"_

"It's him… but… his name is… Shirogami… Taka…" Sora turned the Duel Disk so that his friends could see it. "It's him!"

Yuzu widened her eyes in shock. She tried her best not to say anything out loud. _"So that man Shun changed his name to avoid suspicion? But what for?"_

" _Things are interesting for you Shun…"_ Ryoga thought. He actually found this new name to be funny.

" _Brother…"_ Ruri thought. _"So Reiji forced you to participate…"_

" _And with a nice little name change… how cruel you are Reiji…"_ Yuto internally cursed Shun for causing this mess and Reiji for being behind all of their current misery.

* * *

The tournament then started with a lot of fun. Futoshi won the first duel of You Show; then Yuzu did a Fusion Summon to summon a new Fusion Monster named Melodious Floral Saint - Bloom Diva, she then used its effect to win against Masumi, who came to respect her as a rival and gave her the card "Crystal Rose" as a gift, while Ayu lost to a strange boy named Reira. Even though Ayu tried his best do duel with the Entertainment Duel Style, the mysterious boy managed to win using a card that could copy a monster on her field and perform a Fusion Summon. The next day, Gongenzaka won his duel with Gen after waiting for Yuya to bring his white scarf back which was lost thanks to a framing from Gen, then Yuya beat Sawatari after a very fun and entertaining duel where both participants used Pendulum Summon and performed many spectacular moves like the Yosenju Lost Tornado from the son of the Mayor, and the third duel of You Show Duel School in the afternoon would be between Kamishiro Ryoga and Charles from the Knight of Duels School.

"Do your best Ryoga!" Yuya cheered.

"Win him and proceed to the next round!" The kids yelled.

"Good luck Ryoga!" Ruri added.

"I will!" Ryoga said and did high-five with all of them (but he forced himself when he did the same to Sora) before entering the stadium. Standing in front of him was a man in golden armor.

"So you're Charles, the man who proclaimed himself to be a Knight…"

"It's an honor to be called like that, Kamishiro Ryoga-san…" Charles replied back.

"Enough with that honorifics. Just call me Shark… and you know why you're here right?" Ryoga got straight to the point.

"Obviously… and for the honor of our Duel School, I will win!" Charles declared his resolve.

"As if I would let it happen easily! I will not lose either! The Shark deck I have constructed will show you that! I will WIN! For my friends, and for my comrades!" Ryoga also put up his own resolve, this time not only for his new friends, but also for Ruri, Shun, Yuto and his fallen friends back home as well. They all smiled warmly at that.

" _Try your best Ryoga…"_ Shun gave out a rare smile for his friend.

" _Show them the power of the Resistance!"_ Yuto hoped for him.

"Very well! The two contestants have exchanged words worth of steel, declaring their resolve to win! And now, we will commence the duel! Action Field On! Field Magic, Warrior Sanctuary activate!" The Real Solid Vision machine below the ground activated, shining up the ground with purple light, before turning the large, nearly empty stadium into a view of the front of the castle. They were now standing on a bridge, winds flowing from time to time, the setting was like a real final battle between two proud chevaliers, one a knight in golden armor, and one a hunter of the sea.

Charles started the Action Duel chant. "Duelists locked in battle!"

"Kicking against the earth and dancing in the air alongside their Monsters!" Ryoga happily said the chant. Shun and Yuto wondered why he could do it, for Shun it sucked to be honest and Yuto did not know the chant.

"They storm through the field!" The kids and Sora continued.

"Behold! The ultimate evolution of Dueling!" Ruri and Yuzu said.

"ACTION…" Nico said.

 **DUEL!**

 **Kamishiro Ryoga** : 4000 [5]

 **Charles** : 4000 [5]

* * *

"The hunter of the sea will commence his first turn!" Ryoga said. "Magic Card Sea Hunter Energy! I discard Gazer Shark to draw 2 cards!"

"And then Big Jaws special summon!"

 **Big Jaws** WATER Fish Effect LV3 **1800** /300

"I normal summon Hammer Shark!" Ryoga summoned a blue hammerhead shark to the field.

 **Hammer Shark** WATER Fish Effect LV4 **1700** /1500

"Its effect allows me to special summon Drill Barnacle!" A large type of the barnacle with a lot of purple drills on its body appeared.

 **Drill Barnacle** WATER Aqua Effect LV3 300/ **0**

 **Hammer Shark** LV4 - 3

"I, using the level 3 Big Jaws, Hammer Shark and Drill Barnacle, overlay!" The three monsters turned into three blue swirls of energy. It flew to the Overlay Network above and shot out a stream of light down to the ground.

"Xyz Shōkan! Appear now, Rank 3, the emperor of the sea!" The light dimmed, revealing a fish-like purple monster that was like a combination of an anglerfish and a plesiosaurus. It had a small, separated head with a big mouth under it, combining with the sharp jaws, made it a very fearsome monster to face underwater.

"Fanged Shark Emperor - Shark Kaiser!"

 **Fanged Shark Emperor - Shark Kaiser** WATER Fish Xyz Effect R3 **1800** /2000

"Ooowww! An Xyz Summon! And this monster along with his three ones earlier seemed to have been inspired by sea hunters. Is this Kamishiro Ryoga - uh, Shark's Entertainment Duel Style?"

" _It's not…"_ Ryoga and Ruri thought, sighing. _"You never knew how cruel these monsters of mine bit Academia soldiers…"_

"Once per turn, by detaching an Overlay Unit, Shark Kaiser gains a Shark Counter!" An Overlay Unit hit the head of the monster, making one of its fins glow yellow. "When you attack Shark Kaiser or it attacks a monster, it will gain 1000 ATK for each Shark Counters it has!"

 **Fanged Shark Emperor - Shark Kaiser** Counter 0 - 1

Ryoga quietly set down two cards and gave a confident hand wave to Charles, bidding him to try to win against him.

"Very well… Such a great opening move with that fear-to-look-at monster… but this will not stop a knight from doing his mission! Watashi no turn, draw!"

"Marauding Captain summon!" Charles summoned a blonde haired warrior with a teal armor and two sabers.

 **Marauding Captain** EARTH Warrior Effect LV3 **1200** /400

"Its effect will summon another one to the field!" Charles called out another teal armored monster to the field in Defense Position. The two monsters crossed their swords, forming a makeshift barrier.

"You cannot attack other Warrior monsters expect Marauding Captain!" Charles explained.

"So since you have two of the same monsters, I cannot attack at all right?" Ryoga deduced. A nod from Charles was all he needed to confirm.

"Thanks to the second Marauding Captain, I call out Warrior Dai Grepher!" This time, the golden armor duelist summoned a monster with sleeveless armor and huge muscular arms were the two main features of it.

 **Warrior Dai Grepher** EARTH Warrior LV4 **1700** /1600

"And then Equip Magic, The Strongest Shield!" Dai Grepher received a shield with purple body and yellow outer frame on its left hand.

 **Warrior Dai Grepher** ATK 1700 - 3300

"Battle! Dai Grepher, attack Shark Kaiser!" The monster charged forward as soon as it received the order. It swung its sword upwards, attempting to slash the big shark.

 **Fanged Shark Emperor - Shark Kaiser** ATK 1800 - 2800

"Trap activate!" Ryoga countered. "Adversity!"

"What? Adversity?" Yuya wondered. He had seen Shun used that trap during his duel with him.

"What's wrong Yuya?" Yuzu asked him.

Yuya decided to keep it a secret for now. "Uh… nothing Yuzu, the trap is strong, that's it! I'm surprised that Ryoga did not use it during my duel with him back in You Show!"

" _Adversity…"_ Ruri thought. If Yuya knew Ryoga and Shun knew each other, then her secret would be exposed very soon. She actually had one of these in her Deck.

"Battle damage and battle destruction is negated and Shark Kaiser gains 1000 ATK!"

 **Fanged Shark Emperor - Shark Kaiser** ATK 2800 - 3800

"Tsk… such an annoying card… but…" Charles immediately slid down and grabbed an Action Card under the bridge. "Action Magic, Single Distraction! Your Kaiser is destroyed!"

"Not gonna happen!" Ryoga jumped up and grabbed and Action Card in a tree. "Action Magic, Mirror Barrier!"

Nico roared. "Wow! The two duelists used Action Cards to destroy and protect Shark Kaiser! Such a fierce duel!"

"I set down a card, turn end!" A card materialized face-down on Charles' right side.

 **Fanged Shark Emperor - Shark Kaiser** ATK 3800 - 2800

"Ore no turn, draw!" Ryoga proceeded his turn. "Shark Kaiser's effect activates! It gets another Shark Counter!" Its lower fin glowed yellow.

 **Fanged Shark Emperor - Shark Kaiser** ATK 2800 - 3800

"Useless! You cannot attack as long as I have two Marauding Captains on the field!" Charles reminded the Shark duelist.

" _Yes… I need to get rid of their attack lock soon…"_ Ryoga thought before running down to the bank of the river below. He had spotted an Action Card there earlier and now he grabbed the nearest. "Action Magic, Thousand Swords! One of your Marauding Captains is banished!" Swords suddenly appeared from Ryoga's field and flew at one of the teal armored warriors, shattering it. A portal suddenly appeared behind it and sucked the pieces in before disappearing.

"And you take 300 damage!" Charles arched his body in pain.

 **Charles** : 4000 - 3700 [1]

"Now the attack lock is gone!" Ruri said.

"Battle! Shark Kaiser, attack the remaining Marauding Captain!"

"Not so fast! Quick-Play Magic, Xyz Encore!"

"What? Xyz Encore?" Ryoga became surprised, as did the rest of the You Show team.

"It's a counter to Xyz monsters!" Ruri noted.

"Of course, I know you use Xyz, so I have prepared a counter for that!" Charles explained.

"He's not really that good, but he knows how his opponent will play…" Ashley from the Knight of Duels commented from the sidelines.

"Yeah…" Carl said.

"Your Shark Kaiser returns to the Extra Deck…" The purple shark turned blue and flew back to Ryoga's Extra Deck slot. "And its material will be special summoned!" The remaining Overlay Unit Shark Kaiser had turned into Big Jaws and Hammer Shark and Drill Barnacle appeared soon after. They were all in Defense Position thanks to the effect of Xyz Encore.

 **Big Jaws** LV3 - 2

 **Drill Barnacle** LV3 - 2

 **Hammer Shark** LV4 - 3

Ryoga gritted his teeth in anger. _"He ruined my play… but…"_

"Don't think it's finished! I, using the level 2 Big Jaws and Drill Barnacle, overlay!" The Overlay Network opened again, welcoming Ryoga's monsters.

"Xyz Shōkan! Appear now, Rank 2! Mochi Toad!" From the light, the sound of a frog could be heard. When the light disappeared, everyone laughed at how lackluster this monster was. It was a frog with another small one rested on the bigger one's head. The small frog also had an orange on its back.

 **Mochi Toad** WATER Aqua Xyz Effect R2 **2200** /0

"Hahahaha! I thought you might call out another powerful shark, but all you have now is just a… toad? Hahahaha! How overwhelming Shark!" Charles made a joke at the funny appearance of the two frogs. They narrowed their eyes in anger at him.

"Don't underestimate it Charles!" Ryoga said. "It may be funny, you may joke on it, but it is very powerful!"

"How? All I see is just a useless Rank 2 monster. What power it possesses?"

"You will know soon enough." Ryoga warned. "To end my turn, I activate the Continuous Magic, Shark Protection!"

"Watashi no turn, draw!" Charles drew his card and looked at it. He smiled. "The piece to my victory is here!" Ryoga eyed at the mentioning of the word "victory".

"Valkyrie Knight summon!" Charles called out a bright warrior. It wore a beautiful yellow dragon head armor, a red armor with fantastic decorations, a purple cloak on its shoulders and it wielded a sharp sword, readying to kill anyone who dared to attack it.

 **Valkyrie Knight** FIRE Warrior Effect LV4 **1900** /1200

"And then Equip Magic, Power Of Unity! Valkyrie gains 800 ATK for each of my monsters on the field!"

"Wait up!" Ryoga interrupted. "At this moment, I activate the effect of Mochi Toad!" The two toads lunged forward, biting the card. "It can send itself to the graveyard to negate the activation of that card and destroy it." The frog then returned to Ryoga's field and put the card it just negated to the Magic and Trap Zone and disappeared. "… and set it to my field!"

"Wow! He negated the card!" Tatsuya commented.

"Shibiveru!" Futoshi shook his butt as usual.

"And he reserved it for later!" Gongenzaka had to nod his head at this unexpected play.

"Yeah!" Ruri said. "I actually recommended him to put it in his Extra Deck in case he gets trouble somehow. His deck focuses on Rank 3 to 5, but I suggested him using that Rank 2 monster as well."

"Well it was a good advice Ruri!" Yuzu told her. "It saved him this time!"

"Of course!"

"Krugh…!" Charles hardened his face in anger. "Can't believe it had that effect…"

"So?" Ryoga mocked. "Who said it was annoying before?"

"Shut up!" Charles immediately ran backwards and retreated to the castle. Ryoga gave chase, knowing he would get an Action Card there. And the moment he ran inside, Charles was upstairs, smiling at him, an Action Card on his hand.

"Action Magic, High Dive! Marauding Captain gains 1000 ATK! Then I change it to Attack Position!"

 **Marauding Captain** ATK 1200 - 2200

 **Marauding Captain** 2200/ **400** \- **2200** /400

"Now your annoying frog is gone, you only have Hammer Shark on the field now. I will win! Battle! Marauding Captain, attack Hammer Shark!" The monster flew down and slashed the hammerhead shark on its head, destroying it.

"Now Shark has no monsters left on the field!" Gongenzaka noted.

"Dai Grepher, Shark direct attack!"

Before the monster flew towards him, Ryoga immediately grabbed an Action Card at the nearest pillar. "Action Magic, Evade! Your attack is negated!"

Charles countered. "Action Magic, Crush Action!" The card Evade got negated. The warrior charged at Ryoga and swung its two swords, creating two white energy beams. They flung at the fleeing Ryoga, who was knocked down from the impact.

 **Ryoga** : 4000 - 700 [0]

"It's finished now! Valkyrie Knight, Shark direct attack!" The red warrior flew down and slashed its sword at Ryoga, but somehow, a barrier appeared around him and protected him from the bloodthirsty sword.

"Hah? What the…? What happened?" Charles wondered, as did every spectators. Ruri however smiled, she knew what her friend just did.

"Continuous Magic, Shark Protection's effect! By sending Gazer Shark from my deck to the graveyard, your direct attack is negated!"

"Dammit… but now your field is empty, you cannot turn the tables around! Turn end!"

 **Marauding Captain** ATK 2200 - 1200

"Are you sure about that?"

"Huh?"

"How can Ryoga be this confident? His hand and his field are empty!" Yoko wondered.

"Remember Yoko-san, he has two Gazer Sharks in his graveyard now!" Ruri reminded the mother.

"Gazer Shark?" Yuya said. "He now has two… in his grave... it can't be…!"

"Right…" Ruri nodded.

" _Using this card will leave me exposed! But I have no other choice! I must win for the sake of myself, Ruri, Shun, Yuto, Yuya, Yuzu and everyone else!"_ Ryoga opened his eyes, looking fiercely at Charles. "First, during your End Phase, Shark Protection allows me to draw a card." Ryoga drew a card, then he drew another card for his normal draw on his turn. "And then I activate the graveyard effect of the two Gazer Sharks!" Ryoga revealed. "I can use them for an Xyz Summon!"

"What? An Xyz Summon from the graveyard!?" Charles widened his mouth in shock.

"Otto! The duelist Shark is using the monsters in his graveyard for an Xyz Summon! It's exciting!" Nico Smiley roared.

" _It's_ _here_ … _!"_ Yuto thought, so did Shun.

"I, using the two level 5 Gazer Sharks, overlay!" The two sharks materialized and flew to the Overlay Network, a beam of light shot down.

"The holy drop falls into Chaos, now release that power and purify all of the turmoil! Xyz Shōkan! Appear now, Numbers 73!"

"What? Numbers?" Nico said through his microphone.

"Numbers…" Reiji muttered. "So…"

The water fell down, revealing a large deity. It was very tall and very large, it wore a white cloak, it had blue armor with several blue orbs as decoration. It also had some yellow plates on its abdomen, arms and hands. It also carried a yellow staff with a blue gem on its head on the monster's left hand.

"Roaring Waterfall Deity - Abyss Splash!"

 **No.73: Roaring Waterfall Deity - Abyss Splash** WATER Warrior Xyz Effect R5 **2400** /1400

"Otto! In danger, Shark was able to use the two monsters in the graveyard to summon the new and large Xyz monster! And it is a Numbers monster!? What is that kind of Xyz monster?" Nico said.

From the seats, one could hear peiple saying. "What the hell?", "What is Numbers?", "I have nevee heard of this before!"

 _"We do not have those cards... He really is from the Xyz Dimension!"_ Reiji thought while Himika could not hide her shock on her face.

Ryoga then continued his turn. "Now is the turn I return the favor of winning this turn! Reverse Card open, Power of Unity! Thanks to your card, Abyss Splash gains 800 ATK!" A blue aura appeared around the big god.

 **No.73: Roaring Waterfall Deity - Abyss Splash** ATK 2400 - 3200

"And then Reverse Card open, Xyz Unit! It grants Abyss Splash 200 ATK for each Rank!" The aura got bolder and brighter.

 **No.73: Roaring Waterfall Deity - Abyss Splash** ATK 3200 - 4200

"4… 4200…" Charles mumbled.

"And then I activate Abyss Splash's effect! I detach an Overlay Unit…" An orb orbiting the monster got absorbed into the front orb, its remaining orbs glowed blue. "…to double its ATK!" The monster roared after getting its power increased.

 **No.73: Roaring Waterfall Deity - Abyss Splash** ATK 4200 - 8400

"The contestant Shark had doubled Abyss Splash's ATK! What a powerful and merciless effect!" Nico explained.

"Dammit!" Charles grabbed an Action Card from the stairs behind him. "Yes! This Action Card Miracle will prevent my monster from being destroyed and halve the battle damage! Even if you attack Marauding Captain, I will still have 100 LP left!"

"In your dreams!" Ryoga roared. "Abyss Splash's effect is not once per turn!"

"WHAT?" Charles yelled in shock as he watched the remaining Overlay Unit of Abyss Splash being absorbed, charging the waterfall deity with power.

 **No.73: Roaring Waterfall Deity - Abyss Splash** ATK 8400 - 16800

"1…16800…?" The entire Knight of Duels could only mutter at this destructive attack points.

" _That's how the Resistance fights!"_ Yuto smiled.

"Go Ryoga!" The You Show team cheered.

"Go now, Abyss Splash! Attack Marauding Captain!" Abyss Splash raised its staff, charging the gem with energy. It then blasted at the crumbling captain.

"FINAL FALLLLLL!"

An explosion occurred, blasting Charles to the wall behind. When the dust cleared and the Action Field disintegrated, the audience found Ryoga breathing in relief and Charles being unconscious.

 **Charles** : 3700 - 0 [0]

The people were left in shock for a moment, before a hand clap could be heard, and one more, one more, one more… and the entire stadium eventually all clapped in congratulation for this awesome duel and the spectacular final turn. Ryoga slowly walked towards Charles who had woken up. He gave a hand to him and smiled.

"Thanks for the duel Charles! I have rarely been in a good duel before!"

Charles smiled back and grabbed Ryoga's hand, getting up. They continued shaking and smiling at each other for the while. Everyone smiled for this sportsmanship. Even Reiji, Shun and Yuto smiled. This was the thing they had been trying looking for in Dueling. For Shun and Yuto, it was because the war had stolen away from them precious time to be teenagers and for Reiji, he had not seen this sportsmanship and crowd cheering for this for a long time.

Nico then announced. "And the duel has finished in real fun and happiness! The winner is Shark, or Kamishiro Ryoga!" The entire stadium smiled and yelled happily.

"Win your next duel Shark!" Charles encouraged his opponent.

"I will! Be sure to watch!" Ryoga said back. They both turned away and walked back to their respective door entrance.

"That was an awesome duel!" Ayu said in joy.

"Shibiveru!" Futoshi shook his butt.

"Your friend is really good Ruri!" Yuya smiled.

"He is!" Ruri said back.

"Please wait for a few minutes everyone, the next duel will be announced soon!" Nico announced.

"Yossa! My duel is next!" Sora yelled excitedly.

"Do your best Sora!" Yuzu cheered.

"Bring victory to You Show!" Shuzo also wished the kid luck.

"I will!" Sora high-fived them and ran down to the entrance of the stadium.

The MC Nico Smiley then announced the next duel. "Next is the fourth match of the day! Shiun'in Sora from You Show Duel School versus Shirogami Taka from Leo Duel School! The duel will be started in a few minutes, at 17:30!"

All of the people, including the You Show Duel School team, cheered for the potentially exciting match, expect Ryoga and Ruri. The purple hair girl was now mixed with arrogance that her brother would win and fear that Shun and Sora would cause a big mess for the tournament considering her brother's now angry personality. Suddenly, her Duel Disk got a new message. She put it to the side and looked at it. The name of the message nearly sent her flying up in fear:

"Read it, this will decide your life and others…"

" _What the… Who…? Who did this…?"_ Ruri wondered in fear. Trying her best to regain composure, she quietly opened the message to avoid Yuya and his friends see it. Ruri immediately became panic.

"Go to the WC F at Row 10. DO NOT tell anyone else or your friends' lives will be at RISK!"

Ruri nervously put back her Duel Disk and got off the chair.

"Hmm? Ruri? What are you doing? Ryoga will be here soon!" Yuya told her.

"Just need to take a leak Yuya! Will be back soon!"

"Hurry up okay, Sora's next duel will happen soon!" Yuzu reminded the purple haired girl.

"I will!" Ruri ran off to the location in fear. When she got there, her nervousness increased. The place was empty and there was no light. She knew it was dangerous, but she could defend herself, and she was worried for her friends as well.

"Hello? Who's in there? Don't lie to me!"

Ruri cautiously put out her Duel Disk and put it on her left hand. She turned on the flashlight on her Duel Disk and quietly opened the door, walking inside. She pointed the light in every direction possible, each movement was included by the shaking of her left hand.

"You texted me to meet me here. Come out! Don't play hiding!"

Ruri noticed a closet on her right that was opened slightly. It seemed that someone was waiting for her there, or an unlucky kid was staying inside it for some reason. She pointed the light at that closet and slowly went to there…

Suddenly…

A hand from behind held her mouth, closing it…

Ruri's curved and alluring body crumbled in fear…

* * *

 **Fanfic OC Cards**

 **Shark Protection (Continuous Magic)**

During the End Phase, draw 1 card for each time you activate one of the following effects:

_When an opponent's monster declares an attack: you can send 1 "Shark" monster from you Deck to the Graveyard; negate the attack.

_When your opponent activates a card effect that would destroy a "Shark" or a WATER monster you control: you can send 1 "Shark" monster from you Deck to the Graveyard; negate the activation, and if you do, destroy it.

You can only activate each one of these effects once per turn.

 **Thousand Swords (Action Magic)**

When your opponent control three or more monsters: target one of those monsters; banish one monster your opponent controls, and if you do, inflict 300 damage to your opponent.

* * *

 **Oh… my… god… Ruri was captured again! Or is it…? (I have left a clue about who did it, feel free to guess)**

 **Before you guy complain, I have asked Gentyman for permission to upload this chapter contained some of his idea, and he has agreed. I am really afraid of plagiarism.**

 **And yes! Another Yuya x Yuzu moment! I do like this shipping and I want to give all of you a nice treat, so there you go! Besides, did you expect Abyss Splash to appear? Please let me know!**

 **Shun's fake name was a result of my imagination and searching Goggle. So if you know Japanese, please don't criticize.**

* * *

 **Next Chapter Preview**

 **Descent to Grief and Darkness**

Sora was heavily wounded after his duel, but he got out to chase after Yuto and duel him with someone else. Yuya tried to stop but a strange source of light appeared, revealing a person who Yuya would regret meeting…

 **This is matrixnis, out!**


	24. Scale 24

**Welcome back everyone! This time we are not waiting around anymore, characters will rock and roll! You know what I mean right (LOL).**

 **From the title of the chapter, you may know what will happen this time right? To all Yuto and Ruri fans, they cannot hide themselves any longer and they are going to get through a very hard time with Yuya and Yuzu. At least I will give them a very warm and blissful moment first.**

 **This chapter and the following two are the ones I have been waiting to write for so long, which is why I skipped the first part of the tournament, besides, nothing about it will be changed in this story anyway.**

* * *

 **Chapter 24: Descent to Grief and Darkness**

* * *

"Uhm uhm uhm!" Ruri continued to yell helplessly, the hand still muffing the voice.

"Quiet Ruri! I'm here!" The warm and confronting voice changed Ruri's emotions in an instant. She was no longer panic and hysterical like moments before, instead a feeling of longing and happiness swept over her instantly. Ruri did not turn around yet, she did not need to, she did not have to, and she smiled. Smiled for knowing exactly who the owner of the voice was. She turned around and looked up.

"Yuto…" Her smile grew even brighter, her tears of happiness on the verge of letting out of her eyes.

"Ruri… Hi…" Yuto warmly said to her, smiling as well.

Without a word Ruri stepped up on her tiptoes, bringing her face to Yuto's own, holding her hand behind his head and putting her mouth to his in a deep and hungry kiss. Yuto instantly replied her wishes back, deepening it further. Sounds of the kissing resonated the quiet room. They clearly missed each other a lot, they missed their moments together, they missed the love they had shared and they now had nothing else to do besides the long kissing to regain the love, the sensation they shared back. They were separated for too long, and now they needed to satisfy each other again.

After about a minute, they finally released themselves from each other, grasping for air. Ruri put her forehead on Yuto's chin. She was so happy at the reunion that she had let out tears. Yuto gently put her hand on her face and wiped them.

"Don't cry Ruri, I am here now…"

"I can't stop them Yuto… You're finally here… I'm very happy!" She smiled. They then kissed one more time.

"So… the one sending me the message… that was you right?"

"Right Ruri. I'm sorry for doing that. Reiji sends guards watching you and Shark from afar, I have to wait until he won his duel, that's when the guards did not notice you too much." Yuto explained. He did not like this one bit, especially for his girl Ruri, but he had no other choice.

"It's okay Yuto. I understand. I should be the one to say sorry…" Ruri sadly said.

"No you shou-"

"I was careless back home Yuto. I let the guy Yuri duel me and nearly capture me."

"Yuri?" Yuto wondered. "Is that… the man who has the same face as mine and Yuya's right?"

"Yes. And then I met the girl named Yuzu. You knew her, the pink hair one. She has the same face as mine, just like the situation with you, Yuya and that guy Yuri."

"It's strange…" Yuto muttered. _"So I have three other boys who look like me… Yugo… Yuya… and Yuri… and now I cannot trust Yuri after what he did to her…"_

"Ruri…" Yuto gently touched her face. "All of this happened because of my carelessness too. I should have known that you were brought here. I'm sorry."

Ruri shook her head sadly. "We… we were both Yuto… After being transported here for some reason…" She looked at her bracelet. "I met Yuya and Yuzu… then I had to lie to them to get food and shielter in Yuzu's house. I did not know where to go, what to do back then so I had to lie to them to keep myself safe. It hurts Yuto, it hurts a lot, and I don't know what to say to them…"

Yuto sadly looked at his girl, who was near tears despite her best efforts not to show it, then he pulled her into a hug, burying her face in his chest. "I understand. I understand Ruri. And I am really sorry for making you do it…" Ruri wrapped her arms around him, letting her salty tears fall down to his shirt. Yuto gently stroked her long purple hair. "I should not have left you that night Ruri. I made you do it. It's all my fault…"

"I'm truly sorry…"

They continued to hug for a while under the dying light of the sun, until a loud voice from the MC Nico Smiley interrupted their silence. It was the announcement of the duel, Kurosaki Shun, or Shirogami Taka as he called himself had cleared the entire field of Sora with his signature monster Raid Raptors - Rise Falcon, bringing him down to 3400 LP.

"Your brother is dueling…"

"His opponent is Sora from Academia!" Ruri said to Yuto. She pulled herself out of the hug and dragged Yuto along. "Come on, we need to go out and see the duel!"

"Yeah, but we cannot stop him anyway…" Yuto said the sad truth as he let Ruri drag him out of the toilet. After running for a while, they went out to see the duel, or rather, the brutal battle. Sora had summoned Death-Toy Wheel Saw Lio, which scared the kids. He then used it to attack Rise Falcon but Shun managed to avoid it and during his next turn he destroyed the deadly toy. Sora then once again did a Fusion Summon to bring out Chain Sheep, which forbid Shun from activating his set cards, but turned out it one card in particular required Shun's monster to be destroyed to activate. He used that card to Rank Up to Blaze Falcon, and that was when the horrible warzone began to escalate. Sora managed to avoid its destructive effect by an Action Card, which bounced the energy beams it produced back behind Shun, destroying several buildings and created a straight line of flame. Blaze Falcon then direct attacked Sora, causing him to hit a building behind, which nearly collapsed on him but he used his Academia training to get out easily. Yuya had commented the duel to look like a battlefield with structures being destroyed and smoke all around. The two fighters then engaged in a war talk that brought the sadistic side of Sora out, the "Hunting Game" that Academia conducted on Yuto's own people. That kid then proceeded to summon his strongest monster, Death-Toy Mad Chimera and nearly won the duel, only for Shun to steal it and Rank it up to Revolution Falcon, which finished the duel with its destruction and burn effect, causing Sora to lose the duel. Shun then proceed to walk to Sora and was about to card him.

"Please stop this! Nii-sannnnnnn!"

Ruri's yell of pleading fell deaf on her brother's ears, partly because she was too far, partly because Shun was too indulged in his tranquil fury. It took Reiji who reminded him of why he was here to force him not to scare the public by carding Sora. Yuto pulled Ruri to the dark to avoid Reiji's bodyguards.

"Quiet Ruri!" He hissed. "The guards are looking for you! We need to get out!"

"Dammit!" Ruri relented, getting out of the stadium with Yuto. They chose the moment when the guards were distracted when they carried Sora to the hospital and held Yuya and his friends back to climb up to the wall nearby and run out of the stadium as far as possible. They ran under the bridge to avoid the guards. After making sure that no one was following them, they allowed themselves to stop and regain breath after running madly.

"Huh… huh… huh… huh… now Sora is in the hospital… I suggest we go to the hospital and capture him…" Yuto talked between breaths.

"Maybe… but… even though he was our enemy… I don't like this Yuto… I don't want to hurt people…"

"I don't like it either… but we have no other choice… this is war Ruri… It's good you managed to keep your morality… Shun already lost it… and I don't think I could hold any longer…"

"Hey!" Ruri raised her voice. Seeing her brother losing himself in the stream of poison named rage and vengeance was bad enough, and now she could not risk losing Yuto as well. "You have me now! You will not lose yourself! And we will find a way to bring Shun back to his senses!"

"Thank you Ruri… We will find a way…" Yuto cupped her face. "Let's go! I'll call a taxi!"

"Wait! How about Yuzu and her friends!? We might be spotted if we run up now!" Ruri protested. She knew she would rather not seeing them at the moment.

"Don't worry Ruri, they will check up on him, they're his friend after all."

"Yeah… fake friends… just like me…" Ruri spitefully said. She realized she was just like Sora in the faking thing. In short, she was just another hypocrite.

"Ruri! Don't think of yourself like that! I will always be by your side no matter what! And if people hurt you, I will stand up and protect you!"

"Thanks Yuto…" She honestly did not know whether she deserved to hear this or not. She felt disgusted at herself. A nice girl like her, tainted by the war and the lies she made. She did not know how to describe herself right now. Before she could find a word to describe, Yuto had finished something. He turned to her.

"Come on, I have called a taxi!"

"Oh! Okay…" Ruri then ran up with Yuto and got in a cab after waiting shortly. During the ride, Ryoga had called her three times through her Duel Disk but Yuto told her not to answer. The cab stopped at the side of the building to avoid Yuya and his friends who were staying out of the door.

"There it is… the Miami Hospital…" Yuto commented. He looked at the right side of the hospital. "And there's Ryoga, Yuya, Yuzu and their friends."

"Come on Yuto… Let's get inside." Ruri pulled out her Resistance scarf from her back pocket and wore it around her arm. They then slowly walked inside. The fact that it was night and there was not many guards inside the hall made it easy for them to locate Sora's patient room.

"This is his room Yuto!" Ruri whispered.

"Let's get inside." Yuto touched the knock and quietly squeezed it counter clockwise. He slowly pushed the door forward and got inside. Ruri put on her flashlight on her Duel Disk and shone it at the sleeping Sora's face, which was miraculously still intact with only a tape on his cheek.

The kid winked his eyes upon hitting a strange source of light, waking up after a relatively short sleep. When he opened his eyes, he was surprised to find Ruri pointing her flashlight at him and "Yuya" pointing his activated Duel Disk at him.

Sora hid his eyes behind his hand, needing time to adjust to the sudden change of light around him. "Yu…ya…?" He weakly mumbled.

"I have something to say to you…" Yuto calmly said.

Sora gasped in surprise. "You're…!"

"I want to know how to beat Academia… and you are my first lead to that question…" Yuto solemnly told the kid.

"Beat Academia? Quit it…" Sora shook his head. "You cannot beat us hunters… besides, I got another thing to concern about. I need to find him!"

"Him?" Ruri wondered.

"Shirogami Taka! Or who he really is… Shun! Where is Shun? I need to duel him!" Sora kicked Yuto then he quickly grabbed his Duel Disk and put it on his left arm.

"It's all settled. You lost to my brother." Ruri revealed a fact. "And do not hurt Yuto! I will hurt you back!"

"Your brother…? Oh…! So he is Kurosaki Shun, your brother!" Sora smiled. "And that guy Yuto right there is your boyfriend or some kind? But you're not my concern for now! Where is your brother?"

"No good trying to force us to say!" Ruri told the arrogant kid. "I do not even know where he is now!"

"You're lying!" Sora denied. "I cannot lose Xyz users like you two or him! Lead me to him now! I will beat him down for good! If I become serious, I will surely-"

"What is that noise?" Someone said outside the room. "This way!" The three all looked at the door to find two security guards.

"Who are you two?"

Yuto looked at Ruri, who nodded. They both ran past the guards as soon as possible.

"Wait up!" Sora immediately gave chase after them.

"Hey! You cannot move yet-"

"GET OUT OF MY WAY!" Sora yelled before knocking down the two guards, resuming chase.

Yuto and Ruri ran out of the hospital, carefully avoiding Yuya and his friends standing outside.

"Yuto! We need to keep him out of my brother! Don't let him reach Shun or they will cause havoc to the city!"

Yuto agreed. "I know! Follow me! We'll run to the central park! Remember to keep the distance to make Sora chase us!"

"Okay!" The two then continued running while making sure that Sora was following behind. They eventually saw the park in front of them.

"There's the park!" Ruri said.

"Keep running Ruri!"

They found the platform ahead. They decided to jump up there, it would give them a tactical advantage.

Sora eventually found them. He furiously demanded. "Now, bring him out! Kurosaki Shun!"

Yuto and Ruri turned around, facing the mad kid.

* * *

"What?" Shun could not believe what he was seeing anymore. _"Ruri is here with Yuto?"_

He turned to Reiji, who was sitting on his chair. "You liar Reiji! You have Ruri all the time!"

"Sakaki… Yuya?" Nakajima cut off Shun's question by his own one.

Shun sighed. "No…"

"That is Yuto…" Reiji said.

"Uh…" Shun eyed Reiji angrily. "My comrade… with my sister there as well…"

"Of course I know them. Ruri and Ryoga had told me all about you and Yuto." Reiji calmly addressed. "I guessed there were two people attacking LDS, and… they were you and Yuto all the time."

"Quit it! Now tell me how do you know about us? What did you do to Ryoga and my sister?" Shun inquired.

"This question cannot be answered right now. Remember that you are working for me!" Reiji shut the falcon duelist up.

Meanwhile, the kid Reira standing on Reiji's right was shaking in fear all the time…

* * *

"Sa! Call him out, Kurosaki Shun, now!"

"Your body was hurt so badly like that, yet you want to duel Shun one more time?" Yuto asked.

"Right!" Sora confirmed. "This time I will not lose! For me, the guys like him, the Xyz remnants bearing the fate of being hunted by us! Including you two and Kurosaki!"

"There is no way that I have lost to an Xyz user! I will prove that "if I become serious, I will win", if you two still wanna hide him then I will not go easy on you couple!"

"Try!" Ruri provoked. "See if you can fight the Resistance now. You lost to Shun earlier, and now you will lose to us as well!"

"Hm! Hard to believe that those words came from the person who lied to Yuya and Yuzu to get sanctuary!" Sora's words made Ruri become uncomfortable. "But… I will not lose! I will win and card you two!"

"Hell no!" Yuto said.

"Maybe… but… I will beat you two down pretty badly, there will be a lot of pain. If you surrender and join to our side, it will be easier…"

"Just like Yuma…"

"Shut up!" Yuto lost his composure. "We do not betray our comrades like him!"

"Really? As far as I'm aware, he deflected from the start!"

"From the start?" Both Yuto and Ruri wondered.

* * *

Shun gritted his teeth. This annoying kid Sora has always been a sore eye for him, and now he was endangering his comrades AND mocking them by mentioning Yuma. He could not wait any longer. He turned around, attempting to leave the control room.

"Wait up Kurosaki!" Nakajima protested.

"I have to go there!"

"You're not gonna do it!" Reiji stopped him. "If you get there, things will only get messier. If this causes the Maiami Championship to put off, then my plan will be at risk! This tournament is used to challenge the Duelists in order to find the best candidates to fight Akaba Leo. Never forget about it!"

"Besides, even if you do not get there…" Reiji returned to looking at the screen again.

* * *

Both Yuto and Ruri activated their Resistance Duel Disks. The energy blades shot out. Yuto swung his right hand, Ruri swung her left hand, ready for battle.

Sora smirked. "Ha! Got fired up now? That's it!" Sora took of the bandage on his face, smiling in interest. "First I finish you two then I will settle the score with Shun! The Xyz users of this world…" He quickly activated his Duel Disk. "I will beat them all!"

 **DUEL!**

 **Kurosaki Ruri** : 4000 [5]

 **Shiun'in Sora** : 4000 [5]

 **Yuto** : 4000 [5]

* * *

"I take the first turn!" Ruri declared. "Quick-Play Magic, Lyrical Luscinia - Bird Swarm!" Ruri slid the card to her purple Duel Disk. It materialized and turned into two balls of light. "By paying 1000 LP, I can special summon Turquoise Warbler from my hand and Cobalt Sparrow from my Deck with their effects negated!"

 **Lyrical Luscinia - Cobalt Sparrow** WIND Winged Beast Effect LV1

 **Lyrical Luscinia - Turquoise Warbler** WIND Winged Beast Effect LV1

 **Ruri** : 4000 - 3000 [3]

"And then Lyrical Luscinia Ruby Bunting normal summon!" A feminine bird in a white skinsuit appeared.

 **Lyrical Luscinia - Ruby Bunting** WIND Winged Beast Effect LV1 **100** /0

"Its effect will allow me to special summon Ruby Canary from my hand, and then I can draw 2 cards!"

 **Lyrical Luscinia - Ruby Canary** WIND Winged Beast Effect LV1 **0** /0

"Now she has four level 1 monsters… which means…" Sora whispered in interest.

"I, using the four level 1 Cobalt Sparrow, Turquoise Warbler, Ruby Bunting and Ruby Canary, overlay!" Four birds turned into swirls of energy and flew down to the Overlay Network.

"Birds with raidant wings! Show up behind the battlefield and bring victory by your bravery! Xyz Shōkan! Dance in the sky! Rank 1! Lyrical Luscinia - Ambushing Nightingale!" From the bright light, a monster came out. It was a humanoid bird, it wore a white bird suit shaped like a dress with green stripes and yellow tail. It had sharp purple eyes, long teal hair and as outer decoration, four green Overlay Units orbiting around.

 **Lyrical Luscinia - Ambushing Nightingale** WIND Winged Beast Xyz Effect R1 **0** /0

"It's here, it's here! Xyz!" The sadistic kid became excited.

" _Ambushing Nightingale…"_ Yuto thought. _"You wanna play offense Ruri?"_

"This card gains 600 original ATK and DEF for each Overlay Unit it has!" Ruri explained as the overlay units shone up brightly.

 **Lyrical Luscinia - Ambushing Nightingale** **0** /0 - **2400** /2400

"2 card set, turn end!"

Sora proceeded his first turn. "Boku no turn, draw! Hm… Edge Imp Tomahawk summon!" The kid summoned a "monster" consisted of two glowing purple eyes and multiple axes racked together.

 **Edge Imp Tomahawk** DARK Demon Effect LV4 **1800** /800

"Tomahawk can let me send Edge Imp DT Modoki to the grave to inflict 800 damage! And I shall inflict it to…" He eyed the battle couple for a while before pointing at the girl. "Ruri!" As Sora inserted the card, a white light shot out, blasting Ruri. The girl was sent flying to the wall, hitting it, causing a large dent. Despite the impact, Ruri woke up normally without any issues at all.

 **Ruri** : 3000 - 2200 [1]

Yuto became concerned. "Ruri? You okay?"

"I'm fine Yuto!" Ruri reassured him.

"Battle!" Sora declared battle. "Edge Imp Tomahawk… uh…" He pointed his finger at Yuto to annoy him. "…are you… Yuto right? Direct attack!"

"Yuto no!"

"From my hand, I special summon Phantom Knights - Tattered Vambrace to intercept your attack!" A rounded ghost in a dirty cloak with two hand guards hovering above it materialized the moment Yuto placed the card.

 **Phantom Knights - Tattered Vambrace** DARK Warrior Effect LV3 **0** /1800

"Also, it is indestructible this turn and any battle damage is halved!"

"Whatever, you will still take the damage!" Sora told him. "Go! Imp Blade!" The monsters threw its blades like boomerangs, slicing the ghost, destroying its vambraces further. The blades then gracefully returned to its slots. Yuto crouched down to avoid the flying axes and the ensuring blast.

 **Yuto** : 4000 - 3100 [5]

"Hehe, call it my first shot to you Xyz scums! You better call that guy Kurosaki out to replace in case you cannot duel anymore!" Sora mocked while setting down three cards.

"Shut up! You'll never get my brother!" Ruri said hatefully at the teal hair kid. In the observation room, Shun smiled, knowing how strong Ruri always was.

Yuto said nothing as he began his turn. "Ore no… turn!" Yuto looked at the card he had just drawn and immediately summoned it. "Phantom Knights - Dusty Robe summon!" A ghost in a ragged shirt and a long scarf appeared.

 **Phantom Knights Dusty Robe** DARK Warrior Effect LV3 **800** /1000

"Heh… first off you just summoned an 800 ATK monster?" Sora mocked. "How are you going to lay out your formation, Xyz-loser-san?"

"Then I special summon Phantom Knights - Silent Boots!" Yuto did his usual opening move.

 **Phantom Knights Silent Boots** DARK Warrior Effect LV3 200/ **1200**

"Tattered Vambrace's effect! I change the levels of Tattered Vambrace and Silent Boots to 2!"

 **Phantom Knights Tattered Vambrace** LV3 - 2

 **Phantom Knights Silent Boots** LV3 - 2

"I, using the level 2 Tattered Vambrace and Silent Boots, overlay!" The Network opened, accepting the two monsters to it.

"Carry on the ten thousand warriors! Cursed spear buried in the darkness! Descend now! Xyz Summon! Appear! Rank 2! Phantom Knights - Cursed Javelin!" A skeleton knight in dark purple robes, armors on its legs, a shield on its left hand and a javelin made from skulls rose out.

 **Phantom Knights Cursed Javelin** DARK Warrior Xyz Effect R2 **1600** /0

"Dusty Robe's effect! It changes itself to Defense Position and grants Cursed Javelin 800 ATK!"

 **Phantom Knights Cursed Javelin** **1600** /0 - **2400** /800

"And now it will freeze your monster!" The monster raised its javelin, absorbing an Overlay Unit and blasted the energy at Sora's monster, weakening it.

 **Edge Imp Tomahawk** ATK 1800 - 0

"What!?"

"Now your monster is just a useless piece of junk! Cursed Javelin, attack Edge Imp Tomahawk!" The fallen warrior charged its javelin, sending a blue blast of energy at the rack, obliterating it. Sora did a backflip to avoid the attack.

 **Sora** : 4000 - 1600 [1]

"Heh…" Sora smiled. "I've prepared for that! Trap activate! Edge Imp Recovery! I return Tomahawk to my hand and draw a card!"

"Also, my LP is back to normal!"

 **Sora** : 1600 - 4000 [3]

"Tsk… he gathered his resources…" Yuto mumbled.

"…and gain LP back!" Ruri said.

Sora arrogantly boasted. "Just like you two, I learned from my mistakes! I actually prepared to duel Kurosaki Shun, but now fighting you two in this Hunting Game is enough!" The word "hunting game" made both Yuto and Ruri angry again. Ruri saw her boyfriend clenching his fists in anger.

"Yuto! Don't get angry!"

"I know Ruri!" Yuto said as he set down two cards.

 **Phantom Knights Cursed Javelin** **2400** /800 - **1600** /0

"Watashi no turn, draw!"

* * *

"It's not good! They did not answer the phone no matter how many times I have called them!" Yuya said to Yuzu through his Duel Disk while running around, looking for the kid and the girl.

Yuzu answered. "Gongenzaka and Ryoga said the same thing! Where the hell are Sora and Ruri and what are they doing?"

"Whatever! Now we can only find them! I will contact later!" Yuya cut off the call as he approached the park where Sora, Yuto and Ruri were dueling.

* * *

"Continuous Trap activate! Lyrical Luscinia - Sharp Wings! And now battle!" Ruri immediately attacked. "Ambushing Nightingale, direct attack!" The monster sent a strong gust of wind at Sora using

"Trap Card open! Death Toy Market! I special summon Edge Imp Scissors from my deck and force you to attack it! It's not destroyed by battle this turn and we both share the damage!" The ensuring explosion knocked the two warriors back.

 **Ruri** : 2200 - 1000 [2]

 **Sora** : 4000 - 2800 [3]

"But the effect of Sharp Wings will inflict 100 damage to you!" Ruri reminded as Sora gained a red aura.

 **Sora** : 2800 - 2700 [3]

"If so, I end my turn." Ruri decided not to attack a second time lest she would lose.

"Boku no turn, draw… Now you two have Xyz Summoned… I should get serious soon?" Sora said as he showed a card and activated it "From my hand, I activate the Magic Card, Fusion!"

"It's here Ruri! Get ready!"

"Uh!"

"The Fusion materials I will use are Furnimal Bear in my hand and Edge Imp Scissors on the field! Claws of the demon! Fangs of the beast! Become one in the mystical spiral and reveal a new form and power! Yugō Shōkan! Appear, horrifying beast that shreds everything! Death-Toy Scissors Bear!" One of Sora's main Fusion Monsters appeared. It was just as horrifying as usual, and now it was even more with the malicious intent it clearly showed on its face.

 **Death-Toy Scissors Bear** DARK Demon Fusion Effect LV6 **2200** /1800

* * *

Yuya finally got into the park. He saw Sora dueling with Scissors Bear on the field. "Sora…" He then turned to his right and was shocked to see Yuto and Ruri. "That's… Ruri! And that guy…"

Yuya wiped his eyes multiple times to make sure. "Just like me! Is that the guy Yuto that Yuzu told me about? And why is Ruri with him? Wait…" Yuya noticed a red scarf on Ruri's right arm.

"That was the scarf she wore when I first met her… and… What? Yuto has the same one on his arm as well? Wait… If I remember correctly… that guy Shun also has a same colored scarf over his neck! That means…" A realization hit him hard...

* * *

"Cursed Javelin's monster effect! Death-Toy Scissors Bear loses it effects and ATK!"

"So sad… I banish Market to protect my monsters from your effects this turn!" The trap materialized, flicking the blast away, striking the ground nearby and making it open.

"Battle! Death-Toy Scissors Bear, attack Phantom Knights Cursed Javelin!" The demon bear charged at the warrior. It opened its mouth and devoured its enemy, cracking sound could be heard as the skeleton knight screamed painfully.

 **Yuto** : 3100 - 2500 [1]

"At this moment, Tattered Vambrace's effect activates! I use Cursed Javelin as an Xyz Material! Rank-Up Xyz Change!" The destroyed monster rematerialized again before crashing down to the dark portal, causing a huge explosion.

"Rank-Up!?" Yuya thought out loud. "Just like Shun and Ruri… they're… they know each other! And they are comrades!" Yuya correctly deduced.

"Appear now, Rank 3! Phantom Knights Break Sword!"

 **Phantom Knights Break Sword** DARK Warrior Xyz Effect R3 **2000** /1000

"Phantom Knights will never fall! No matter how many times you destroy them, they will always revive!" Yuto declared the power of his Phantom Knights deck and himself. "That's how Resistance fights!"

"Resistance?" Yuya wondered. "Uh! Fusion… enemy…"

"Good move Yuto!" Ruri complimented. "He could have equipped Cursed Javelin to Scissors Bear to gain 1600 ATK, but the effect of Tattered Vambrace turned it to an Xyz Material!"

"Tsk… so you avoided Scissors Bear's effect… I set down a card and end my turn!"

"Ore no… turn!" Yuto activated his drawn card. "Rank-Up-Magic Phantom Knights Force activate!"

"Nani? Rank-Up-Magic, you say?" Sora widened his eyes in shock, as did Yuya.

"I, using the level 3 Phantom Knights Break Sword, overlay! With this monster, Overlay Network reconstructing!"

"From the pitch-black darkness, rise up against the foolish oppression, Fang of Rebellion! Descend now! Rank-Up Xyz Change!"

"Appear! Rank 4!" A huge explosion occurred, forcing Yuya to cover his eyes.

"Dark Rebellion Xyz Dragon!" Yuto's signature dragon appeared.

 **Dark Rebellion Xyz Dragon** DARK Dragon Xyz Effect R4 **2500** /2000

"Dark Rebellion… Xyz Dragon?" Yuya muttered.

" _Dammit… it has 2500 ATK…!"_ Sora panicked.

"Dark Rebellion Xyz Dragon's monster effect activates! By detaching an Overlay Unit, this turn I can halve Scissors Bear's ATK, add the lost amount to it, and gain an additional attack!" An Overlay Unit exploded, connecting Scissors Bear and the wings of Dark Rebellion in a chain of purple electricity. Scissors Bear yelled as it lost its strength while the dragon absorbed it.

"Treason Discharge!"

 **Death-Toy Scissors Bear** ATK 2200 - 1100

 **Dark Rebellion Xyz Dragon** ATK 2500 - 3600

" _Dammit… If it detaches its last Overlay Unit, then Death-Toy Scissors Bear will only have 550 ATK…"_ Sora thought in fear.

" _Dark Rebellion Xyz Dragon will have 4150 ATK and it can attack three times…!"_ Yuya finished the math.

"Battle!" Yuto's declaration of the Battle Phase shocked Sora and Yuya. They did not expect Yuto to commence his attack right away. "I order Dark Rebellion Xyz Dragon to attack Death-Toy Scissors Bear!" Dark Rebellion took flight, charging energy to its fang.

"Hangyaku no… Lightning Disobey!" The fang slashed Scissors Bear, causing a huge explosion that knocked Sora back.

"He could cause real damage even though there was no Real Solid Vision… wait… just like Ruri when I met her…!" Yuya realized. During his first duel with Ruri, he was actually hurt by her Assembly Nightingale's attacks but for some reason, the pain was not too much so he did not ask her anything.

 **Sora** : 2700 - 200 [1]

"I end my turn." Yuto calmly said. "At this moment, Dark Rebellion Xyz Dragon's ATK returns to normal."

 **Dark Rebellion Xyz Dragon** ATK 4400 - 2500

Sora lied down on the ground painfully. Yuya could not stand seeing the kid got hurt like that anymore. He quickly ran into the park to where Sora was lying down. "Sora!"

" _Yuya…"_ Ruri thought. He was finally here, so she could not keep the secret anymore…

* * *

"That's…" Nakajima said.

Reiji told the group. "Sakaki Yuya!"

* * *

"You're okay Sora?" Yuya attempted to help Sora up, but the kid shrugged off, focusing his eyes on the two Resistance members instead.

"Get the hell out Yuya! You're not involved in this!" Sora protested.

"What are you talking about? You're not supposed to get out of the hospital! Why are you out here to Duel?"

"He's… holding back…?" Sora angrily said. Yuto could have finished him right then and there, but for some reason he did not. "Shit! You're disrespecting me?"

Sora got up. "I… will not forgive!"

"Oi! Stop! If you keep doing this, your body will…"

"Shut up!" Sora yelled at Yuya. "I have not used all of my strength as well! I will make you remember that "if I truly become serious, I will be the stronger one!""

Yuya argued. "Leave it for another time! Maybe in the next tournament!"

"There is no next time!" Sora explained. "In a real war, "next time" does not exist!"

"That's right!" Ruri interrupted. "But even if you are my enemy, I do not want to hurt you kid, Yuto does not want it either! If you surrender now, we will spare you from any further pain!"

"What are you planning to do, Ruri, Yuto? What are you going to do to my friend Sora?" Yuya questioned. He pointed at Ruri. "You! You are my friend too Ruri! Yet you lied to us from the beginning, infiltrated to us to try to kill Sora? You were with Yuto and Taka... no... Shun for the whole time?"

"And Ryoga too Yuya!" Sora revealed, shocking Yuya.

"Ryoga as well!?" Sora nodded at Yuya's question. The red and green hair teenager could not believe what he was listening anymore.

"All… all of you… all of you…" Yuya looked at Yuto and especially Ruri in disbelief.

"…have been lying to me all the time!?"

"We'll tell you later Yuya!" Ruri attempted. "Sora is our enemy! He posed as your friend all the time as well! Please stop him!"

"Enemy? Posing? Quit it! I don't believe it! You did the same to me too!" Yuya yelled at the lookalike of Yuzu, he felt hurt by her "betrayal". The fact that this BITCH shared the same face as Yuzu made him even angrier. "He's just a normal 13-year-old boy ruined by your words! Why did you dare to spoil his innocent heart!?"

"Ruri…" Yuya closed his eyes, his fists tightened and his face hardened in anger. "You lied to us… you lied to us from the beginning… you befriended us… and you poured bad words about Sora to us… to me… and… and… I will not…"

"Sora is my friend… you are my friend… and you hurt me and him…"

"I WILL NOT FORGIVE YOU FOR THIS!"

"Yuya…" Ruri felt tremendous guilt. Even worse, she could not explain things to him.

Yuya angrily slapped his Duel Disk to his right hand and activated it. "If you two continue to hurt my friends… then you shall have to go through me to do it!"

 **Battle Royale Mode, Joining.**

 **Kurosaki Ruri** : 1000 [2]

 **Shiun'in Sora** : 200 [1]

 **Yuto** : 2500 [1]

 **Sakaki Yuya** : 4000 [5]

* * *

"Ore no turn, DRAW!" Yuya angrily drew his card, starting his revenge turn. He did a slide to stop his running. "I, using the Scale 4 Entermate Trump Witch and Scale 5 Wisdom-Eye Magician, Pendulum Scale setting!" The word Pendulum appeared on Yuya's Duel Disk and from behind him, two monsters rose up from their respective Pendulum Zones. One was a spellcaster as indicated by the dark cloak it wore, the magician robes it donned and a stake with weights on one end, most of the costume it had was in silver color; another was a cute-looking witch with a dark blue wizard hat, yellow hair in pigtals, a blue and dark blue striped dress and a stake with a blade on one end and a skull figure on another. The numbers "4" and "5" displayed below them were the main things that took all three others duelists by surprise though.

"Are you crazy? You cannot Pendulum Summon anything with those Scales!" Ruri said in shock.

"Of course I am not that careless!" Yuya pointed his hand at Wisdom-Eye. "I can destroy this card to set another Pendulum Card in its Pendulum Zone!" The magician turned into particles, Yuya took out a card from his Deck and set it. "I set the Scale 8 Timegazer Magician!"

"The effect that destroys itself to set another one…" Sora noted.

"And Pendulum Summon 1 more monster!" Ruri finished. _"How cunning…"_

"Now I can Pendulum Summon with the level from 5 to 7! Pendulum Shōkan!" Two monsters formed on Yuya's field.

"Appear now, my monsters! Odd-Eyes Pendulum Dragon! And Stargazer Magician!"

 **Odd-Eyes Pendulum Dragon** DARK Dragon Pendulum Effect LV7 Scale 4 **2500** /2000

 **Stargazer Magician** DARK Magician Pendulum Effect LV5 Scale 1 **1200** /2400

The moment Odd-Eyes got summoned, Yuya suddenly felt a strong pain in his chest.

" _What the… what happened? My body is hot…"_

Yuto was holding his chest in pain as well, and so did Ruri, whose eyes unknown to the boys was very slightly flashing blue. The two dragons both roared, resonating with each other.

" _Odd-Eyes alone cannot beat Yuto and Ruri! I need to bring it out!"_ Yuya thought before continuing his turn. "And then the Pendulum Effect of Entermate Trump Witch activates!"

"Trump Witch…?" Sora realized. Even though Yuya was keeping him away from beating Yuto and Ruri, he smiled. He knew what Yuya would do.

"No! Don't use it Yuya!" Ruri protested.

"I use Odd-Eyes Pendulum Dragon and Stargazer Magician to…" The two monsters joined into the Fusion spiral. "Yugō Shōkan!"

"Fusion Summon!?" For the first time in this duel, Yuto lost his temper. He hardened his face in preparation.

"Appear now! Arcane dragon wielder of ancient magic! Rune-Eyes Pendulum Dragon!" The upgrade of Odd-Eyes Pendulum Dragon now appeared with a loud roar, which Dark Rebellion also roared back. Once again, the painful sensation in Yuya's, Yuto's and Ruri's chests returned, slowly squeezing their hearts and taking control of them, their eyes dimly shining with red for Yuya, blue for Yuto and Ruri before dimming. The battlefield between Fusion and Xyz was now introduced with some mysticism from the three people who happened to have similar faces with someone else.

 **Rune-Eyes Pendulum Dragon** DARK Dragon Fusion Effect LV8 **3000** /2500

* * *

"Argh!"

Yuzu stopped when she suddenly felt pain in her chest, unknown to her, her eyes were shining in pink color albeit very slightly. At the same time, she could hear the roaring from inside her head, and some whispering that told her there was danger.

" _What the… what is this pain? The sound? And why…"_ She thought a bad thing would happen soon, and it would come to…

" _Yuya!"_

* * *

" _What the hell did you do Yuya…"_ Ruri thought in shock and sadness, ignoring the pain. _"You use Fusion… but unlike the two times you did for entertainment, you are now using it to beat us... how..."_

Yuya pointed at Rune-Eyes, who was charging energy on its ring. "Since it used the level 5 Stargazer Magician as a Fusion Material, it can attack three times!"

"What?" Yuto could not hide his surprise.

"And then Magic Card, Pendulum Treat! By banishing Entermate Cheer Mole from my hand…" Yuya put Cheer Mole to his pocket. "…Rune-Eyes is treated as a Pendulum Monster is turn!"

"What's the purpose of doing that Yuya?" Ruri wondered.

"Now lose and get away! First off, Yuto!" Rune-Eyes charged energy on its ring and blasted it at the dark dragon. Dark Rebellion managed to dodge it and charged at the arcane one. It decided to engage in close quarter combat instead and swung its wings at Yuto's dragon's neck, who headbutted the sharp end of it away and swung its own tail at Rune-Eyes. The red dragon managed to dive away and charged at Dark Rebellion the moment it got up.

"Continuous Trap open! Phantom Fog Blade! The designated Rune-Eyes Pendulum Dragon has its effects negated and it cannot attack or be attacked!" A foggy blade suddenly appeared between Rune-Eyes and Dark Rebellion, creating a portal where the two monsters phased through, not getting each other. They each returned to their respective fields.

"A trap negating attacks…?" Sora mumbled. "If he had set that card down… he would have negated my Scissors Bear from attacking…!"

"To perform a second Xyz Summon, Yuto took the attack of his opponent?" Reiji speculated.

"During the last attack, you still had one Overlay Unit left, and you could attack twice! How long… how long… are you going to disrespect me!? Cannot forgive you for this!"

Yuya quickly raised his hand at the female magician in the Pendulum Zone. "Not gonna happen! Timegazer's effect! Since your trap targets a Pendulum Monster, it can negate the activation and the effect! Inverse Gearwidth!" Timegazer Magician created a ring and reversed time, setting down Yuto's trap again.

" _That's why he treated Rune-Eyes as a Pendulum Monster! So that he could use the effect of Timegazer Magician! How resourceful!"_ Ruri could not help but complimenting Yuya's move.

"Yoss!" Yuya smiled, but…

"Continuous Trap! Booby Trap E!" Yuto activated his another trap. "It will gain the effect of Phantom Fog Blade!"

"That means…"

"Yes! I can make your Rune-Eyes Pendulum Dragon freeze again!"

"Trap activate!" Sora suddenly said. "Death-Toy Hugging! Your trap's activation is negated and it is destroyed!" The trap disintegrated in front of Yuto. "Then you take 800 damage and I recover LP!"

 **Yuto** : 2500 - 1700 [1]

 **Sora** : 200 - 1450 [1]

"Thanks Sora!" Yuya smiled at the kid then looked at Yuto. "The battle continues! Your Dark Rebellion is gone for good!"

"Not gonna happen! I send Phantom Knights Broken Sword to the grave to protect Dark Rebellion from destruction this turn! Also you cannot destroy my monsters this turn as well!"

"Tsk… you have that card in your hand…? But… that card only protects your field!" Yuya said in a low voice before turning to Ruri. "Your traitorous friend is not safe!"

"Ruri!" Yuto said with concern.

Yuya briefly looked away in grief before pointing his left hand at Ruri. "Rune-Eyes Pendulum Dragon, attack Lyrical Luscinia - Ambushing Nightingale!"

"By detaching an Overlay Unit, Ambushing Nightingale cannot be destroyed!"

"But you still take the damage!"

 **Ruri** : 1000 - 400 [2]

"Ruri!" Shun yelled. "Damn you Yuya! You use Fusion, and now you are hurting my sister!?"

"This is the end for you now! Rune-Eyes! Ruri direct attack!" The dragon created a blue energy stream, sending it at the frail nightingale. An explosion occurred.

" _Sorry… Ruri…"_

"Not the end yet!" Ruri's voice suddenly spoke up from the smoke. "I still have 400 LP!"

"Nani? How could you…?" Sora wondered.

"If its effect is activated for a second time this turn, I take no damage for the rest of this turn!" Ruri explained, getting up. Her monster now only had two Overlay Units. Yuto smiled. He knew Ruri was always strong. She knew how to protect herself.

"Shit… it has that effect as well…" Yuya muttered. Suddenly, a sound of a motorbike could be heard from far away. The duelists all turned to the source to see the light dimming.

"What the hell is that…?" Ruri questioned the strange source of light and sound.

"Yuya!" Sora said. "Leave these two to me, I can handle them! Go to that place and find out what!"

"You crazy!? You were wounded earlier and now you wanna face Yuto and Ruri alone!? I will not leave you like that!"

"Just go! GO! NOW!" Sora yelled, forcing Yuya to leave after a moment hesitating.

" _That sound… is it…?"_ Yuto found the sound to be familiar.

Yuya quickly ran to the location where the strange light appeared. When he nearly got there, suddenly a sound of an engine roaring could be heard. Two headlamps shone up. A motorbike suddenly drove out of the bushes, nearly hitting Yuya. He managed to dive roll away from the bike.

"What the hell…?"

Yuya got up, only to be surrounded by… that bike! It strangely and creepily drove around Yuya like a shark swimming around in a circle before biting its prey. And there was one thing that nearly made Yuya yell: it had a black aura around despite having white paintjob. While Yuya was scared and did not know what do to yet, someone suddenly came out from the same bushes.

He was a teenager in a white tightsuit typical for an F1 driver. He had a helmet on his head so he could not see his face besides a small beard under the chin, but judging from the expression he made, he knew this guy wanted to hurt him as much as possible. His right hand was raised forward, having the same black aura as the bike, the palm was open and waving at the motion of the motorbike, as if he was controlling it…

…

…

Yuya knew he was in trouble, big trouble, and there would be no way to get out of it…

* * *

 **Fanfic OC Cards**

 **Lyrical Luscinia - Ruby Bunting**

WIND Winged Beast Effect LV1 100/0

Once per turn, if this card is Normal or Special Summoned, you can special summon 1 "Lyrical Luscinia" monster from your hand.

 **Lyrical Luscinia - Ambushing Nightingale**

WIND Winged Beast Xyz Effect R1 0/0

This card gains 600 ATK for each Xyz Materials attached to it. This card can make a second attack during the Battle Phase. This card cannot attack directly. If this card would be destroyed, you can detach 1 Xyz Material from it instead, then if this effect was activated for the second time, you take no damage for the rest of this turn.

 **Phantom Knights - Tattered Vambrace**

DARK Warrior Effect LV3 0/1800

When an opponent's monster declares an attack; you can Special Summon this card (from your hand) in Attack Position. If summoned this way, this turn it cannot be destroyed by battle and any battle damage involving it is halved. Up to twice per turn, you can target 1 "Phantom Knights" monster you control: increase or decrease its level by 1. A DARK Xyz Monster summoned using this card as an Xyz Material gains this effect:

*When this card is destroyed; you can Special Summon a DARK Xyz Monster with 1 Rank higher than this card, using this card as an Xyz Material. (This Special Summon is treated as an Xyz Summon)

 **Death Toy Market (Trap Card)**

When an opponent's monster declares a direct attack while you control no monsters: special summon 1 "Death-Toy", "Edge Imp" or "Furnimal" monster from your Deck in Attack Position, then change the attack target to it. That monster cannot be destroyed by battle this turn. Any battle damage involving that card is also inflicted to your opponent this turn. You can banish this card from your graveyard; this turn, your "Death-Toy", "Edge Imp" or "Furnimal" monster(s) is unaffected by your opponent's card effects.

 **Rank-Up-Magic Phantom Knights Force (Quick-Play Magic Card)**

During your Main Phase 1: target 1 DARK Xyz Monster you control; detach all of the target's Xyz Materials if it still has, then special summon from your Extra Deck, 1 DARK Xyz Monster that is 1 or 2 Ranks higher than that monster you control, by using it as the Xyz Material, and if you do, attach this card to it as additional Xyz Material. (This Special Summon is treated as an Xyz Summon. Xyz Materials attached to it also become Xyz Materials on the Summoned monster.) During your Main Phase: You can banish this card from your Graveyard, then target 1 DARK Xyz Monster you control; attach 1 "Phantom Knights" monster from your hand to that monster as Xyz Material.

 **Pendulum Treat (Magic Card)**

Banish 1 Pendulum Monster form your hand, then target 1 non-Pendulum Monster you control; it is treated as a Pendulum Monster this turn. During the End Phase, banish it.

 **Death-Toy Hugging (Counter Trap Card)**

When your opponent activate a Magic/Trap card while you control a "Death-Toy", "Edge Imp" or "Furnimal" monster(s); negate the activation, and if you do, destroy it, then inflict 800 damage to your opponent. If you control no monsters, you can activate this card as a Chain Link 3 or above. Regardless, you can then target 1 monster your opponent controls; gain LP equal to half of its original ATK.

 **Phantom Knights Broken Sword**

DARK Warrior Effect LV3 1800/0

When a monster(s) you control would be destroyed by battle or card effect; you can discard this card; this turn, monsters you control cannot be destroyed by battle (This effect only applies to monsters you control at the time this effect activates). You can banish this card from your Graveyard; then declares a level between 2 and 5; the levels of "Phantom Knights" monsters you control becomes that level until the end of this turn.

* * *

 **And yep! That person was Yuto! And they got a Big Damn Reunion Kiss moment! There will be more moments if you wonder.**

 **By the way, Yugo became Tony Stark (lol), but don't be happy since he has a beard now.**

 **And if you had realized, this chapter confirmed that the Bracelet Girls have some form of Awakening as well. Read carefully after Yuya summoned OEPD if you did not know it after you read this line. I sort of got this idea when I read Moonlight Sorrow.**

 **Once again, I have asked Gentyman and he has agreed.**

* * *

 **Next Chapter Title** (since you will know what is going to happen)

 **The Eyes of Entertainment vs The Wings of Emptiness**

 **This is matrixnis, out!**


	25. Scale 25

**Hello everyone, I am back now!**

 **And the obligatory duel is going on, but first, I am going to take you back through time for a little bit to explore what Yugo has been doing ever since I left him be for quite a while, and a fair warning: it will probably be similar to what a lot of you may be doing or have been doing. I have established that Yugo will be changed a lot in this story but I did not say that he will be the "main-in-focusing" character in this story, which is why I did not focus on him too much. Furthermore, doing a chapter centering him before dueling Yuya would not help with the plot anyway.**

 **To thetiger39: Yes, if the boys have Awakening, why not have the same for the girls? The Awakening of the Dragon Boys and the Bracelet Girls are different. You will see why in this chapter. For the cards, I will consider.**

 **To Gentyman: Thanks man! I am really happy with this! Since I'm trying to put in the Rotating Protagonist trope in here, you may know who will bite the dust already (lol).**

 **To Guest: I actually would do the same if I got into this situation. Remember that Sora is 13 and Ruri is 16 in this story, who would you believe more if you were him?**

 **To HelenTheMoon: The core thing of the first season of ARC-V is misinformation and misunderstanding, but yeah, I do know what do you mean.**

 **To Yuka Kuroshiro: He will, but not here (lol).**

 **All right, hope you guys enjoy this chapter!**

* * *

 **Chapter 25: The Eyes of Entertainment vs The Wings of Emptiness**

"This is getting worse Yusei… He is depressed again…"

Aki sadly said to her boyfriend Yusei as they saw Yugo walking to his white D-Wheel and rode off the orphanage. This has happened for quite a while. Even though he had been better after his Riding Duel with Aki, it was still not enough. The pain was still there, the guilt was still in his mind, clouding his usual stupidity away from the emotionless face he displayed now. Needless to say, the kids were worried. They constantly asked the other adults why he became like that, when would he become normal again, when would Rin be back or whether they did anything wrong that made Yugo distant. Aki had to ensure them that they would try their best, the kids would not have to worry, they just keep behaving well and Yugo would be back with Rin. She did not know how long would the kids believe in this "fairy tale" in this crapsack society. She knew what Yugo were going through now very well, since she was once lost in her own darkness like that, when her parents were killed and she was forced to go to the underground. At that time, she was young and did not know what to do, it took the best efforts of Yusei to bring her out of the underground and made her hope again. She promised to herself that she would try whatever she could to bring that kid back to who he was again and find Rin back.

"Yusei…"

"Yes Aki?"

"You know why Yugo could not be normal now right?"

Yusei sighed, scratching his head and shaking his head. "I know, of course I know Aki. He was just like you. He lost the closet person to him, and to make it even worse, it was all his fault…"

"Why is life so miserable to all of us?" Aki said to no one in particular. "I was from the Tops with my parents. Then shit happened, taking them away, taking me away from the peaceful life and the promising future where I could live equally like everybody else… and now I have to see one of my closet people in my life suffer the same thing…" She said as she waved her right hand, making the rose in front of her move, in tune with the movement her hand made. She was wearing her Duel Disk on her left arm.

"Aki…" Yusei said, touching the flower. He opened Aki's hands, her beautiful hands and put the flower on it. "Don't think about it like it was all of your fault. Life always loves to ruin us, whether poor or rich. It threw you down to the underground, but I have brought you up to here, to where the beautiful sun was shining. You can now smile and hope for a better future, and I will do my best to support you."

"I know…" Aki sighed, touching her forehead with his. "I got to here, to who I am now thanks to you. I will never forget that, I will never forget the things you did to me. Just don't forget that you have your own life too. Remember to realize your dreams, I can take care of myself."

"I just don't want you to lose yourself again Aki." Yusei whispered. One thing he loves about Aki is she is strong-willed and independent. She did not let her past keep her down, she conquered it and went on with her life despite the harsh opposite.

"It's night now Yusei!" Aki reminded him as the beautiful moon was hovering above them. "We need to bring him back, he might not be able to even walk anymore, let alone drive his D-Wheel."

Yusei nodded. "Uh… that stupid idiot. He had us to talk, yet he resorted to it…" He mumbled as he and Aki climbed on his red D-Wheel and drove off the orphanage.

* * *

Yugo looked at the Stardust River at night, face slightly reddened, eyes mostly devoid of awareness as he drank his eighth shot of alcohol. He knew what happened to Rin was his fault, he quarreled with her and made her sad, leading to her capture by the look-alike of himself and his subsequent adventure to the Xyz Dimension to find her with no results. From what Yugo had concluded, she could be at the Fusion Dimension, at the place where Yuto called it "Academia", and for some reason, his Clear Wing Synchro Dragon appeared to be able to teleport him between dimensions. He had tried to do it multiple times, begging his signature and beloved monster to lend him its power in his quest to save his childhood friend, but it did not listen. No matter how much he tried, the monster did not travel him. This, combined with the growing guilt and of causing this situation, drown him down further to despair. He had lost it, he had lost everything that made him him, he had lost the main thing he lived for. Rin. The only closet person to him ever since he knew he existed. Even though Yusei, Aki, Shinji and the kids there were ready to help him and he clearly appreciated it, he did not want to bother them any longer, and rather disturbingly, they were not as close to him as Rin. He resorted to using alcohol to drive away the pain. Each night, he would go out of the orphanage and to the bank of the Stardust River, where a makeshift boozer was nearby. He drank it to forget the pain he was holding, at first he only took one, then eventually he took two, three, four then more shots until he was drunk and he was not able to walk anymore, and then Aki, Yusei or Shinji had to drag him home by force. Strangely, he found out that he was tolerant to it. For some reason, it took him a lot of shots to make him drunk. He usually joked that he had a superpower, but it might be true…

…

…

One night, as usual, he was beginning to get drunk after about six shots when a group of teenagers came to him and beat him up for fun. Yugo suddenly found a strange source of strength inside him and released it in the form of black energy, sending all of them flying to the river. He also sobered up immediately after. He did not know what happened or why did he had that power, but he decided to keep to himself. The following days, he learned that he could control things by concentrating himself, releasing the energy to one object and he could control it, albeit it took out his strength completely. It was similar to what Aki could do.

…

…

"It's similar to Aki's power, and I don't even need my Duel Disk to do it… Things begin to become stranger and stranger… what the hell is happening…? Life, are you playing me…?" Yugo mumbled.

Suddenly, a painful sensation swept through him. Yugo gasped his chest in pain. He did not remember how, but it was pretty similar to when he had a duel with Yuto when he summoned Clear Wing and his look-alike summoned Dark Rebellion, and this time, it was stronger. He could hear a voice inside his head.

" _ **Stand… standard… there…"**_

His pocket suddenly shone up, signaling Yugo. He took it out and was relived to find Clear Wing shining up again. He had found a lead to Rin!

"Clear Wing! You finally responded to me? Good job there mate!"

Ignoring the bewildered face of the clerk and the yelling of Aki and Yusei who were coming to him in Yusei's D-Wheel, Yugo left him some money on the table, not forgetting to thank him for the drink and quickly jumped to his D-Wheel and drove away. He drove up to the bridge connecting Commons and Tops since he knew Clear Wing would teleport him away before having to face Security. And indeed after driving a long distance, his D-Wheel began to shine brightly and before the police knew it, a portal opened in front of Yugo and he drove the wheel to it, sending him to another place.

Aki sighed. "So this is how he traveled across dimensions… Do we really need to worry about him now Yusei?"

Yusei also sighed. "Yeah… Maybe… He went to another dimension… again…"

* * *

All of the cameras suddenly went haywire. The connection was lost.

"What the? What's going on?" One technician said.

"The connection is lost!" Another one said.

"All the cameras in the area does not respond!"

"What happened?" Nakajima wondered.

"Isn't there any cameras?"

"It's too far! It cannot capture the park!"

* * *

The portal opened, nearly sending him crashing to the tree. He quickly stopped the bike and inspected the surroundings around him. It seemed he was sent to either the Standard Dimension or the Fusion Dimension since he was at some kind of a park, the buildings was intact and the electric lights illuminating the night. Since he was staying behind a tree, Yugo managed to keep himself hidden from a group of four people inside the park.

"Yuya!" The smallest one out of the four yelled. "Leave these two to me, I can handle them! Go to that place and find out what!"

"You crazy!? You were wounded earlier and now you wanna face Yuto and Ruri alone!? I will not leave you like that!"

That voice! That voice! It was like his voice!

Confirming the fact that the voice of Yuya was similar to the guy Yuri, Yugo climbed off his D-Wheel, turned the headlights off and positioned it so that it faced Yuya. He hid himself behind the bushes and waited for the asshole. When he came close enough, Yugo pointed his right hand at his D-Wheel to control it and guided it to Yuya, nearly ran over him. Smiling at the scene, Yugo made the bike go around Yuya in a circle, like a shark saying countdown to the fate of its prey and finally went out of the shadows. He slowly approached the red and green hair boy.

"Today I will kill you for capturing Rin! Get ready for that!"

Yuya was surprised at this accusation. Before this Shun had blamed him for capturing his sister and now another guy did the same to him, and even more surprising, he was having the same face has his.

"What? Who are you? What do you want? I did not do anything to you, or the girl Rin as you said! To be honest, I did not even know who you are and why do you have the same face as I-"

"Wanna play the dumb game son of a bitch?" Yugo yelled, cutting Yuya. The D-Wheel got closer and closer to Yuya, cornering the poor Entertainment duelist. "The main thing I care about now is to beat you and find out where you are keeping Rin! And if you wonder, yes, you have the same face as the guy who captured her, and yes, you are left-handed like me and him, the way you attached your Duel Disk gives it away, and YES! Your voice is similar to his, even though it is more natural now!"

"Voice…?" Yuya whispered at this new information.

"But don't think it would be enough to fool me!" Yugo said as he got on his D-Wheel. "That's it! If you still continue to hide the information from me, I will duel you to force it out!" Yugo touched the interface on his Duel Disk, activating it. It played an automated male voice, as calm as ever but from what was happening now, Yuya thought it was marking a death threat to him.

"Duel Mode, On! Autopilot, Standby!"

Yuya reluctantly inserted his Deck and activated his red Duel Disk. "Tsk…"

 **DUEL!**

 **Sakaki Yuya** : 4000 [5]

 **Yugo** : 4000 [5]

* * *

"I take the first turn!" Yugo declared as he drove past Yuya dangerously, forcing the Entertainment duelist to dive away. "Magic Card, Speedroid Scratch! I send Speedroid Tri-Eyed Dice to the grave to add Beigomax to my hand, which I will special summon it!" Yugo summoned his main monster in his Deck.

 **Speedroid Beigomax** WIND Machine Effect LV3 **1200** /600

"Then I special summon this card! Speedroid Taketonborg!" Yugo's another versatile monster, a bright bamboo-copter showed up.

 **Speedroid Taketonborg** WIND Machine Effect LV3 **600** /1200

"By tributing this card, I special summon the Tuner monster, Red-Eyed Dice from my Deck! Then its effect will change Beigomax's level to 5!" Yugo's main Tuner Monster showed up in place for Taketonborg and sent a blast at Beigomax, changing its level.

 **Speedroid Red-Eyed Dice** WIND Machine Effect LV1 **100** /100

 **Speedroid Beigomax** LV3 - 5

"I, using the level 1 Red-Eyed Dice and the level 5 Beigomax, tuning!"

"Tuning!? Syncho Summon?" Yuya mumbled. "Just like Reiji…"

"Magical sword with the form of a cross. Use your power to rend all enemies! Synchro Shōkan! Appear now, level 6! High-Speedroid Maken Dama!" The modified Kendama with four hammers flew out.

 **High-Speedroid Maken Dama** WIND Machine Synchro Effect LV6 **2200** /1600

* * *

"We have read a strong summoning signal!" A female employee said.

"Fusion?" Nakajima asked.

"No! It's a Synchro signal sir! And it is very strong!" A male one reported.

"What the hell?" Shun said.

"Synchro Summon…" Reiji mumbled.

"Last time was Xyz and Fusion… he's here! The pawn of Fusion?" Shun concluded.

"Pawn?"

"There's a spy of Fusion in the Synchro dimension! Yuto must be dueling him right now! Get me to the park now!"

"Impossible!" The President stopped the reckless hunter by a simple demand.

"Nani?"

Reiji explained. "Even though what you say may be the truth, it cannot be proved that the Synchro dimension is our enemy. Turning them to our enemy is suicide!"

* * *

"Maken Dama's effect! I banish Taketonborg to inflict 500 damage! Take this!" Yugo's D-Wheel sent a white stream of energy at Yuya, who was blown black pretty far.

 **Yuya** : 4000 - 3500 [5]

" _Just like Yuto, this guy can inflict real damage!"_ Yuya noted, holding his stomach in pain. Once again he had to dodge away the relentless D-Wheeler as he drove past him fast.

Yugo set down one card and challenged Yuya. "One card down, turn end! Now! Proceed with your turn asshole!"

"Ore no turn, draw!" Yuya began his turn. He looked at his current hand and was disappointed not to find his signature monster, Odd-Eyes Pendulum Dragon. _"Shit! My dragon is not here right now, and there is no card to search it! I have to wait…"_

Yuya formed a strategy and drew out two cards. He showed it to the vengegeful Yugo. "I, using the Scale 1 Entermate Gumgumouton and the Scale 6 Entermate Lizardraw, Pendulum Scale setting!"

"With this, I can special summon monsters whose levels are between 2 and 5!"

To anyone who did not see Pendulum Summon, Yugo's expression was what one would expect. "What is happening?"

"Swing, Pendulum of the Soul! Draw an arc across the nether! Pendulum Shōkan! Appear now, my monsters!" Three colorful animal came out of the portal, looking fiercely at the white duelist.

"Entermate Cheer Mole! Entermate Whip Viper! Finally, Entermate Partnaga!"

 **Entermate Cheer Mole** EARTH Beast Pendulum Effect LV2 Scale 5 600/ **1000**

 **Entermate Whip Viper** EARTH Reptile Effect LV4 **1700** /900

 **Entermate Partnaga** EARTH Reptile Pendulum Effect LV5 Scale 3 800/ **2300**

* * *

"We have detected a Pendulum Summon signal!"

"Pendulum Summon?" Shun said. "Only you, Shingo Sawatari and Sakaki Yuya use it. You're here and you have confiscated Sawatari's Pendulum Cards…"

"Which means Sakaki Yuya is dueling the "Pawn of Fusion" as you say right now…" Reiji concluded.

* * *

"Pen… Pendulum… Summon…?" Yugo tried his best to register this phenomenon. "Xyz… Fusion… and now Pendulum…? Who the hell is this asshole?"

" _Cannot play recklessly for now… his set card would be very troublesome…! I need to be careful…"_ Yuya narrowed his eyes at Yugo before pointing at Partnaga. "When Partnaga is summoned, it allows Whip Viper to gain 300 ATK for each "Entermate" monsters on the field, and Cheermole will increase it further by 1000!" Partnaga grabbed the tails of Cheer Mole and Whip Viper, granting the purple snake the strength necessary to beat the weaponized toy.

 **Entermate Whip Viper** ATK 1700 - 2600 - 3600

"3600 ATK…" Yugo noted to himself.

"Then Whip Viper will switch Maken Dama's ATK and DEF!" Whip Viper waved the end of its tail like a pendulum, hypnotizing Maken Dama.

 **High Speedroid Maken Dama** **2200** /1600 - **1600** /2200

"Battle! Whip Viper, attack Maken Dama!" The snake did its biting attack at the neck of Maken Dama, creating an explosion. Yuya did a backflip to avoid the ensuring explosion.

 **Yugo** : 4000 - 2000 [1]

"Turn end!"

Yuya began to run, trying to explain to the vengeful Yugo. "Hey! I don't know what happened to you, but I did not kidnap your friend!"

"Shut up! Ore no turn!" Yugo ignoring his pleading. _"Good! This card will help me this turn! Prepare to repent asshole!"_

Yugo slid his drawn card to his Duel Disk. "Magic Card, Speed Draw activate! By sending Den-den Daiko to the grave, I draw 2 cards!" Yugo looked at his drawn card, one in particular took him interest. Yugo wasted no time to activate it. "And then Speed Replace activate!" Yugo took out Maken Dama and put it back to his Extra Deck. "I return a Synchro Monster to the Extra Deck to summon the Tuner monster, Speedroid Demonmagne from my Deck!"

 **Speedroid Demonmagne** WIND Machine Tuner Effect LV1 **0** /0

"Then I gain LP!"

 **Yugo** : 2000 - 3100 [1]

"Speedroid Demonmagne… after being summoned…" Yugo said in a creepy monotone, looking emotionlessly at Yuya. "…will allow me to steal your Partgana for a Synchro Summon!"

"What!?" Yuya could only helplessly watch as his power snake being turned to five Synchro stars after Demonmagne swept through it.

"Appear again, Maken Dama!" The ground erupted, paving way for Yugo's monster. "And then Trap Card, Speed Turn!" Whip Viper was forcefully changed to Defense Position, leaving it vulnerable for the incoming attack.

 **Entermate Whip Viper** **3600** /900 - 3600/ **900** \- 3600/ **400**

"Sa! It now only has 400 DEF!"

"Just to let you know, Maken Dama can inflict piercing damage!

"What did you say!?"

"Go! Attack Whip Viper!" Maken Dama flew at the purple snake before piercing through it using its sharp blade, making it scream in pain before being obliterated in an explosion.

 **Yuya** : 3500 - 1700 [1]

"I set down a card and end my turn!" A card materialized.

"Ore no turn…" Yuya fiercely looked at his top card on his Deck. "Draw!"

* * *

"From my hand, I attach Lyrical Luscinia - Topaz Bunting to Ambushing Nightingale as an Overlay Unit!" Ruri slid the card under Ambushing on the blade. She looked at Sora's field. "Since your field is empty, I can now attack you directly, but Ambushing Nightingale cannot do it."

"Now it has 3 Overlay Units, but you cannot increase its ATK as it gains original ATK when it is Xyz Summoned, besides it cannot make a direct attack too… What are you gonna do?" Sora arrogantly asked.

Ruri gave a smile. "Of course, I will beat you in this turn!"

"Nani!?"

Ruri raised her hand up, revealing a card in her hand before activating it. "Rank-Up-Magic Luscinia Force activate!" The image of the card materialized, once again making a hell of a shock out of Sora.

"Another Rank-Up-Magic? Heh… interesting girl!" Sora smiled. "Now… the hunting game is reaching its climax!"

Ambushing Nightingale turned into green energy and crashed down to the Overlay Network, causing an explosion and blinding Sora. "Birds with shining wings! Gather on the battlefield and lead the righteous way to victory! Rank-Up Xyz Change! Fly up bright, Rank 2, Lyrical Luscinia – Revolting Nightingale!" A mature looking bird in black armor and bright wings flew up, determined to win the battle.

 **Lyrical Luscinia - Revolting Nightingale** WIND Winged Beast Xyz Effect R2 0/0

"This card gains 200 ATK and DEF for each Overlay Unit it has!"

 **Lyrical Luscinia - Revolting Nightingale** **0** /0 - **1000** /1000

"And as I have noted earlier, this card can attack you directly!"

"Shit!"

"Battle! Revolting Nightingale, Sora direct attack!" The monster created a small storm around itself before flinging it at the small teenager, sending him flying about ten meters away, leaving a trail of smoke behind.

 **Sora** : 1450 - 450 [1]

"Then the effect of Lyrical Luscinia - Sharp Wings will inflict 100 damage to you!"

 **Sora** : 450 - 350 [1]

"Sora!" Yuto said. "This is what you will get if you mess with us, mess with the Resistance or mess with the people of Heartland!" He pointed his hand at Sora. "Remember my words!"

Ruri declared her final attack of this duel. "This is the end now! Revolting Nightingale, direct attack!" The monster gathered all of the energy it could and released it in a form of a powerful whirlwind, slowly running to the location of the kid.

Sora quickly touched his Duel Disk. "That attack is useless! I banish Death-Toy Hugging from my graveyard to end the Battle Phase!" A barrier made from a lot of teddy bears materialized in front of Sora, protecting him from the powerful blast.

"Tsk! To think he could still have that card in his graveyard!" Ruri looked away. "Turn end… Sorry Yuto… I could not beat him…"

"It's fine Ruri! I will take him out during my next turn!" Yuto reassured his girl, only to hear a mad laugh from Sora.

"Ha… hahaha… hahahahahahahaha! Taking me out on your next turn?" The boy put his hand over his head. "Such ridiculous thinking from the Xyz losers! Get ready for a taste of my true power!" Sora took out a lollipop and aggressively bit it.

"This kid is insane!" Ruri noted.

"Boku no turn… DRAW!" Sora pointed his hand forward. "Trap Card, Death-Toy Custom! I special summon Edge Imp DT Modoki!" The card that was resting in Sora's graveyard since the start of the duel finally got a chance to come out. The ragged teddy bear mask that covered its eyes was the main thing that took attention away.

 **Edge Imp DT Modoki** DARK Demon Effect LV4 **1300** /1300

"And then Edge Imp Tomahawk normal summon!" Sora's first monster in the duel got summoned again.

"Finally, Death-Toy Fusion, activate! I banish Edge Imp DT Modoki, Edge Imp Tomahawk on the field and Death-Toy Scissor Bear in my graveyard to Fusion Summon!"

The Fusion Materials showed up above Sora. His Duel Disk's Extra Deck slot shone up. "Remember my power to your heart! The real, original Fusion Summon taught from Academia. I will call out the strongest monster!"

"Unusual plaything possessed by demons! Destroy and root out the plebeians who dare rebel against you! Shōkan!" Sora madly widened his eyes, hands clapping together in a menacing manner, his voice tone was beyond insanity.

"Come forth and appear, chimeric fusion of all toys! Death-Toy Mad Chimera!" The foot of the monster crushed the ground, sending debris all over the field. It rose up very highly, revealing three insanely long necks with creepy faces of three teddy bears, not counting a lot of blades piercing through them. A "cute" monster that would definitely creep the kids of Maiami City again.

 **Death-Toy Mad Chimera** DARK Demon Fusion Effect LV8 **2800** /2000

The moment this abomination got summoned, swept formed in Ruri and Yuto. They knew from his duel against Shun that this is his most powerful monster, and the cards in his hand could help it pack a punch this time.

Indeed they were right as Sora activated one of them. "Equip Magic, Death-Toy Massacre!" The monster was charged with energy, growing larger in size.

"This Equip Magic is very useful if you wonder! First off, if the equipped monster destroys an opponent's monster by battle, it will inflict 1000 damage to its controller!"

"1000 damage?" Yuto said.

"And then…" Sora pointed his hand at Revolting Nightingale, shaping in eyes in an "insane" manner. "When Mad Chimera attacks… you cannot activate any Magic or Trap cards you have, you think that you can still activate monster effects right? But… This equip magic forbids that too!"

"No way! Shit!"

"Ruri watch out!" Yuto ran to Ruri and covered her behind him.

"Battle! Death-Toy Mad Chimera, attack Lyrical Luscinia - Revolting Nightingale!" The monster slowly advanced to Yuto and Ruri. Even though he had Ruri protected behind him, Mad Chimera just simply picked Yuto up by its mouth and flung him away. It then chewed the beautiful nightingale in one chomp and crushed the ground, sending Ruri flying back to the wall behind. She hit the wall painfully, letting out a loud groan before slamming the ground face-first.

 **Ruri** : 400 - 0 [1]

"RURI!" Yuto yelled at the top of his lungs. He had tried his best to protect Ruri, and now he failed. He had to watch his girl painfully losing the duel like that. It was at that moment that he felt something cracking inside him. Was… his heart shattering…?

Yuto trembled, closing his eyes. He did not feel anything, he did not feel any, aside the anger that was slowly building up on him. Then it finally came, the moment he lost himself, the moment he became…

His own demon…

Sora smiled evilly at his win against Ruri. "See! That's what happens when I play for real!" The kid calmly approached the downed Ruri, his Duel Disk in its Sealing mode. "Now it's the time to-huh?" Sora was stopped when he saw Yuto getting up and facing him.

"Get out of my way loser! She lost, now she has to be carded!"

"I will…" Yuto said in a baritone, his eyes still closed. "I will not forgive… you…!"

"Sorry, what did you say?" Sora mocked. "Forget it! I will send you to the cards as well! The monster equipped with Death-Toy Massacre can make a second attack during each Battle Phase! Go now!" Mad Chimera squashed Yuto's black dragon, making Yuto fly backward again.

 **Yuto** : 1700 - 1400 [1]

"Don't forget the effect of Massacre!" Another gust of wind hit Yuto.

 **Yuto** : 1400 - 400 [1]

"Turn end…" Sora stopped his smile after seeing Yuto getting up. This time, he opened his eyes, and it was glowing brightly in blue.

"What… what the… what the hell…?"

"You…" Yuto spoke. "You hurt me… you hurt my comrades… you hurt them… and you hurt HER! I will never forgive you for this!"

"Ore no turn!" Yuto drew his card with a lot of force, sending a black energy blast. "DRAW!"

* * *

"At this moment, I destroy Lizardraw…" The monster destroyed itself, Yuya touched his Deck. "…to draw a card!"

" _It's here!"_ Yuya smiled before setting a card. "I use the Scale 8 Timegazer Magician to set the Pendulum Scale again!" This time a peek-a-bangs female magician in red and white clothes appeared in the Pendulum Zone.

"Now monsters with levels between 2 and 7 can be summoned!"

"Swing again, Pendulum of the Soul! Draw an arc across the nether! Pendulum Shōkan! Reborn from the Extra Deck!"

"Extra Deck!?" Yugo yelled.

"Entermate Partnaga! Lizardraw! And from my hand, Entermate Hammer Mamo!" The two Entermate monsters revived, tagging along with a light blue elephant.

 **Entermate Hammer Mammo** EARTH Beast Effect LV6 **2600** /1800

Yugo stopped his D-Wheel at this phenomenon. "How… those two monsters were destroyed… how could-"

"Pendulum Monsters are sent to the Extra Deck if they are to be sent to the graveyard from the field!"

"…and if you have the appropriate Scales, you can summon them again…!" Yugo concluded. _"This asshole is really strong!"_

"That's right! And now the effect of Partgana and Cheermole will activate!" The attack increasing combo from those two monsters got used once again, increasing Hammer Mammo's ATK to nearly 5000.

 **Entermate Hammer Mammo** ATK 2600 - 3800 - 4800

"Battle! Hammer Mammo, attack Maken Dama!" The elephant threw a ball up high and curled its trunk to punch the ball. "And when it declares an attack, all of your set cards will return to your hand!"

"Not gonna work that easy!" Yugo quickly clicked his Duel Disk. "Trap Card, Burning Sonic activate! Your attack is negated!" A red wave of energy generated from Maken Dama and blasted outwards, negating the attack from Hammer Mammo. Yugo then calmly took the trap back to his hand. "And thanks to the effect of Hammer Mammo, my trap is ready to use during your next turn!"

" _Tsk… he chained Burning Sonic to Hammer Mammo's effect!"_ Yuya had to compliment this duelist's skillful play. "But now you will take another kind of damage!" Yuya slid a card to his Duel Disk. "Quick-Play Magic, Pendulum Negate Revenge! You take damage equal to your Maken Dama's ATK!" A blue energy wave flew at Yugo, nearly knocked him off his D-Wheel.

 **Yugo** : 3100 - 900 [1]

Yugo made a sharp stop and growled. "Sa! That was dangerous…"

"Turn end!"

"Ore no turn, draw!" The moment Yugo drew his card, both him and Yuya felt pain from their chests. For Yugo, he also heard a dragon's cry, no, his dragon's cry for battle. It wanted to come out and fight for him!

"You wanna go out so badly Clear Wing…? Fine! I'll grant that wish! I want to beat him for taking Rin away anyway!"

"From my graveyard, I banish Speed Rebirth to add back Speedroid Demonmagne!" Yugo immediately summoned the brutal Tuner monster to the field. It stole Hammer Mammo this time.

"Spread those wondrous and beautiful wings. Strike down our enemies at light speed! Synchro Shōkan!"

"Appear now! Level 7! Clear Wing Synchro Dragon!"

 **Clear Wing Synchro Dragon** WIND Dragon Synchro Effect LV7 **2500** /2000

"Clear Wing… Synchro Dragon…" Yuya mumbled. "So this is his dragon! Was it…?"

"From my graveyard, I banish Den-den Daiko to summon Red-Eyed Dice!" Yugo took out two cards from his graveyard and summoned one of them, the six-eyed dice returned.

"Tuner Monster… Another Synchro Summon?"

"Right, but first, I will change Maken Dama's level!"

 **High Speedroid Maken Dama** LV6 - 4

"And now, level 1 Red-Eyed Dice and level 4 Maken Dama, tuning!" A Synchro ring swept through the hammer, turning it into four stars. "Synchro Shōkan! Feel the pulse of this swordsman's soul! Come forth Level 5! High-Speedroid Chanbarider!"

 **High-Speedroid Chanbarider** WIND Machine Synchro Effect LV5 **2000** /1500

"Battle! Chanbarider, attack Entermate Lizardraw! When this card battles, it gains 200 ATK!"

 **High-Speedroid Chanbarider** ATK 2000 - 2200

"Since it is destroyed, I can draw 2 cards!"

"Good for you that your monsters are in Defense Position now, you won't take any damage this turn. But don't think like that to your field! Chanbarider can attack twice! Finish Cheermole!"

"It has that effect?" Yuya noted as he ran away to avoid the blast of the attack.

"And now Clear Wing Synchro Dragon! Clear the field!" The white dragon roared before flying up high, looking down at its opponent. It charged its wings, ready for battle as it flew down.

"Senpu no… Helldive Slasher!" Clear Wing slashed the poor snake, destroying it and sending Yuya flying pretty far away even though he took no damage from the three attacks.

"Turn end!"

Yuya slammed his hands to the ground, using them as leverage to slowly get up. There was blood on his face, running down from his head and touching his cheeks.

"Got blood already? Good, call it the first punishment I am about to inflict to you thanks for your kidnapping of Rin!"

"I…" Yuya got up, wiping the running blood and touching his head. "I do not know who Rin is! As I said… I do not know what happened to you, but you have no rights to cause someone else harm when you do not know whether they did it or not!"

"No rights? Please…" Yugo shook his head. "In the place where I live, people like me have no human rights, we cannot rise up since the above has been pressing us down all the time. I only have Rin as the closet friend and the closet person to me! I value her more than my life than you have ever imagined and you took her AWAY FROM ME!"

"He…"

"It seems that you pretend not to know what happened, but there is one thing certain. You have a dragon like me, I know it. For some reason, they are calling each other, wanting to spread blood! If you can prove that you are not involved in the kidnapping of Rin, then call it out and settle the score!"

"Settle the…" Yuya suddenly heard Odd-Eyes' roar inside his head. He did not know why, but he understood what it wanted. "You want to come out…?"

Yuya quickly began his turn. "Ore no turn, draw!" His drawn card was his ace monster, Odd-Eyes Pendulum Dragon!

" _What the… Odd-Eyes!?"_ Yuya thought in disbelief. _"It's now in my hand! Then…"_ Yuya looked at Clear Wing, who roared. _"Yoss! I will grant your wish!"_

"I, using the already set Pendulum Scale, Pendulum Shōkan!" Yuya's pendant shone up again, a portal opened above him.

"Appear now, Entermate Partnaga! Entermate Cheermole! And finally from my hand, Wondrous and beautiful dichromatic eyes! Odd-Eyes Pendulum Dragon!" Among the two colorful Entermate monsters, Yuya's signature dragon had finally come to the show. The moment it got out, it roared even louder, resonating the entire area.

 **Odd-Eyes Pendulum Dragon** DARK Dragon Pendulum Effect LV7 Scale 4 **2500** /2000

* * *

"Magic Card, Resurrection of the Dead!" Dark Rebellion returned.

"And then… Rank-Up-Magic Phantom Knights Launch! I… rank up my dragon!" A wave of energy rose up, covering the dragon.

"From the depth of Purgatory… dedicate to the Restless Soul…. with the Song… of Revolution… Echo for eternity… and appear now!" The unusual way Yuto said his chant in a harsh manner, making Sora sweat even more. He had seen many dangerous Resistance duelists who did not stop until either one is carded, but this guy Yuto somehow still managed to creep him out even more.

"Rank-Up… Xyz Change! Come forth, Rank 5! Dark Requiem Xyz Dragon!"

 **Dark Requiem Xyz Dragon** DARK Dragon Xyz Effect R5 **3000** /2500

Sora looked on in awe. He was sure this evolved dragon would be more powerful than Dark Rebellion. "Dark Requiem… Xyz Dragon…"

"And then… Trap Card, Phantom Black Hole! By banishing Ragged Glove, your Massacre is destroyed!"

"Nani? Dammit!" Sora could only swear as his card was destroyed.

"Dark Requiem Xyz Dragon's… monster effect! I detach one of its Overlay Units… and Mad Chimera loses its ATK, then it gains the lost ATK!"

"REQUIEM SALVATION!"

 **Death-Toy Mad Chimera** ATK 2800 - 0

 **Dark Requiem Xyz Dragon** ATK 3000 - 5800

"ATK… 5800…!?" Sora now only knew one thing…

"YOU WILL LOSE THIS TURN!" Yuto yelled. "And now… I… everything… everyone… everyone in this sinful earth… SHALL BE DESTROYED!"

"BATTLE! Dark Requiem Xyz Dragon!"

"Yuto…?" Ruri slowly got up, eyes flashing repeatedly in blue, seeing her boyfriend was not normal. "…Yuto?"

"Feel the wrath of the supreme king! Shinkon no… Disaster Disobey!" The dragon flew down fast and crashed the giant toy, destroying it in one slash. The ensuring explosion sent Sora flying. He landed hard on his head, losing consciousness immediately.

"YUTO!"

 **Sora** : 350 - 0 [0]

Dark Requiem disappeared, Yuto jumped down from the platform and slowly walked to Sora, his eyes still blue and his murderous intent was still there.

"Now…" Yuto said. "You will feel the wrath of the…"

"Yuto!" Ruri caught up to him. She vigorously shook his shoulders.

"Yuto! Please Yuto, please don't do this! Calm yourself down, don't let it get over you! Be normal please!"

Ruri's miraculously sweet words managed to calm Yuto down. He winced his eyes, holding his head.

"Ru… ri?"

"Yes! I'm here Yuto! You're safe now!"

Yuto took a deep breath and opened his eyes, which, to Ruri's relief, was back to the normal grey again.

"Ruri I'm good now! Thank you!"

"Yeah, good that you're back-huh?" Ruri's words was stopped when they saw lighting near them. They turned to the source to see Sora slowly turning into blue digital particles before disappearing completely.

"Academia may have forced him back…" Yuto concluded. "What a kid…" Suddenly, Yuto and Ruri heard two loud roars from outside the park. They looked at the sky to see a white dragon with light blue wings.

"What is it Yuto?" Ruri wondered.

"No…"

"What?"

"The white dragon! It's Clear Wing!"

"What Clear Wing?"

"Where is Yuya?" Yuto demanded. "Was he still out there?"

"Maybe…"

"Come on!" Yuto grabbed Ruri's hand. "We gotta go there! Yuya may be in danger!" While they were running to where Yuya and Yugo were dueling, Yuto quickly glanced at the top card of his Deck. It was the last monster he played.

Dark Requiem Xyz Dragon.

" _I used it again… Dark Requiem Xyz Dragon… what did you do to me…?"_

* * *

Yuzu had to stop when the burning sensation in her chest got even more painful, nearly causing her to drop down. Trying her best to control herself from the burning, she got up and began to walk slowly, her eyes flashing repeatedly in pink.

" _ **The park… the park… don't let them…"**_

"Wh… what is it? Why…?" Yuzu managed. She swore she had heard a different voice inside her head. It was a female voice, much more mature than hers, very frantic, pleading.

" _ **Get there… or… you will regret…"**_

"Regret?" Yuzu wondered. "About what?" She tried to put the puzzles together and… "Yuya!"

Using all of her strength, she began to run as fast as she could to the park, sweating all over her skin, pleading safety for her childhood friend.

" _Yuya! Be safe!"_

* * *

Yuya painfully gasped his chest. He could feel a surging wave of dark energy inside him, it began to rise up within him, slowly running through his veins, to his heart, and eventually…

He no longer could feel anything…

Besides rage…

Yuya opened his eyes, no…

His red eyes! His eyes was completely red, no iris visible!

It was red, devoid of life, only emptiness inside!

"Good…" Yuya began to speak, his voice ice cold and emotionless. "Let's settle… With my Odd-Eyes Pendulum Dragon… and your Clear Wing Synchro Dragon…"

Yuya hardened his voice. "Everything… I will destroy all!"

"Entermate… Partnaga… monster effect… activate!" Yuya said in a monotone. "When this card is summoned… a monster on my field… gains 300 ATK… for each "Entermate" monsters I control!" Partnaga glowed black as it forcefully grabbed the tails of Cheermole and Odd-Eyes, granting the dark dragon strength.

"At this timing…" Yugo said in a monotone, his eyes was completely whited out in green. "Clear Wing Synchro Dragon… effect activates! When a level 5 or higher monster… activates its effects… negate the activation… and destroy that monster!" Clear Wing activated its mirror-like wings, generating energy.

"Dichroic Mirror!" The dragon blasted light at Partnaga, destroying it.

"And then… Clear Wing gains ATK equal to the destroyed monster…"

 **Clear Wing Synchro Dragon** ATK 2500 - 3300

Yuya took out a card from his hand and activated it harshly. "If so… Magic Card… Pendulum Power-Up activate!"

"I banish Hammer Mammo from my graveyard…" Yuya took out the card. "…to increase Odd-Eyes Pendulum Dragon's ATK!"

 **Odd-Eyes Pendulum Dragon** ATK 2500 - 5100

"Destroy…" Yuya said, still not himself. "…you… everything…"

"Destroy everything! Burn everything to ashes!" Yugo also said.

They then both chanted. "Everything… WILL BE DESTROYED!"

"Battle…" Yuya declared his attack. "Odd-Eyes Pendulum Dragon, attack Clear Wing Synchro Dragon!" Odd-Eyes cried and jumped upwards, charging energy to its mouth. "Rasen no… Strike Burst…!" The dragon fired a red spiral blast.

"From the graveyard!" Yugo countered. "I banish Tri-Eyed Dice… to negate this attack!" The dice appeared as a ghost, blocking the red spiral energy.

"But… this is not over…" Yuya interrupted. "I can banish Pendulum Power-Up to make Odd-Eyes attack again!" Odd-Eyes Pendulum Dragon roared at this second chance of beating Clear Wing Synchro Dragon, shattering it to ashes. "Even though the damage will be halved, I can still win!"

"Go now! I order Odd-Eyes Pendulum Dragon… to attack Clear Wing Synchro Dra-"

"Stop it now!" Yuto yelled. He and Ruri ran between the two angry duelists. "Yuya stop! This is not how you duel! Remember! Remember who you are and what do you duel for!"

"You tell to everyone that you duel to bring smile to everyone, you duel to bring smile to the whole world! And that is a very noble goal! No matter how sad you are when you lost your father Sakaki Yusho, no matter how many hardships you face, you always come out smiling and make everyone smile from their hearts! You even managed to make me, Ryoga and Ruri smile!"

"Yuto…" Ruri briefly froze, seeing how much he cared about her.

"Smile…" Yuya mumbled.

Ruri then added. "And that is the Sakaki Yuya that I know, not the person right now! You're not the violent duelist that I see right now! Please, you can think hard of me as much as you want, but please, think about your friends and the good things about yourself and snap out of this! Think about Yuzu!"

"Yuya!"

It finally worked. Yuya winced his eyes trying to snap out and when he opened them, it was back to the usual red.

"Yuzu…" Yuya sighed. "I don't want to… I don't want to hurt anyone anymore…" He dropped down on his knees, tired from the struggle. Ruri knelt down in front of him to check on him. "I… I end my turn here… At this moment… the effects of Pendulum Power-Up… and Clear Wing Synchro Dragon end… it and Odd-Eyes Pendulum Dragon… returns to their original… ATKs…"

 **Clear Wing Synchro Dragon** ATK 3300 - 2500

 **Odd-Eyes Pendulum Dragon** ATK 5100 - 2500

Both Ruri and Yuto was about to smile at this when suddenly Yugo spoke up from afar. "Ore no turn!"

Yugo coldly drew his card, and without even looking, he immediately slapped it down to the blade. "Speedroid Pachingo-Kart summon!" A toyish purple kart got summoned.

 **Speedroid Pachingo Kart** WIND Machine Effect LV4 **1800** /1000

"Stop Yugo! Please stop! Think about Rin!" Yugo attempted to stop, which at first seemed to work as Yugo began to hold his head, fighting the rage when suddenly a painful sensation crept through Yugo, Yuto and Yuya. Ruri got one shortly after. She attempted to run at Yugo to stop him but the D-Wheeler suddenly fired a blast of energy from his hand, sending Ruri flying until she was near Yuya.

"Ruri!" Yuya held her, stopping her sliding. "She's fine now Yuto!"

Ruri looked at Yuya pleadingly. "Yuya… I…"

"Don't think about it!" Yuya stopped her. "We need to stop the guy over there first!"

"When Pachingo-Kart is summoned, I can destroy a card on the field! And I will choose…" Yugo pointed his hand at the back. "Clear Wing!"

"Oh! You finally stopped the duel?" Ruri smiled as she weakly got up, but in false hope…

"No… no no no!" Yuto yelled. He knew what Yugo would do…

"But then Clear Wing will destroy it since a level 5 or higher monster was the target for a monster effect!" The dragon did a hurricane spin, destroying the modified Kart.

"Dichroic Mirror!"

"What are you doing?" Ruri wondered.

"And then, Clear Wing gains ATK equal to the ATK of the monster destroyed by this effect!"

 **Clear Wing Synchro Dragon** ATK 2500 - 4300

"What? 4300 ATK?" Ruri became surprised.

"Battle!" Yugo raised his hand. "Clear Wing Synchro Dragon!" The white wing dragon flew up high, going through buildings before looking down at Yuya's dragon.

"Attack Odd-Eyes Pendulum Dragon!" The transparent wings crackled with energy, they shone up brightly in the dark sky.

"Senpu no… HELLDIVE SLASHER!" The attack hit both Yuya and Ruri, who was standing next him, causing both of them to gasp painfully. They were blown back and hit the ground.

 **Yuya** : 1700 - 0 [1]

"Ruri! Yuya!" Yuto immediately ran to them. He breathed out of relief when he saw Ruri slowly stirred up.

"I'll be fine Yuto… check on Yuya!"

Yuto nodded and checked on the unconscious Entertainment duelist. His Duel Disk was blown away from his right hand, the cards shattered. His left hand held his ace card, Odd-Eyes Pendulum Dragon tightly.

"Oi! Are you okay Yuya?"

The card suddenly lit up along with Yuto's Main Deck slot, illuminating an area around them…

Yugo held his head in pain before opening his eyes. He was surprised since he did not remember anything.

"Huh!? What the…" Yugo looked to his left to see the light. "What is that?"

Yuya weakly opened his eyes and looked at Yuto. He smiled sadly. He suddenly felt his body become weak, every particles slowly withered away, his life force slowly dimmed out.

"Yuya! You okay?" Yuto asked.

Odd-Eyes Pendulum Dragon got brighter and brighter. Yuya suddenly heard a roar from it. This time it wanted him…

…to give it to Yuto…

On instinct, Yuya took off his pendant and put it in his left hand with Odd-Eyes and gave it to Yuto.

"Duel… with smiles…"

"Eh?"

"With your power… bring smile to the world… for me… and protect people from anyone who might harm you and anyone else…"

Yuto hesitantly took Yuya's belongings. "With my power?"

Yuya nodded, and with a last brightest smile he could have had, the fatherless teenager shone up and disintegrated, saying goodbye to the sinful world…

The light got extremely bright, blinding Ruri and Yugo. Yuzu finally got her way to the park, her eyes becoming the normal blue again.

"Eh?" Her bracelet activated again. "The bracelet… again?" And in an instant, Yugo was no longer in the place where she last saw him. "Was Yuto there?" Instead, when she turned to her right, she finally found Yuto, but not the Yuto that she knew…

The Dark Duelist was looking up aimlessly, his hands holding a card and Yuya's pendant, eyes devoid of emotion, his face completely still, the shattered cards around decorated the awful scene even more. Yuzu thought she had seen a ghost in the form of the look-alike of her best friend. After a small silence occurred, Yuto slowly dove forward, as slow as a frog until he completely lay down, his face slamming the ground.

"Yuto!" Yuzu immediately ran to Yuto. She knelt down and shook his shoulders. "Yuto! Yuto! Wake up Yuto! What's wrong with you Yuto? What happened? Wake up Yuto! Yuto!"

"YUTO!" Yuzu heard a loud feminine scream, and before she knew it, Ruri stopped her frantic running and knelt down, shaking Yuto hysterically.

"Ruri!?"

"Yuto! Yuto! Please wake up Yuto! Please wake up! Please please please please please…" Her pleading faded, in place for the hiccups and the tears slowly running down form her eyes. "Yuto!"

"Ruri!" Yuzu grabbed Ruri's left shoulder. "What happened? Why is Yuto like this? Where's Yuya?"

"I don't know Yuzu…" She frantically answered. She then said as fast as possible, losing herself in her worry. "Things are complicated but now Yuya is not here and Yuto does not wake up. Please Yuzu… whatever you have known, whoever you think I am… please… help him! I promise I will find Yuya for you! Please Yuzu please!" Ruri was practically begging, and despite her own worry for her stupid Yuya, Yuzu agreed.

"Fine… get him up…"

* * *

"What the? What happened? How am I back at City again!?"

Yugo roared after being teleported back to the Synchro dimension again. "Dammit!" He slammed his D-Wheel. "I have lost him again… the lead to Rin…" He got out and kicked his treasured D-Wheel multiple times.

"RINNNNNNN!"

The yell echoed before dying out in the utter silence of the dark alley of the Commons sections…

* * *

 **Fanfic OC Cards**

 **Speed Replace (Magic Card)**

Target 1 "Speedroid" Synchro Monster you control; return it to the Extra Deck, and if you do, Special Summon 1 "Speedroid" Tuner Monster from your Deck in Attack Position. You can only summon WIND monsters the turn you activate this effect.

 **Death-Toy Massacre (Equip Magic)**

Equip it to a "Death-Toy" Fusion Monster you control. It can attack twice per Battle Phase. If the equipped monster attacks an opponent's monster, that monster cannot activate its effects until the end of the Damage Step.

 **Phantom Black Hole (Trap Card)**

Banish up to 2 "Phantom Knights" monsters or 2 "Phantom" cards in your graveyard; destroy that many cards your opponent controls.

 **Pendulum Power-Up (Magic Card)**

Banish 1 monster in your graveyard, then target 1 Pendulum Monster you control; it gains ATK equal to the banished monster's ATK. You can banish this card from your graveyard, then target 1 Pendulum Monster you control; it can attack a second time this turn, but any battle damage it inflicts becomes halved.

* * *

 **Finished! And now here you go! Yuya is dead!**

 **And don't worry about him! They won't be like this for long! That's the only spoiler I can give to all of you!**

 **About Yuto's absorbing in the anime, at first it was a good idea since Yuya needed to get darker in order to advance the plot, but then the underuse of Yuto disappointed me greatly, sleeping inside Yuya for the entire Synchro arc until the Xyz arc which he acted like Astral, pretty useless overall. I hate those writers for not expanding Yuto as a character more. And what I did to Yugo there sadly was very similar to what most of us do. I never undestand why the writers did not explore the emotional damage losing Rin would do to Yugo. An advice: please stop drinking to forget your sorrow; talk to someone you can trust about your problems.**

 **I have a lot of plans for the next chapter so it may not come out for a while.**

* * *

 **Next Chapter Preview**

 **Guilt and Atonement**

Ruri and Yuto revealed everything about them to Yuzu and Yoko, their origin, their lives and their current struggles. Then Yuzu is met with an interesting proposal…

 **This is matrixnis, out!**


	26. Scale 26

**Bonjour (ou bonsoir), je suis matrixnis! (LOLLLLLL)**

 **I hope you liked the new and stupid hello-ing up here. And I have 107 reviews now! I will ask Yuma to give me Tachyon Dragon!**

 **To Guest (lol Gentyman): Ruri will say things, and I'm sure that I do not want to make her weak anymore. Don't worry about her by the way, she will DEFINITELY be more active later.**

 **To Vibora1996: I'm sorry that you are disappointed, I really did not want to leave the readers of this story unsatisfied, but I want this situation to happen in order to toughen Yuya up, in order to be ready for the "mad" change that nearly broke him in canon. And I have said in the beginning of my story that I only use ARC-V as a base for this story, but I do try to keep this story as "ARC-V" as possible.**

 **To HelenTheMoon: Yugo's power for me was a way to keep up with Yu-Gi-Oh's tradition. Some people have a certain power but they rarely use it, opting to Duel instead (examples are Vector, Nasch, Yugi, Judai).**

 **To Playerhood18 and Yuka Kuroshiro: things will get interesting for Yuya, Yuto, Yuzu and Ruri soon.**

 **Okay! Here is the newest chapter!**

* * *

 **Chapter 26: Guilt and Atonement**

"Come on Yuto… We'll get you to Yoko-san… and you'll be fine…"

Ruri whispered to the unconscious Yuto she and Yuzu were carrying.

"He'll be fine Ruri, I promise!" Yuzu encouraged Ruri, who looked down sadly. She was not deserved to hear those words from her "former friend" anymore and she knew it.

Yuzu noticed. She quickly reassured her friend. "Hey! Don't think about it for now! We need to get Yuto to safety first!"

"I know…"

Suddenly, Yuzu's Duel Disk rang. She opened it to find Ryoga calling her.

"Yuzu! Have you found Sora yet?"

"No, but it's much worse! Come to my house tomorrow, you will know why!"

"Tomorrow? Why not now?"

"Just come here tomorrow, I'm busy at the moment! See ya!"

The two girls continued to carry Yuto until they reached Yuya's house. Yuzu pushed the button. The bell rang. After a while, the screen opened.

"Who's there?"

"Yoko-san, it's me Yuzu! I brought Ruri and someone else! He needs help right now!"

"Someone else…? Okay! I'll open the door!" A soft "ting" could be heard. The door got opened shortly after. The moment Yoko was in view, she saw three people there. One was the pink hair Yuzu as usual, another was the purple hair Ruri, but her hysterical and panicked face indicated that something bad had happened.

The girl in purple shirt pleaded the woman. "Please Yoko-san! Please help him! He's in danger!"

Yoko looked at the unconscious boy and she was shocked to see his face.

"Yuya! Yuya! What happened to Yuya my son?"

"He's not Yuya Yoko-san!" Yuzu corrected. "He has the same face as him, just like me and Ruri for some reason, but he is Yuto. We found him passing out and we carried him to you to get him some help!"

"Please help him Yoko-san!" Ruri begged Yoko.

The woman hesitated for a moment before accepting. "Okay… Get inside!"

The girls went to Yuya's room and put Yuto in bed, not forgetting to take off his cap and his dirty hoodie. After making sure that Yuto was safe and sound under their care, Yoko began asking the teenagers.

"Okay Ruri, Yuzu, can you two tell me what had happened? And where is Yuya?"

"Yoko-san…" Yuzu started. "First off, the boy there is Yuto, Ruri's close friend." She had wanted to say "boyfriend" but then she realized that things would get more complicated and she was sure that Ruri did not want her to say that, especially to an adult who was worried for her son.

"You have another friend too Ruri?" Yoko asked, Ruri nodded.

The Xyz girl then continued. "After Sora escaped from the hospital, Yuto and I duel him at the park, after that Yuya came to the park to stop us, but then someone else came and Yuya ran to investigate."

"Wait wait wait… can you please slow down? How did you and Yuto duel Sora? Where is he? And what happened to my son?"

"Long story Yoko-san, but take this: that someone else has the same face as Yuya!"

"What? Same face? Just like Yuya and that boy Yuto?"

"Yes, and he lost. Yuto came to him and suddenly a large pillar of light appeared from where they were and after a while, Yuya was gone, only Yuto was there and for some reason… he was like that…"

"Wait? So you say that Yuya… disappeared…?" Yoko feared the worst might have happened to her son, and the reluctant nod from the purple hair girl confirmed it.

Yoko became pale, not believing what Ruri had told. "No… no… no no no! Not my son! Not my son! Not my son!"

She grabbed and vigorously shook Ruri's shoulders. "Ruri! You must know something right? You disappeared before Sora's match with Shirogami Taka, you must have met Yuto then. Then you two had a duel with Sora, and Yuya got involved. What happened during the duel? What happened to Yuya? What happened!? WHAT HAPPENED TO HIM? AND WERE YOU AND YUTO INVOLVED?"

Ruri could only look down in shame. She had lied to Yuya, Yuzu, Yoko and others from the beginning, and now Yuya was in trouble because of her. He had somehow disappeared.

"I'm sorry Yoko-san… I'm sorry… It's all… my…"

Ruri hiccupped… "…fault…"

"All right you two!" Yuzu acted quickly, despite the situation, she could not let things go out of control. She needed to keep herself together, and she needed to help them do the same too. "Look Ruri, Yoko-san! Yuto is now unconscious, Yuya is gone, things are complicated now, but you two cannot keep blaming yourselves and each other for this! We all need to keep ourselves together and wait for them! They will return! I'm sure about it!"

Yuzu then separated the two and told to Yoko. "Yoko-san, let's go out. I have things to tell you. We need to leave Ruri be for now, Yuto needs her help." She then turned to Ruri. "And Ruri, when Yuto wakes up, you two shall have to say everything to us!"

"I will…" Ruri mumbled. Yuzu then dragged Yoko out of the room. After closing the door, Ruri sadly walked back to Yuto's bed and slid down. She took a look at Yuto's tired face, the face that should not have been too matured. That face should have been so much gentler and younger if the war wasn't around, and she knew for sure that she had that same face too without the need of a mirror to check. She gently caressed his face, each movement of a finger crossing the ragged skin was filled with hope that Yuto would wake up and return to the old Yuto that she knew. Tired from the previous battle and sobbing, Ruri gently rested her head on his arm and held his hand tightly.

"Yuto… please wake up… I don't know what to do if I lose you… again…"

* * *

After leaving Ruri and Yuto, they were now at the pole which Yuya usually used to slide downstairs.

"Okay Yuzu. I know that I have to calm down, but can you please tell me what had happened. I know you know what happened."

Yuzu sighed. "I know Yoko-san…"

Yuzu then told everything that she had known about Ruri, Yuto, Shun and Ryoga to her. Of course she had left the part where her bracelet caused Yuto to disappear at times whether Yuya was coming to her. She told the woman what Yuto had told her: Shirogami Taka was actually Kurosaki Shun, Ruri's brother; Ruri and Ryoga were actually members of a Resistance group in a war and from the description, they might not be even from here; Ruri said that she was chased by someone and her comrades went to here to try to find her, for some reason Ruri was in Maiami City and since she had no place to live, she lied to Yuya and Yuzu to get to stay at Yuzu's house. Of course she did say that Ruri felt extremely guilty about this since she would cry pretty much every night after living in her house. Then she told Yoko that she had found Yuto unconscious at the park with Ruri, he was holding Yuya's pendant and his ace monster Odd-Eyes Pendulum Dragon in his hand and Yuya's Deck was scattered around Yuto. All of these obviously shocked Yoko badly. Three years ago, for some reason her husband Sakaki Yusho left her and Yuya behind, forcing her to both be a mother and a father at the same time. She would try to forget it by acting childish and fangirlish. But now, her beloved son, the only reason to keep her living, the priceless treasure of hers was gone. She felt that she could not continue to live this miserable life anymore, especially after Ruri's revelation that she had been lying to everyone the whole time. She now hated the pink hair girl so much, she now hated this life so much, but deep down her broken heart she had a feeling that her son would still be safe somewhere, just being caught in a stupid shit that she hoped her kid would know how to handle it since she had taught her pretty well. Taking a deep breath, she managed to calm down. There were now more things to look after. Yuto, her son's lookalike, was unconscious, and Ruri, apparently his close friend or girlfriend, was very worried about him. She had stayed by his side the whole time. Now she had to remain strong, she could not break down and cry. She had to do it, she had to do it, for the sake of his friends…

However, Yuzu could not keep herself together anymore, despite her claiming earlier. She covered her face with her hands and started sobbing, blaming herself.

"Now Sora is gone, Yuya is gone, Yuto does not wake up, and Ruri was wrecked with guilt… why it happened… why things turned out to be this way… it's all my fault…"

Yoko put her hands around the pink hair girl's shoulders and pulled her into a hug. "It's okay. I know Yuya so well, he would not leave us without a reason. He will return soon, maybe with Sora as well… I don't know much about Yuto, but from what I have seen, he is just as strong as Yuya, I'm sure he will wake up soon… And about Ruri, she did lie to us, it's her fault too for causing this situation. She was partly to blame, so don't blame yourself too much."

"Yoko-san…" Yuzu was touched by the woman's words. Despite the presumably loss of another important person in her life, Yoko did not break down. She instead remained stable and clear-headed, and she gave hope to her too. "Thank you… I will try to keep myself together too, just like you. I don't know if the same could be said to Ruri though. She is just 16 like me and she is in a war…"

"She's strong Yuzu, just like you. She will find a way to get through this, she has to. I know her enough to know how internally strong she is, and even though the lies she had made hurt me greatly, it could not change the fact that Ruri is really strong inside. She endured the pain of losing her closed ones and she had the gut to lie to all of us."

"I hope so… Yoko-san?"

"Yes?"

"May I stay here tonight? I could not go home now when things are still not solved yet."

"Of course. You can share my room. I will call your father."

"Thank you Yoko-san. And please tell them that Yuya is fine okay? I don't want anyone else to know about this…"

"Yeah. Now get ready to sleep. Try your best to sleep today, really."

* * *

Yuto woke up to a sunlight hitting his face, and an alarm going off loudly. He tiredly reached for the clock and turned it off. He then opened his eyes and was surprised to find where he was now:

His room! In his home!

" _What the…? How did I…"_

He blinked multiple times to make sure, and the scenery did not change.

"Am I… dead?"

Yuto believed that if a person died, he would rest in heaven where he could live in his best memory of his life for eternity, probably with someone close to him. Still not believing that he was dead though, he opened the door of his room and went outside. What he saw next nearly made him slip and fall over. He found his parents downstairs, making breakfast for him.

"Oh! Yuto!" His father spoke up to him.

"Come down here Yuto! You're gonna be late for school!" Akio told him.

" _Is this… a dream or something?"_ Trying his best to regain composure and stop the tears from falling down, he nervously nodded. "Ah… yeah! I'll come down now!"

Yuto slowly went down, each footstep become harder for some reason as he tried to think whether what was happening right now was real or not. The scenery was too bright and vibrant to be his ruined home, and he was at war, not in peace like this. But no matter how real this place was though, he had not experienced the peaceful times before the war for a long time, and he decided it was best to lose himself in this beautiful dream for now and came to the kitchen table. He weirdly picked up the chopsticks and began eating rice, eyeing his parents. They were just like normal, taking and joking at each other like normal. Occasionally, they would turn to talk to him, saying things like his schoolwork, his friends or something else, causing Yuto to answer nervously. Luckily, they did not seem to notice much. During the breakfast, he suddenly noticed someone outside the windows.

" _Yu… Yuya?"_

Strange. He did not know about him much to leave an impression on him unlike Yuma, so why he was here? This question intrigued him.

"Mama, Papa, I'll go out for a bit!" Yuto rushed outside. The moment he ran near the spot, he saw Yuya crying with someone else berating him. From what he said, it was probably about his father. Yuto attempted to run to there to stop the big man, but suddenly they, no, the entire space they were staying, flew away from him fast. However he tried, he could not catch up to them. He was so caught up that he forgot one thing, the entire scenery suddenly changed from yellow to reddish black. The buildings around him slowly disintegrated, fire erupting from behind, the ground shaking, multiple explosions occurring and the worst, numerous Antique Gear Chaos Giants appeared, blasting anything in its way. Yuto could not believe it, he was back to the war again…

BOOM!

A huge explosion nearly sent him flying, if not for Yuto already anticipating it and dropping himself down. It was so huge that he was sure he would disintegrate. When he looked up, he saw Shun, Allen, Rio, Kaito, Ryoga, Mizael, Vector all running to him frantically. They could only say a hopeless word before turning to ashes.

"Yuto!"

"Everyone!" Yuto rushed to them, but the ground suddenly erupted, separating him from them. He could only look down in shock as his friends completely became dust and disappeared. He could not even manage to touch a single piece of ash.

"Ah… ah… can't be…"

"ARGH!"

An explosion occurred, this time from behind him. It was only one thing that could blow up behind now!

"No! Not my house! Not my parents!"

The smoke behind him cleared, revealing his house, no, his destroyed house. A blast from Chaos Giant had struck it and turned it to pieces. Freezing in shock for a moment, Yuto quickly ran inside frantically. He could not find his father or his mother among the ashes. He dropped down, broken, lost, despair. In about one minute, he had lost pretty much everything close to him, his house, his friends, his parents. What else would he lose? What else could he live for?

"Yuto…"

A feminine voice caught him. It was familiar and full of love even though it sounded weak. It made his will to live activate again.

"Ruri… Ruri!"

He turned around and ran to her, managing to catch her before she fell down. He happily hug her tightly.

"Ruri! Ruri! I have found you!"

"Yuto…"

"What?" He looked at her and became horrified. His girlfriend was slowly turning to ashes, right in front of him! Also her body was very bloody the entire time. He was so happy that he forgot the cruel fact that she was dying slowly and painfully.

"No! No no no Ruri! NO! Don't die Ruri!"

It was useless. Her body began to disintegrate into grey pieces.

"Yuto…" was all she said before her face suffered the same fate as her entire body. Yuto began to cry, the tear freely dropping down to the ground. At the same time, the ashes fell down, turning to a card, a card with an image of a horrified Ruri. Yuto mumbled her name uncontrollably, head moving around aimlessly, hands shaking vigorously. He tried to move his hand to pick the card up, but it suddenly flew away, very fast.

"NO Ruri!" Yuto got up, chasing the flying card. It flew faster and faster, stretching the space around it and changing its color to black, further empathizing the emptiness in Yuto's mind. He continued chasing the card in vain, yelling her name repeatedly.

"Ruri! Ruri! Ruri!"

"RURIIIIIIIIII!"

* * *

"RURIIIIIIIIIIIIIII!"

Yuto loudly yelled, flying up from the bed, nearly causing Ruri to fall down. He was having a nightmare, probably the worst nightmare he had had ever since the war started. Yuto took repeated breaths, trying to calm himself down to forget it.

"Yuto! Yuto! Are you okay?" Ruri expressed her concern over him, just like any girlfriends would do.

"I'm… I'm okay…" Yuto calmed Ruri down between breaths.

"Yuto! Don't lie to me! You were having a nightmare right!?"

Yuto sadly looked at her, as if he was blaming her. "Haizz… I can't stop you from worrying over me, can I…" He put Ruri's hands off his shoulders and sit beside the cushion, putting his left hand on his face. "I had a nightmare. I had to watch our friends die, my parents die… and you die as well…"

Ruri reassured him sweetly. "Well I'm here now Yuto, you don't have to worry about the last part. And we will find a way to bring carded victims back."

"By the way, where am I Ruri? And how long have I passed out?"

Ruri took the chair and sat down next to Yuto. "We are in Yuya's house."

"Yuya?"

Ruri confirmed. "Uh. Last night you ran to Yuya to help him up, then a pillar of light erupted from where you were and after that, Yuya disappeared and you passed out. Yuzu and I dragged you to here. You have been like that for the last twelve hours."

"What?" Yuto could not believe what she said. "You meant that Yuya disappeared somehow? And I have slept for that long?"

Ruri nodded. "Yes. But what happened last night was strange Yuto. You lost control of yourself and beat Sora ruthlessly, just like last time. Then I had to shake you out of it. And then we found out Yuya was dueling someone else who did not seem to be normal just like you."

"Uh. The duelist there is Yugo. He has the same face as me, Yuya and Yuri."

"It's strange Yuto. And when you are about to lose control, did you feel pain in your chest?" Ruri decided to ask him.

Yuto widened his eyes in surprise. "How do you know Ruri?"

"Because I got that strange pain as well. After Yuya summoned his dragon."

"Yuya's dragon…"Yuto then eyed at the bed stand and noticed his and Yuya's Duel Disk, along with his pendant. He walked to the bed stand and grabbed a card. It was the card Yuya entrusted to him, Odd-Eyes Pendulum Dragon.

"That is…!" Ruri jotted up in surprise.

"Odd-Eyes Pendulum Dragon…" Yuto whispered.

"Why did you have Yuya's dragon?"

Yuto looked down, covering his face with his right side bangs, recalling the moment, still not looking at Ruri. "He… lost the duel… then when I tried to get him up… he gave this card and his pendant to me… told me to make people smile and protect them… the rest I could not remember… even what happened to Yuya…"

"I guess…" Ruri suddenly said. "Things are now overcomplicated… and this is all my fault…"

"Don't think about it even for a second Ruri! You're not to blame!" Yuto quickly turned around to try to reassure her.

"No Yuto! This is my fault! This is all my fault! Think!" Ruri yelled. "If I had not gone out of the camp alone, Yuri would not have chased me and I would not have been in Standard for some reason, causing you, my brother and Ryoga to find me! Then I would not have lied to Yuya, Yuzu and their friends like this! Then Shun would not have been that reckless and brutal like that! Then Ryoga and I would not have been captured by Reiji, becoming his toys! Then Yuya would not have disappeared and Yuzu and Yoko would not have been that panic! Now I do not know what to say to them anymore!" Her voice weakened, only an audible whisper could be heard along with hiccups. "I'm reckless Yuto, and it caused a chain reaction… I felt so shameful… and worthless… of you… and everyone else…"

Ruri covered her face with her hands and broke down into tears. Yuto quickly put his arm over her shoulders, pulling her into a hug.

"Ruri… I should be the one to say sorry to you…" Yuto patted her, trying to soother her. He said the next words with pure sincerity. "I was careless of my own emotions, causing you to become afraid of me. Then I was not quick enough to find you and lost you, causing you to lie to Yuya and others to get a place to stay. Even though I have found you, I did not have the courage to get to you when you did not for some reason. I thought I have done something bad, not realizing that Reiji had been playing you and Ryoga for some reason. Then I was not strong enough to protect you from Sora, then I lost myself to that darkness again and scare you again. I'm sorry, I'm truly sorry…" Yuto hugged Ruri tighter, only thinking about calming her down with full of love and nothing else. "Like I said, you are not responsible for the things you did, you had to do it for survival, no one can blame you for it, not even me. And if others do, I will protect you. I will protect you Ruri, like I have always been doing…"

"I'm sorry… for failing you…"

Yuto was glad that his words finally managed to calm Ruri down. Her body no longer felt stiff and she had stopped crying. Ruri hugged Yuto very tightly, nearly taking his breath away from his lungs before looking at him.

"Thank you Yuto…" She said in a sweet voice, although she still felt bad and shameful inside. "You are always nice to me… I sometimes think I am not worth it, especially after what I did…"

"Don't think about that anymore Ruri!" Yuto stopped her. "Last time I scared you, you forgave me. It's only fair that I forgive you back when you felt that you have made a mistake. We forgive each other like we always do, and I'm sure that Yuzu, Yoko-san and others will forgive you Ruri. I promise."

Ruri finally smiled. Yuto's words was sweet and confronting, like it always have been, and it helped her a lot. They then looked at each other lovingly, the breaths becoming stronger and heavier any second. In an instant, they knew what they would do, and without wasting any more precious seconds, they gently put their faces together, their lips locked in a gentle kiss. For some reason, maybe on Ruri's part, she slightly pressed her face closer against Yuto's, locking the kiss further, and at the same moment, Yuto also felt something strange in his body, as if it wanted him to deepen the kiss more. He was not sure about it, that idea was tempting but also good at the same time, so he decided to serve his desire and returned the deepening back. They had to break themselves apart from his each other for air, faces still extremely close however. Yuto looked at Ruri, slowly losing his control over his body, his eyes clearly telling her that. And the girl noticed, also in an instant. In the messy but blissful stream of thought, Ruri did not care about it much, forgetting the lessons her parents taught her, because she was losing control over herself too. And the tempting eyes that she blasted at Yuto's own subconsciously told him, no, each other what they were going to do next, and the thing that they would gladly enjoy and cherish.

Yuto lunged his face to Ruri's own, his lips touching hers again in a greedy manner and dominating the kissing. Ruri did not want to lose so badly like that on her first, she returned to the victor role, crushing her lips into his. The battle continued with no sides wanting to lose, arousing further actions from both of them. Yuto pinned Ruri to the wall, accidentally sliding her down a little bit, causing her to groan slightly.

Yuto broke the kiss, fearful that he might have hurt her. "Ow. I'm sorr-"

Ruri did not give him any chance to say anything as she pulled his face over hers and continued kissing. Yuto briefly lost control and just let himself be engulfed by her. "It's okay Yuto…" Ruri turned around, pinning Yuto to the wall this time. She drew a small line on his face, smiling sheepishly, eyes supporting the smile with an equal playfulness. They resumed passionately and Ruri pulled her long hair over her right neck side.

"ARGHHHH!"

Both Yuto and Ruri broke the kiss as they heard a loud scream from a girl, along with multiple bows and folks dropping sound. They nearly lost control of themselves when they saw Yuzu standing there, her face transforming into a shock and disbelief expression. Right under her, a bowl of soup could be seen.

"YUZUUU!?" The lovers both yelled and threw themselves apart from each other. "What are you doing?"

Yuzu nervously answered. "Yoko-san and I made some foods for you Ruri and Yuto, and I was about to bring to you when…"

"What happened up there Yuzu?" Yoko suddenly spoke from outside the room. She quickly ran upstairs and found the dropped bowl. "What the hell did you do Yuzu?" She ran to her.

"I… I… uh…" Yuzu did not know what to say. She turned to the blushing Yuto and Ruri, who was just as lost as her. However, she quickly saw a cockroach on the left corner of the room and pointed at it, making a scared expression. "I saw a cockroach there and I panicked… that's all Yoko-san! I'm sorry!"

"Strange…" Yoko wondered. "You are not afraid of insects Yuzu!"

"It suddenly appeared Yoko-san…" Luckily, Yoko seemed to accept this answer.

"Better be careful next time Yuzu… and Yuto, you are awake!"

"Yeah Yoko-san! Thank you for letting me stay here Yoko-san!" He politely thanked the woman, successfully concealing the blush.

"I'll help you with this Yoko-san!" Ruri quickly helped her and Yuzu with the mess.

After a short while, it was done. Yoko told the two teenagers. "I'll make you two another food. You can stay here and rest for a while. After that, come downstairs and tell us everything about you two. Got it."

"I got it Yoko-san… And let me help you with the cooking!" Ruri said to her. She then turned to Yuto. "Stay here Yuto, I'll come up soon."

Touched by Ruri's concern, Yuto could only mutter. "Thank you Ruri… Yoko-san…"

Ruri, Yoko and Yuzu then came down to the kitchen and made food. During the cooking, Yoko noticed Ruri really focusing on cooking, not saying much to her and Yuzu. She clearly cared about Yuto a lot that she was willing to cook for him.

" _Ruri really cares about him… guess the war has tightened their relationship… I shouldn't be hard on her too much, after what she had gone through…"_

* * *

After eating, Yuto and Ruri came down, preparing to tell them everything. They were surprised to find Ryoga and Sawatari there.

"Oh! Ryoga! Sawatari!" Yuto said, feeling slightly alarmed when he saw the son of the Mayor. "What are you two doing here?"

"Ryoga came here after Yuzu called him." Yuzu explained.

Sawatari then continued. "And I came here because I found out Yuya was attacked last night. Ryoga, Yoko and Yuzu had told me a bit about it. And you, I still not forget what you did to me back at the pier."

"Eh uh…" Yuto rubbed the back of his head. "Well… I did not know back then, I thought beating you will find out information about Ruri, but I overdid it. I'm sorry."

"It's fine!" Sawatari reassured him. "Now for the more important thing: tell us about your origin."

Yuto looked at Ruri, who simply nodded. They then both took a seat at the sofa and began.

"All right, this is gonna belong. So firstly, this world is divided into four dimensions."

"Four dimensions?" Yoko asked.

"Yes. And they are based on the summon methods of the Duel Monsters game. The first one is Xyz, where I, Ruri and Ryoga live. The second one is Synchro. The third one is Fusion, whose inhabitants attacked us for some reason. And the final one is here, Standard. Probably because this place did not originally have Extra Deck methods."

Ruri took time to take notice at the shocked looks from Yuzu, Yoko and Sawatari before continuing. "I know it may sound unbelievable, but this is the truth. Let's continue."

"I was being chased by an Academia member, for some reason, I got teleported to here. Since I did not know what happened and I was worried that he might find a way to come here and kidnap me, I lied to you…" Ruri looked down in shame. Yuto quickly noticed and touched her shoulders.

"And then…" Ryoga said. "We came to this dimension to find her. I have found her, but before I got a chance to bring her back to our hideout, Reiji kidnapped us and injected a nano substance to our blood which will shock us with electricity whenever he wants to prevent us from seeing Yuto and Shun, who is Taka."

"WHAT? Reiji?" Sawatari widened his eyes in shock. He never expected Reiji would do this.

"Uh." Ryoga said. "He caused us to separate from our comrades for several days, and I had to live outside the streets like a homeless person."

"No way!" Yuzu gasped, putting her hand over her mouth. "You had to do that?"

"Uh…"

Yuto then finished. "The rest is as you have known."

Yoko concluded. "So that's how things happened, and that's why Ruri lied."

"Yes…" Ruri said. "And… Yuzu… Yoko-san… everyone… I am truly sorry for lying to all of you and causing Yuya to disappear. I am sorry, and I am ready to be punished whatever you want…"

"Ruri…" Yoko said. Ruri looked at her. "Don't think hard on yourself anymore. You are a war victim. Your life is already harsh, and you are tossed to here without anyone close to protect you. So you have to lie to us. And after hearing what you and Yuzu said, Yuya disappearing is not your fault Ruri. Don't think hard about it anymore, because I forgive you. Truly."

"What? You forgive me? I don't think I am deserved-"

"You deserved to be forgiven Ruri." Yuzu told her. "You did what you had to do to survive, I understand. And as your friend, I forgive you Ruri."

"Yuzu… Yoko-san…" Ruri whispered. She could not be happier. Her sins have been forgiven. She smiled brightly, tears forming in her eyes. "Thank you."

Yuto felt happy for his girlfriend. She had been forgiven, and he would not have to see a sullen Ruri anymore. "See! I told you! Don't think bad about yourself again okay?"

He then resumed a serious expression on his face. "So… Yoko-san… After all of this, no matter how much you want to put the blame off, I was still responsible. I did not manage to protect Yuya, so I want to do something as an apology to Sawatari, Yuzu and you."

"What are you planning to do?" Sawatari asked.

Yuto paused for a moment, subconsciously telling them that this would be important before revealing.

"Taking over Yuya's place for the Maiami Championship…"

* * *

"Are you sure you want to do this Yuto?" Yuzu asked to make sure.

After proposing, Yuto was met with denial from Yoko and Yuzu. They did not want to bother him any further, but he, Ruri, Ryoga and Sawatari pointed out that if Yuya did not continue participating, his reputation would be at risk, not to mention that Reiji would do something while Yuya is absent. Sawatari had said that Reiji would no longer harm Ruri and Ryoga after he had eavesdropping him and Nakajima talking so Yuya was the only concern now. Ruri suggested creating a wig for Yuto to disguide as Yuya. Yuzu and Yoko relented, but they made a condition that if Yuto wins against Yuzu, Yoko will find a wig for him since she had a friend as a cosplayer who could make one for her in an instant; if not, they will find a way to take Yuya off the tournament. They decided to duel at the backyard, where the trees could hide them from view.

"I'm sure Yuzu! Do your best! I will not hold back!" Yuto declared. He then activated his Duel Disk, Yuzu did the same as well.

 **DUEL!**

 **Yuto** : 4000 [5]

 **Hiragi Yuzu** : 4000 [5]

* * *

"I take the first turn!" Yuto began the duel. He showed a card before slapping it to the blade. "When I control no monsters, I can special summon this card!" It was a black knife with a red handle with a teal aura around the blade, along with two dull eyes hovering above the tip.

 **Phantom Knights Dark Dagger** DARK Warrior Effect LV3 **1000** /1800

"Then I special summon Silent Boots from my hand!"

 **Phantom Knights Silent Boots** DARK Warrior Effect LV3 **200** /1200

"2 level 3 monsters…" Sawatari mumbled.

"I, using the two level 3 Dark Dagger and Silent Boots, overlay!" The two ghosts turned into purple and flew up to the Overlay Network, shooting out a stream of light.

"Souls of the fallen warriors, become the sharp sword of justice and reborn from the darkness! Xyz Shōkan!"

"Appear now! Rank 3! Phantom Knights Dimmed Sword!" The knight of Break Sword got off the horse, his large blade was much brighter and complete.

 **Phantom Knights Dimmed Sword** DARK Warrior Xyz Effect R3 **2000** /1000

"And then, Phantom Knights Crack Helm normal summon!"

 **Phantom Knights Crack Helm** DARK Warrior Effect LV4 **1500** /500

"Dimmed Sword's effect! Once per turn, I can detach an Overlay Unit to send the top three cards of my deck to the graveyard!" Dimmed Sword slashed an Overlay Unit, three top cards in Yuto's Deck shone up yellow before flying to the graveyard. "Then it gains 1000 ATK until you end your next turn, and since I have two or more "Phantom Knights" monster, you can only attack Dimmed Sword!"

 **Phantom Knights Dimmed Sword** ATK 2000 - 3000

"Also, since "Phantom Knights" cards was sent to the grave twice, Crack Helm gains 1000 ATK!"

 **Phantom Knights Crack Helm** ATK 1500 - 2500

"I set down a card and end my turn!"

Yuzu looked at the set card and Yuto's two monsters. _"Such a nice strategy… If I destroy Dimmed Sword, Crack Helm will gain 500 ATK, Prodigy Mozart cannot destroy it if that happens…"_

"Atashi no turn, draw!" Yuzu started her turn. "Continuous Magic, Castle of the Gods - Valhalla activate!" From behind Yuzu, a large hall of a castle appeared. It consisted simply of a golden throne with several pillars. "Once per turn when my field does not have monsters, I can special summon an Angel-Type monster from my hand! I will summon my ace monster!" On cue, the maestra in red dress, Yuzu's ace monster before she got Bloom Diva, appeared.

 **Melodious Maestra Prodigy Mozart** LIGHT Angel Effect LV8 **2600** /2000

"That's Yuzu's Main Deck ace monster!" Ruri noted.

"A 2600 ATK monster…" Sawatari whispered.

"And then, Melodious Songstress Soprano normal summon!"

 **Melodious Songstress Soprano** LIGHT Angel Effect LV4 **1400** /1400

"Finally, Melodious Diva Sonata special summon!"

 **Melodious Diva Sonata** LIGHT Angel Effect LV3 **1200** /1000

Yoko said in surprise. "She summoned three monsters in one turn!"

"She's improved since last time…" Ryoga noted.

"Yuto, Ruri, Ryoga!" Yuzu told to the three Resistance members. "You know what Extra Deck method I use right?" The nodding from them encouraged Yuzu, who proceeded to raise her hand. "Soprano allows me to conduct a Fusion Summon once per turn! I will use it and Sonata!"

"The song of the angel! The flowing melody! With the guidance of the baton, gather your power! Yūgō Shōkan! Appear now! Level 6! Melodious Choir Bloom Diva!" Yuzu summoned her newest ace monster to the field. It was just as beautiful as ever in that white dress.

 **Melodious Choir Bloom Diva** LIGHT Angel Fusion Effect LV6 **1000** /2000

Yuzu quickly looked at the three war veterans. She was relieved to find them smiling back at her instead of looking away. "Battle! Bloom Diva, attack Phantom Knights Dimmed Sword!" Yuzu's monster flew towards the sword and sang a song, generating energy as the sword clashed with it.

"And now Bloom Diva's effect! Reflect Shout!" The energy wave rebounded back at the warrior, flying away its big sword before obliterating it. Yuto crouched down to avoid the ensuring blast.

 **Yuto** : 4000 - 2000 [1]

 **Phantom Knights Crack Helm** ATK 2500 - 3000

The Dark Duelist suddenly smirked. "Just as I expected…"

"What?"

"Since it is destroyed, I can special summon this card!" Yuto briefly showed the card before slapping it. "Phantom Knights Fragile Armor!" Its appearance was consisted of a blue ghost donned in a tattered armor and an equally ruined cape on its back.

 **Phantom Knights Fragile Armor** DARK Warrior Effect LV4 1000/ **2000**

"And since Dimmed Sword is destroyed, its materials will return!" A portal opened, allowing Dark Dagger and Silent Boots to fly up to the field again in Defense Position.

Ignoring the two ghostly monsters, Yuzu resumed her attack. "But I still have Prodigy Mozart! Go!"

"It's useless Yuzu! Trap Card, Phantom Knights Wrong Magnet Ring!" A small monster flew out of the trap. It used the large ring it carried to absorb the wave, negating the attack.

 **Phantom Knights Wrong Magnet Ring** DARK Warrior Effect LV2 **0** /0

"Tsk… if so I will equip Basso to Bloom Diva!" Yuzu activated one of her remaining cards in his hand, Bloom Diva gained a yellow aura. "Now you can only attack it, and if a Normal or Flip Summoned monster attacks it, it will be destroyed! And I will end my turn with a face-down!"

"She knew she could not destroy Crack Helm… so she prepared her defense during Yuto's next turn?" Ruri summed up.

"I think Yuto will find a way to beat that wall…" Ryoga said.

"Ore no turn, draw!" Yuto then quickly pointed at his probably smallest monster in his deck. "This card can send itself and Silent Boots to the grave…" The two monster disappeared. "…and I can draw two cards from my Deck! And don't forget Crack Helm's effect!"

 **Phantom Knights Crack Helm** ATK 3000 - 3500

"And then I banish Phantom Wing from my graveyard to summon Ragged Glove!"

 **Phantom Knights Ragged Glove** DARK Warrior Effect LV3 **1000** /500

"That card…!" Sawatari realized something during Yuto's first turn.

"Right! It was sent to the graveyard by the effect of Dimmed Sword!" Ryoga said to him.

"I see… so this is the power of the Phantom Knights deck… excluding themselves from the graveyard to give powerful effects to the user… just like a ghost in the darkness…" The son of the Mayor deduced.

"It suits him a lot!" Ruri finished. For some reason she always associated ghost with Yuto even though she might not admit it. It gave him a hint of mystery, making her eager to try to explore and know about him more.

"Normally, if Phantom Wing special summons a monster this way, that monster will be banished when it leave the field, but not if I do this! Right now, level 3 Ragged Glove and Dark Dagger, overlay!" The Overlay Network welcomed the two ghosts again. "Soul of the Knights who fall on the battlefield. Now revive, become the light that rend the darkness! Xyz Shōkan!"

"Appear now! Rank 3! Phantom Knights Break Sword!" Yuto's main monster besides Dark Rebellion, the black knight with a large sword reappeared.

 **Phantom Knights Break Sword** DARK Warrior Xyz Effect R3 **2000** /1000

 **Phantom Knights Break Sword** ATK 2000 - 3000 (Ragged Glove's effect)

"And then the effect!" One of its Overlay Units got slashed. "It destroys itself and your Basso!" Break Sword slammed the sword to the ground, generating a shockwave that destroyed itself and was about to do the same thing to the beautiful diva.

 **Phantom Knights Crack Helm** ATK 3500 - 4000

"So sorry Yuto! Basso can negate this destruction once per turn!" A small barrier formed around Bloom Diva, preventing it from being destroyed. "Then you take 800 damage!"

 **Yuto** : 2000 - 1200 [3]

 **Phantom Knights Crack Helm** ATK 4000 - 4500

"Very well Yuzu…" Yuto complimented. "But you had simply increased Crack Helm's ATK even more, and Break Sword can revive its materials!" The monsters returned.

 **Phantom Knights Crack Helm** ATK 4500 - 5000

 **Phantom Knights Ragged Glove** LV3 - 4

 **Phantom Knights Dark Dagger** LV3 - 4

"I, using the level 4 Ragged Gloves and Dark Dagger, overlay!" The newly summoned monsters flew to the Overlay Network again."

"Xyz Shōkan! Appear now! Rank 4!"

" _Dark Rebellion…?"_

No…

"Phantom Knights Dusty Crossbow!" From the portal, a new monster rose up. It was an old crossbow covered by a ragged blanket with two hollow eyes acting as crosshairs and a ghostly arm holding the handle.

 **Phantom Knights Dusty Crossbow** DARK Warrior Xyz Effect R4 **2400** /1800

"That's…" Yuzu whispered in shock. "A Rank 4 Phantom Knights monster!"

"Wait, I thought you only had Dark Rebellion as a Rank 4!" Sawatari wondered.

"Dark Rebellion's effect does not work on Xyz Monsters, therefore it is natural that I have another Rank 4 monster." Yuto explained. He did not know why, but since his dragon is basically useless back in his home, he had to have another Rank 4 monster to use Break Sword's effect. "Dusty Crossbow's effect! By detaching an Overlay Unit, it negates the effects of all face-up cards you control until the next Standby Phase!"

"What!? All face-up cards?" Besides Ruri and Ryoga, everyone, including Yuya, was shocked.

"Haunted Arrows!" The crossbow fired a dark arrow, which then multiplied into multiple ones and went through Bloom Diva, Prodigy Mozart and Basso, negating their effects.

 **Phantom Knights Crack Helm** ATK 5000 - 5500

"Now the effects of Bloom Diva and Basso are negated, I don't have to worry about them anymore! Battle! Dusty Crossbow, attack Bloom Diva!" The monster readied its arrow, pointing itself at Bloom Diva.

"Fallen Comrades' Justice Arrow!" The cold arrow flew at the monster, obliterating it and the Equip Card that was equipped to it. Yuzu had to use a lot of her strength to keep standing.

 **Yuzu** : 4000 - 2600 [0]

"The duel ends now!" Yuto declared. "Phantom Knights Crack Helm, attack Prodigy Mozart! Helm Bite!" The ghost helm opened its protective armor and jumped at the elegant conductor, preparing to bite its face.

" _There is only one chance!"_ Yuzu thought before touching her Duel Disk. "Trap Card, Melodious Backstage! I banish Soprano, Sonata and Bloom Diva to draw three cards!"

"Are you insane Yuzu? How can you use cards in your hand to stop the attack?" Ruri said in shock.

Ryoga had the same thinking too. "The chance is very slow!"

Yuzu touched her Deck, putting all of her trust in this draw. _"This is the draw that will decide everything… everyone… Yuya… please help me!"_

"DRAW!" The cards shone up brightly, sparkling.

Everyone held their breaths, remaining silent as Yuzu drew three cards. The pink hair girl slowly turned them around, and when she did, she expanded them, allowing her to get a good view of them.

" _Huh!"_ Yuzu immediately took one of the cards and slapped it to her Duel Disk. A female monster in pink dress appeared.

"When your monster declares an attack, I can special summon Melodious Songstress Contralto to negate it!" The monster had red hair, blue eyes, a pink dress with some flowers on it as decoration. It waved its mic, creating a barrier that flung back the broken helm. "And gain LP equal to the damage I would have taken!"

 **Melodious Songstress Contralto** LIGHT Angel Effect LV4 **800** /800

 **Yuzu** : 2600 - 5500 [2]

"Nice Yuzu!" Yoko cheered.

"Very lucky indeed…" Ryoga commented.

"How could she get a card that can do that…?" Ruri said.

"Very well Yuzu…" Yuto said, but Yuya's voice could be faintly heard. "You managed to stop the attack and gain LP." Yuto's voice returned. "But I can still attack! Fragile Armor, attack Contralto!" The blue ghost in armor slashed its sword at Contralto, destroying it.

 **Yuzu** : 5500 - 5300 [2]

Yuto then inspected the field after finishing the Battle Phase. _"During her next turn, the negated cards will return to normal again, and if she manages to summon back Bloom Diva then…"_ An idea formed in his head after seeing his cards.

"Hm… I, using the level 4 Crack Helm and Fragile Armor, overlay! From the pitch-black darkness. Rise up against the foolish oppression, Fang of Rebellion! Descend now! Xyz Shōkan! Appear now! Rank 4! Dark Rebellion Xyz Dragon!" The signature monster of the Dark Duelist returned.

 **Dark Rebellion Xyz Dragon** DARK Dragon Xyz Effect R4 **2500** /2000

Yuzu was baffed by this strange and unexpected play. "What are you doing Yuto? It only has 2500 ATK! You could have left Crack Helm!"

"Try to guess!" Yuto only gave her a cryptic response before setting down two cards.

"Very well Yuto, I will find out your strategy soon! Atashi no turn, draw!"

"Quick-Play Magic, Burial from the Different Dimension! I return Bloom Diva, Soprano and Sonata to the graveyard!"

"And then Continuous Magic, Melodious Fusion activate! This card, once per turn, allows me to conduct a Fusion Summon, by banishing the required materials from the graveyard!"

"Nani? From the graveyard?" Ryoga widened his eyes in pure surprise.

"Just like Reiji!" Sawatari noted the similarity.

"I banish Soprano and Sonata again!" The Fusion spiral appeared behind Yuzu, calling the two monsters to it. "Angel's song, flowing melody! Guided by the baton, gather your power! Yūgō Shōkan! Now come to the stage! Level 6! Melodious Maestra Meisterin Schubert!"

 **Melodious Maestra Meisterin Schubert** LIGHT Angel Fusion Effect LV6 **2400** /2000

"Schubert's effect! I can target three monsters in either my or your graveyard and banish them! And yes, even though your cards benefit from being in the graveyard, some of them don't! And what I will banish are…" Yuzu pointed at Yuto's Duel Disk. "Phantom Knights Dimmed Sword, Phantom Knights Break Sword and Phantom Knights Wrong Magnet Ring!"

The three mentioned cards got pulled out, glowing purple. Yuto reluctantly put them in his pocket. _"She's really cunning! She must had read those cards before. Most of my cards can only banish themselves on my turn!"_

"And now the effect of Prodigy Mozart! Come to the stage, Aria!"

 **Melodious Diva Aria** LIGHT Angel Effect LV4 **1600** /1200

"It's sad that I cannot summon back Bloom Diva, but this is enough now! Battle! Meisterin Schubert, attack Phantom Knights Dusty Crossbow!" The female conductor raised its baton, the musical sheet on its dress shone up purple and blasting energy.

"Wave of the Great!" The wave hit Yuto's crossbow, creating an explosion. When the dust settled, the crossbow was gone, but the LP counter nearly threw Yuzu into a panic.

 **Yuto** : 3600 - 3000 [1]

"What the… how could you gain so much LP…?" Yuzu wondered.

"What did he do?" Sawatari and Yoko said the same thing.

"I have banished Dark Dagger before the attack connected…" Yuto revealed the card. "I gain LP equal to the attacking monster's original ATK."

Sawatari said. "Oh! That's why! He gained 2400 LP before he took the hit!"

"Yes, just like what you did earlier. Now Dark Rebellion is in Defense Position and you did not manage to bring back Bloom Diva, I will no longer take damage this turn!"

"But I can still destroy it! Prodigy Mozart! Destroy Yuto's dragon! Graceful Wave!"

Sadly, Yuto had prepared for it. "Trap Card open! Phantom Sword! Dark Rebellion gains 800 ATK!" Yuto's dragon gained a purple aura around it.

 **Dark Rebellion Xyz Dragon** ATK 2500 - 3300

"Tsk… Prodigy Mozart, stop your attack!" The female conductor dropped its hand down, stopping its advance. "If so, I activate Rain of Blessing! We both gain 1000 LP!" Yuto and Yuzu gained a blue aura.

 **Yuzu** : 5300 - 6300 [0]

 **Yuto** : 3000 - 4000 [1]

"Ore no turn, draw!" Yuto looked at the card he had just drawn. He then fiercely looked at Yuzu. "I will end the duel now! Dark Rebellion's effect!" Two Overlay Units disintegrated, the dragon opened its scissors-like wings, generating purple electricity. Prodigy Mozart and Schubert were strangled and lost its attack strength while Dark Rebellion gains the lost amount.

"Treason Discharge!"

 **Melodious Maestra Prodigy Mozart** ATK 2600 - 1300

 **Melodious Maestra Meisterin Schubert** ATK 3000 - 1500

 **Dark Rebellion Xyz Dragon** ATK 3300 - 6100

"ATK… is… 6100!" Sawatari mumbled in shock. He had witnessed the power of Yuto's dragon again, luckily this time he did not have to directly face it. He never forgot how it nearly destroyed the warehouse and took his life.

"And then, for each time I activated its effect, this card gains an additional attack! Usually, I would not like to attack this much, I don't really want to hurt anyone, but today I have to do it! Battle! Dark Rebellion Xyz Dragon, attack Prodigy Mozart!" The black dragon readied itself to fly.

"Hangyaku no… Lightning Disobey!" The dragon then charged at Bloom Diva, ramming its fang into the body but since Aria is on the field, none of her monsters could be destroyed by battle. Thanks to Yuto lowering the Real Solid Vision level on his Duel Disk earlier, it did not cause Yuzu to fly backwards, but a strong gust of wind still happened, forcing Yuzu to cover her face to avoid the dust.

 **Yuzu** : 6300 - 1500 [0]

"Damn! That was brutal, Yuzu lost 4800 LP! Now she only has 500 LP now!" Yoko said.

"If the next attack is done, Yuzu will lose!" Ruri noted.

"This is the end Yuzu! Dark Rebellion, attack Prodigy Mozart!" The dragon flew up high before charging down.

"Not gonna happen Yuto! From the graveyard, I banish Contralto to negate your attack again!"

"What!? From the graveyard this time!" Yuto said in surprise. He did not expect that card to have that effect.

"Then I gain LP again!"

 **Yuzu** : 1500 - 6300 [0]

"But don't forget that Dark Rebellion still has one attack left! Go now! Attack Schubert!"

 **Yuzu** : 6300 - 1500 [0]

"Very well Yuzu… you have managed to stop Dark Rebellion's attacks…"

"As I have told you, I will not go down as a weak girl!" Yuzu declared her resolve.

"You're really stubborn… just like Ruri…" Yuto complimented while Ruri blushed slightly. "If so, Trap Card, Phantom Black Hole activate! I banish Ragged Glove and Crack Helm to destroy Prodigy and Aria!"

"I set down a card and turn end. At this moment, Dark Rebellion's effect ends, its ATK returns to normal."

 **Dark Rebellion Xyz Dragon** ATK 6100 - 3300

"At this moment!" Yuzu interrupted. "The effect of Melodious Fusion activates! I return Bloom Diva to the Extra Deck to add Soprano to my hand!"

"Atashi no turn, draw! I normal summon Soprano!"

"Then its effect will allow me to Fusion Summon! Reappear from the musical spiral and sing the most wonderful song! Melodious Choir Bloom Diva!" Yuzu's ace monster returned to the field.

"And now!" Yuzu raised her hand up high, her eyes glowed in pink unknown to everyone, the Extra Deck slot on her Duel Disk shone up. "The effect of the Continuous Magic, Melodious Fusion!"

"What? Another Fusion Monster?" Ryoga yelled. "Can it be…?"

In the surprise of everyone on the backyard, Prodigy Mozart, Soprano, Aria and Schubert materialized above Yuzu, before turning into three swirls of energy and joined in the Fusion spiral appeared behind. "The flutter of angel wings! The song of the angel! The echoing melodious voice! The beautiful maestra! By the guidance of the baton, assemble your power! Yūgō Shōkan!"

"Come to the stage! Sing your favorite song! Floral Melodious Saint Bloom Prima!" The summoned monster resembled a female singer. It had blue hair, big red eyes; it wore a light yellow dress with some green G notes on it, the lower right part was blue and had a musical sheet; on its shoulders bloomed two beautiful flowers.

 **Floral Melodious Saint Bloom Prima** LIGHT Angel Fusion Effect LV7 **1900** /2000

"For each materials, this card gains 300 ATK!"

 **Floral Melodious Saint Bloom Prima** ATK 1900 - 3100

"Battle! Bloom Diva, attack Dark Rebellion Xyz Dragon!" The monster in white dress clapped its hands before singing in a high-pitched tone.

"I will destroy Phantom Sword to keep Dark Rebellion safe!" The purple aura on Dark Rebellion disappeared.

 **Dark Rebellion Xyz Dragon** ATK 3300 - 2500

"But you will still take the damage! Reflect Shout!" Yuzu reminded Yuto, who covered himself to avoid the blast.

 **Yuto** : 4000 - 2500 [1]

"But my attacks are not done yet! I still have Bloom Prima here!"

"Attacks…" Yuto noticed. "Does it mean…!"

"Yes! Bloom Prima can attack twice per Battle Phase!" Yuzu confirmed.

"Yoss!" Sawatari said. "If Bloom Prima destroy Dark Rebellion, Yuto will have 1200 LP left, and he will not be able to withstand its next attack!"

"No way! Yuto will lose?" Ryoga worried.

" _Yuto…"_ Ruri thought in fear.

"Battle! Bloom Prima, attack Dark Rebellion Xyz Dragon!" The flowers on the monster's shoulders shone up before blasting circular waves of energy at the black dragon, disintegrating it.

 **Yuto** : 2500 - 1900 [1]

"The duel ends now Yuto! Bloom Prima, direct attack!" Yuzu's new monster closed its flowers, gathering energy for the final attack before opening it, blasting multiple energy waves at Yuto, who quickly pointed his hand at his set card.

"Quick-Play Magic, Phantom Knights Around Burn, activate!" Yuto quickly took out two cards from his graveyard. "By banishing Fragile Armor and Silent Boots, it destroys all monsters and end the Battle Phase!" Multiple fireballs appeared from above the field and rained down, creating explosions. A short while later, the dust settled and the field was now empty.

"Sa… Yuto… You have that card all the time… Damn!" Yuzu said to Yuto from the smokes. "But I will not lose like that!"

Yuto smiled at Yuzu, who wondered. "What Yuto? Why are you smiling?"

"Because the duel is over now!" Ruri explained from the sidelines.

"Sorry Yuzu, but the duel is over. Phantom Knights Around Burn will inflict 800 damage to both of us for each monster in our possession that got sent to the grave during this Battle Phase!" Yuto told the pink hair girl as Bloom Diva and Bloom Prima flew up from the portal appeared on the ground and went through Yuzu fast, causing her defeat. She was knocked down in pain.

 **Yuto** : 1900 - 1100 [1]

 **Yuzu** : 500 - 0 [1]

"So…" Ryoga murmured.

"Yuzu lost…" Sawatari said.

"Yuto won…" Yoko continued.

Ruri smiled. "You won Yuto!" She couldn't be happier for her boyfriend. With this win, Yuto was now able to participate in place for Yuya, eliminating the danger of endangering his already bad reputation.

Yuto ran over to Yuzu and gave her a hand, which she took and got up.

"So I have won. Now, can we have a deal, Yuzu, Yoko-san?"

* * *

 **(Academia)**

"Are those cards done?"

"They're nearly done." Akaba Leo answered Yuma's question. Yesterday while sitting in his mother's room, he took the time to inspect his Deck. The cards in that Deck were a gift given to him by his parents in his 13th birthday, each card he had now was filled with love from his mother and intelligence from his father, the invaluable gift and the reminder of how great they once were. Now when he looked at it, he could only find hopeless and despair, probably his actions against his own people had tainted it. It hurt him a lot, losing himself to his enemy for the sake of someone else close to him, his mother. He shook his hand when he saw one of the cards in particular, the card he valued the most.

No.39 King of Wishes - Hope.

The card of the main character in his most favorite manga, no, Heartland's manga. He tried his best to obtain it in a tournament that introduced the "Numbers" cards in the same manga and he had succeed. During the war however, he realized that his Deck was slow compared to others, luckily he managed to survive and even win back. With the access he got from Academia, he decided to ask the Professor to create some new cards for him to improve his Deck, and Akaba Leo accepted his proposal rather quickly. He wondered whether his mother's condition had something to do with this or not.

" _Do they… know each other before?"_ Yuma thought.

Soon he found this to be silly though. The Professor was from the Fusion Dimension, and his mother was from the Xyz Dimension, there would be no way for them to meet before. Still, he found Leo accepting his request to be rather suspicious.

The beeping sound from the machine stopped him from thinking more though. After eyeing the Professor for a bit, Yuma went to the printing machine and picked up the new cards. Yuma quickly tested them in a mock duel with the Professor and the result was fantastic. They worked perfectly, the effects were good just like he had planned.

"I guess someday I can beat you Professor!" Yuma told sincerely to him. During his stay in Academia, Yuma would sometimes duel with the Professor. Most of the time was due to Yuri pressuring them though. He would always lose against him, this Professor is not the head of Academia for no reason, he is really strong and his deck is very powerful.

To Yuma's surprise, he smiled, pretty warmly. "We'll see! Looking for that day!" This was out of character for a leader like him. Yuma did not question it one bit, since he realized that this smile and this affection he had for him was really natural and genuine, almost like from a father to his son. This reminded him of his own father, an adventurer, who unfortunately died before the war. He was always Yuma's source of strength and pride, someone the kid could look up to whether he is in trouble. Yet he left him so suddenly, leaving the still-not-ready-for-the-cruel-world Tsukumo Yuma behind with his cancerous wife.

"I hope so!" Yuma said back before he could lose himself in the traumatizing memory again and went out of the card manufacturing room. He intended to go back to his mother's room when he suddenly saw Selena staying at the end of the hall. She was looking down, seemingly pretty frowned.

Yuma was sparkled up with interest. He would never think that an Osiris Red student like her would dare to wander in the command center. Besides, she was near the high-ranking rooms. He decided to approach her and find out.

"Selena!" The call made her snap out from her thoughts. She looked up at him, surprised.

"Yuma..."

"What are you doing here? This is the command center and the dorm for high-ranking members in Academia, you may be punished for being here!"

"I know… it just…" Selena wandered off, looking past her shoulders, where the rooms were.

"Wait… do you mean…" The months spending time with Academia had made Yuma know a lot of things about several members here. For Selena, there would be one thing, one thing that he was sure she regretted a lot.

"Yuri right?"

She sighed. "So you know…" She shook her hand and put her hand over her face.

"Yeah… and you want someone to say something about it right…"

Selena looked at Yuma, the look from her confirmed what he said was right.

…

A while later, they were at the garden near the Osiris Red section. Selena made sure that no one would see them from outside. She then told Yuma about her past, especially with Yuri. That was the first time she had opened her heart to a stranger. She did not know why, but probably both being strangers in here might make her relate to him somehow. For her, it was because her friendlessness and desire to prove herself to the Professor, and for Yuma, it was the pain of losing loved ones and betraying friends to help his mother. Initially, she despised him just as much as other Xyz soldiers due to turning back on his friends, an unforgettable action for a person with pride and morals like her no matter which side he was, but after knowing exactly why he had to do it, she sympathized with him. They both lost parents in a car accident and it was even worse for Yuma that he still had his mother but she is near death due to cancer.

"So that's why you know Yuri, and you regret…" Yuma concluded.

"I still regret it to this day, but I have to forget it to move on, I must not think about him to prove myself to the Professor…" Selena said. "It's too late for me now…"

"I know it as well…" Yuma sadly said. They remained silent for a while, looking at each other and not knowing what to say.

Selena finally broke the silence. "I bring you here for another reason as well!"

"What is that?"

"For the last three years, I have been preparing for the war yet I have not been sent out. I want to prove myself to the Professor, I want to go to the battlefield as soon as possible. I will go to Standard. I heard several Xyz survivors transported to there. Will you go with me?"

The word "Xyz" haunted Yuma. He immediately declined, shaking his head sadly. "No Selena! I will not go. I don't wanna face them."

"Oh… I'm sorry… I forgot that you…" She apologized.

"It's fine. It's my fault anyway. But if you truly want to go there, call Barrett. You two seemed to be close, he may help you. I will not inform the Professor about this so don't worry."

"If so, I can't force you… Even though I don't want to have him guard me all the time…" Selena whispered before saying goodbye to Yuma and went to Barrett's room. After some convincing, he agreed to travel with her as a bodyguard even though she did completely like this. Avoiding the guards, they secretly went to the basement, where several inter dimensional transporter are placed. They activated one of them then chose Standard as the destination and stood under it. The machine then teleported them away…

* * *

 **(Next morning)**

"Are you done?"

"I'm done!" Yuto said to Yuzu, who was standing outside of the bathroom. Yesterday, after winning, Yoko went to her friend and requested him to make a wig that resembled Yuya's hair. After adjusting it in front of the mirror, he went out.

"Man, you look like a cabbage now with that wig!" Ryoga joked, earning a hard look from Yuto.

"Don't talk about him like that Ryoga! Also you are indirectly shaming Yuya." Ruri reprimanded him. She felt bad that he mocked him like that, also disrespecting Yuya at the same time.

"I'm sorry… Yoko-san…" Ryoga bowed in an apology.

"Remember, you have to act like Yuya, do whatever he does and duel like him, I mean taking risks and using Action Cards. You have your last night checking his Deck and adapting its play style haven't you?" Yuzu reminded him.

"I will try." Yuto said before going to the Center Court with Ryoga, Yuzu and Ruri, not forgetting to bring both his and Yuya's Duel Disks with him. Yoko looked at the fading teenagers before frowning, thinking about the situation.

"He's been asleep for half a day, not recovering much and he is now imitating Yuya… what a sad boy…" She then looked at her left, where a picture of Yuya and Yusho was stood. "He is pretty similar to you Yuya… and Yusho-san… where are you now… why did you disappear… why haven't you come back to us… I am dying now… and I don't know how long I am able to keep myself together anymore…" She whispered sadly, trying her best not to shed tears…

…

"Yuto, I want to ask you something!" Ryoga asked his friend.

"Yes Ryoga?"

"Why are you keeping Dark Rebellion Xyz Dragon in Yuya's Extra Deck? Remember that Shun will be watching you duel in LDS' control room, if he sees you summoning it, he may think Yuya had done something to you and steal it!"

"Don't worry Ryoga!" Yuto reassured his friend. "I will only use it as a last resort."

The walk to LDS was just like usual, but now with Yuto cosplaying as Yuya. It was a hard thing to do though, as his voice is lower and deeper than the Entertainment Duelist, he had to raise his voice tone up, sometimes nearly breaking it. Luckily, Yusho, Gongenzaka and the kids did not seem to recognize it though, but Yusho might have noticed that "Yuya" seemed to be a little off today. Since Yuzu had warned earlier, Yuto managed to resist the "crush hug" Gongenzaka gave to him. Then Mieru, Yuya's crush appeared and threw herself towards Yuto, who swiftly sidestepped and proceeded to talk to the LDS trio to try to meet Shun, but they declined, saying that he was now busy and he did not want to speak to anyone.

The You Show group then proceeded to meet up with Sawatari and watch the duel between Toudou Yaiba and Kachidoki Isao, who Ruri and Ryoga recognized.

"It's him!" Ruri whispered.

"He attacked you two at the pier?" Yuto asked.

"No. His two classmates." Ryoga said, low enough so that others could not hear.

"If so, I got a bad feeling about this duel…" Sawatari mumbled.

They then watched the duel, but as it went on, they were shocked. Isao directly attacked Yaiba with martial arts, preventing him from getting Action Cards. The duel ended with Isao's victory and Yaiba critically wounded, forcing him to be stretched out. The audience's smiles completely turned into fear, Yuto was clenching Odd-Eyes Pendulum Dragon tightly in his hand.

Nico Smiley had to nervously announce the end of the duel and instructed the advanced Duelists to insert their registration cards to find out who and when they are going to duel. Gongenzaka will face Tanegashima Yuzou from Surprise Duel School tomorrow, Yuzu is against Naname Mikio from Duel Girls Club two days later, Ryoga will face "Shirogami Taka" or Kurosaki Shun after Yuzu's duel, which earns him worried looks from the kids and others, but he assured them that he will be fine. When things come to Yuto, he revealed that he had to duel…

"Kachidoki Isao!" Futoshi yelled.

"Can't be…" Ayu said.

"Yut… Yuya…" Ruri nearly blurted out the secret, stopping herself at the last second. She clearly worried about him a lot as he would duel against a member from the Duel School that tortured her and Ryoga back at the pier.

"Be careful… Yuto!" Ryoga wished for his friend, whispering his name.

"Don't let him hurt you like what he did to Yaiba!" Sawatari said.

"It will be fine everyone…" Yuto said. He then walked to the ceiling and looked at Isao fiercely, who scented that his opponent was eyeing him.

" _This is not the right way to duel! Kachidoki Isao… I do not accept your Dueling! As Yuya said, Dueling is to make people smile from their hearts, not to hurt others and destroy everything… and this is the way I want to duel too!"_

" _I will… make you recognize it!"_

* * *

 **Fanfic OC Cards**

 **Phantom Knights Dark Dagger**

DARK Warrior Effect LV3 1000/1800

If you control no monsters, you can Special Summon this card (from your hand). When an opponent's monster declares an attack on a "Phantom Knights" monster you control: you can banish this card from your GY; gain LP equal to the attacking monster's original ATK.

 **Phantom Knights Dimmed Sword**

DARK Warrior Xyz Effect R3 2000/1000

2 Level 3 DARK monsters

Once per turn, you can detach 1 material from this card; send the top 3 cards from your Deck to the GY, also this card gains 1000 ATK until your opponent's End Phase. When you control 2 or more "Phantom Knights" monsters, your opponent cannot target your monsters for attack, expect this card. If this Xyz Summoned card leaves the field: You can Special Summon this card's materials from your GY, also you cannot Special Summon monsters for the rest of this turn, except DARK monsters.

 **Basso (Equip Magic Card)**

Equip only to a "Melodious" monster you control. Your opponent cannot targets monsters for attack, expect the equipped monster. If a Normal/Flip Summoned monster attacks the equipped monster; destroy that monster, and if you do, inflict damage equal to half of its original ATK.

 **Phantom Knights Dusty Crossbow**

DARK Warrior Xyz Effect R4 2400/1800

2 Level 4 DARK monsters

You can detach 1 material from this card; all of your opponent's face-up cards have their effects negated, until the next Standby Phase. You can detach 1 material from this card and sent 1 "Phantom Knights" monster from your hand to the graveyard; add 1 "Rank-Up-Magic" card from your Deck to your hand. You can only each of these effects once per turn, and only once that turn.

 **Melodious Songstress Contralto**

LIGHT Angel Effect LV4 800/800

When an opponent's monster declares an attack: you can Special Summon this card from your hand; negate the attack, then gain LP equal to the damage you would have taken. When an opponent's monster declares an attack while this card is in your GY: you can banish this card from your GY; negate the attack, then gain LP equal to the damage you would have taken.

 **Melodious Fusion** **(Continuous Magic Card)**

During your Main Phase: You can Fusion Summon 1 Angel-Type Fusion Monster from your Extra Deck, using monsters from your hand or field as Fusion Materials. You can only use this effect of "Melodious Fusion" once per turn. If Summoning a "Melodious" Fusion Monster this way, you can also banish monsters from your Graveyard as Fusion Material. Once per turn, during either player's End Phase: You can target 1 "Melodious" Fusion Monster in your GY and 1 banished "Melodious" Main Deck Monster; return the first target to the Extra Deck, also return the second target to the hand.

* * *

 **Okay! The setup is completed, Yuya got replaced! And just to be sure, he is not dead!**

 **So this chapter I explained the appearance of the "Numbers" cards. I know this is silly but you can't deny that it is just like real life, where the show popularize the game right? Meta-in-meta as you can say!**

 **You guys may disappoint with the girls losing all the time (sans Rin), but I have planned for them during the Synchro arc so don't worry. And I hope the line has not been crossed this time, but I love them a lot!**

* * *

 **Next Chapter Preview**

 **A Dark Day before the Darker Day**

Yuto duel against Kachidoki Isao, the runner-up of the previous Maiami Championship while Selena and Barrett go to the Standard Dimension to score some points for the Professor without him knowing.

 **This is matrixnis, out!**


	27. Scale 27

**Welcome back everyone!**

 **Thank you for the reviews I have received, especially thetiger39 who gave me some important tips for the story.**

 **I really have nothing to say anymore so…**

 **Hope you enjoy this duel-heavy chapter!**

* * *

 **Chapter 27: A Dark Day before the Darker Day**

* * *

"So this is the Standard Dimension…"

Selena said as she and Barrett stood behind an alleyway. While using the Dimensional Transporter, they were pulled into a wormhole and a while later, a strong source of light erupted, opening another portal and sucking them to it. While Barrett landed gracefully and effortlessly on the ground, Selena instead slammed to the ground abdomen-first since she has not used a Dimensional Transporter before. She berated Barrett for not catching her, but the muscular soldier told her that she needed to learn what the battlefield is by experiencing it with all of her body and mind, or course he would protect her if she would be in trouble, not that she minded considering her hot-headed personality and her thrust for battle, in order to prove herself to be a worthy asset for the Professor and to forget her past. The Standard Dimension for her was similar to the Fusion Dimension with houses, buildings, clean air, clear sky, bright sun as usual, but something was not right…

"Where is everybody?"

Barrett asked the question instead, and the cold and collected tone the soldier made when he said that did not bother her one bit, but the fact that nobody was there did. If this place was like Domino City back in her home then it would have a lot of people doing normal stuff in here and there would be a lot of Duelists, especially ones using Xyz, the targets for her to catch. Yet there was absolutely no one in here, she wondered what had happened to this place. Definitely Academia had not attacked this place like Xyz yet since the buildings were still intact and the sky was still blue, it would also not be Synchro since during her time in Academia, she had interacted with Rin and that blue hair girl had told her about her life and the harsh condition of her hometown, City; of course she had told Yuma to take care of Rin since Sanders would force her out to torture her again. She also did not believe that this place is a ghost town since she did not believe and was not afraid of ghosts or anything mystical, she knew that they are simply creations of imagination and that would never make a proud soldier of Academia, as she called herself, fear.

The possible clues were slowly dismissed, Selena slowly lost her temper when a large screen on a building suddenly turned on, showing a commercial about a tournament or some kind.

"Maiami Championship…?"

The newswoman continued advertising this tournament, allowing Barrett and Selena to gather information about what was happening in this "mysterious" dimension.

"Apparently this dimension is holding a tournament called Maiami Championship. Probably annual, which is why a lot of people go to watch it in the central stadium and there is no one around here." Barrett deduced.

"A Duel Monster tournament… I don't know why they use it for entertainment like that…" Selena said as she continued watching the commercial. "It is supposed to use for war. However, if they hold a tournament like that, there will be a lot of duelists here."

"And according to the news, duelists using Fusion, Synchro and Xyz are participating as well. We will find at least one Xyz user for you Selena."

"You wanna find an Xyz user?" A male voice spoke up behind them. They turned around to see a boy, about Selena's age.

"You use Xyz?" Barrett immediately questioned him.

"Yeah! My name is Shijima Hokuto, the LDS's Xyz representative. You two don't know me?" Hokuto was walking from his home to the stadium in order to prepare physically for his duel against Mokota Michio and since his duel would be way later, there was no need for him to go early.

There was no response from the Fusion warriors, but Barrett and Selena glanced at each other. Heads nodding.

"But why are you two wearing a cloak? You don't participate the tournament? Or are you planning to infiltrate? Who are you two? And why do you look like Hiragi Yuzu?" Hokuto raised his voice. He found those two people to be very suspicious and the girl could not be Yuzu even though she shared the same face as that pink hair girl and Ruri.

"Who are we?" Selena said, slowly advancing on Hokuto, making him walk back in fear.

"Let's just say that I want to duel you…"

"In a real battle…"

"Real battle…?" Hokuto murmured.

"Yep. And you are going to be my first enemy to fight in battle!"

Barrett grabbed Hokuto and threw him to the alley, basically sealing him from any chance of getting out of this fight. Hokuto quickly rolled backwards and activated his Duel Disk.

"Don't worry." Selena reassured him. "We won't kill you right now." Hokuto sweated at the word "kill".

"If you win the duel, we will let you go. If not, something bad will happen to you…" Selena said in a creepy monotone and an icy glare.

Hokuto swallowed his nerves and shot back. "I don't know what you two are doing and why you are dueling me, but it seems that I have no other choice…"

 **DUEL!**

 **Selena** : 4000 [5]

 **Shijima Hokuto** : 4000 [5]

* * *

"Watashi no turn!" Selena loudly declared, a cry for battle. "Magic Card, Fusion, activate!"

" _She uses Fusion…? Just like Yuzu and Masumi…"_

"The Fusion materials I will use are Moonlight Crimson Fox and Moonlight Blue Cat! Blue cat that prowls through the darkness! Red fox howling under the moonlight! Spiral into the moon's gravity and become a new power!"

"Yugō Shōkan! Come to me! Beautiful beast that dances in the moonlight!" Selena's signature monster came out of the Fusion spiral, dancing. "Moonlight Cat Dancer!"

 **Moonlight Cat Dancer** DARK Beast Warrior Fusion Effect LV7 **2400** /2000

"Fusion Summon…" Hokuto mumbled. Besides Masumi and Yuzu, this is the newest Fusion duelist he had seen. The sheer pressure she had just for the summoning is pretty terrifying to be honest.

"I set down a card and end my turn." A card materialized before fading. "Sa come! Show me your strength and pride as a duelist!"

" _Hate to degrade myself but… she is right…"_ Hokuto thought. _"I need to win this duel! To show her my pride as a duelist and to get out of this situation!"_

"Boku no turn, draw!" Hokuto took out a card from his hand and immediately slapped it down, calling out a small warrior. "Since only you control a monster, I can special summon Sacred Scheat!"

 **Sacred Scheat** LIGHT Warrior Effect LV1 **100** /1600

"Next I normal summon Sacred Kaust!" The minotaurus with a bow got summoned.

 **Sacred Kaust** LIGHT Warrior Effect LV4 **1800** /

"Kaust's effect!" The monster fired an arrow up high, raining down light. "It increases its level by 1!"

 **Sacred Kaust** LV4 - 5

"And then Scheat will change its level as well!" The small warrior threw up a bottle, making it pour down yellow dust on it.

 **Sacred Scheat** LV1 - 5

"Now he has…" Barrett said.

"Two level 5 monsters…" Selena readied herself.

"I, using the level 5 Sacred Kaust and Scheat, overlay!"

"Light of the stars, descend and shake this very earth! Xyz Shōkan! Appear now, Rank 5! Sacred Pleiades!"

 **Sacred Pleiades** LIGHT Warrior Xyz Effect R5 **2500** /1500

"It's here... an Xyz Monster..." Selena said to herself. Adrenaline began to pump through her veins.

"Sacred Pleiades' effect! By detaching an Overlay Unit, your Moonlight Cat Dancer that you had to use nearly your entire hand will be returned to your hand!" An Overlay Unit flew off the orbited and homed at the dancer.

Selena quickly acted. "Not gonna happen!" She took out a card from her graveyard, the Overlay Unit stopped in its tracks and disintegrated, shocking Hokuto.

"What? What did you do?"

"Crimson Fox can negate the activation of your card effect and increase both of our LPs by 1000!" She explained while a source of light appeared from above them, shining light.

 **Selena** : 4000 - 5000 [1]

 **Hokuto** : 4000 - 5000 [4]

"If there is one thing that I know for sure, it is that Xyz duelists are really strong. You think I would not prepare a counter for your monster effects? That's how we beat all of you Xyz scums!"

"What the hell are you talking about? You seem to treat dueling like something even more serious than competition!"

"That's how we think Dueling is!" Selena yelled. "Don't waste your time anymore! Continue the duel!"

"Tsk… but to be clear, my Pleiades has 2500 ATK, more than the 2400 ATK Cat Dancer you have! Battle! Sacred Pleiades, attack Moonlight Cat Dancer!"

"Too reckless asshole! Reverse Card open! Counter Trap, Magic Cylinder!"

"What!?"

"It negates your attack and inflict your Pleiades' ATK as damage to you!" The card turned into energy, engulfing Pleidaes' sword briefly before flying towards Hokuto, hitting him painfully.

 **Hokuto** : 5000 - 2500 [4]

"Dammit... She inflicted a massive 2500 damage... But I cannot lose! 1 card set, turn end!"

"Watashi no turn, draw!" She prepared to attack but…

"At this moment!" Hokuto interrupted. "I activate the effect of Pleiades!"

"What? That effect works on both turns!?" Both Barrett and Selena got caught off guard.

"Yes! I am not the ace of LDS' Xyz course without a reason! Goodbye Moonlight Cat Dancer!" The remaining Overlay Unit crashed the Fusion monster in a lightning speed, making it scream in pain before disintegrating in yellow dust.

Selena reluctantly put Cat Dancer back to her Extra Deck since it is a Fusion Monster, it cannot exist in her hand. "Tsk… that was a good move, you have caught me off guard, but don't think I am finished yet!" Selena declared as she activated a card in her hand. "Magic Card, Moonlight Glass Slippers activate!"

" _Glass Slippers?"_ Hokuto thought. _"A dancing-theme Deck I suppose…"_

"Since I control no monsters, I can draw 2 cards from my Deck then return 1 non-Moonlight monster to the bottom of the Deck or send my entire hand to the graveyard." Selena quickly looked at the drawn card and put back Fusion to the bottom of her Deck. She was disappointed to have to put back Fusion, but she could not waste her entire hand in the graveyard. "Moonlight Pink Panther normal summon!"

 **Moonlight Pink Panther** DARK Beast Warrior Effect LV4 **1800** /1000

"One useful effect this card has is it grants 500 ATK to all of my "Moonlight" monsters on the field!"

 **Moonlight Pink Panther** ATK 1800 - 2300

"And then Magic Card, Moonlight Perfume will summon Cat Dancer from my graveyard!"

 **Moonlight Blue Cat** DARK Beast Warrior Effect LV4 **1600** /1200

 **Moonlight Blue Cat** ATK 1600 - 2100

"When it's special summoned, Pink Panther will have its ATK doubled in this turn!"

 **Moonlight Pink Panther** ATK 2300 - 4600

"ATK… 4600… You're not using Cat Dancer this turn?" Hokuto wondered. With those two monsters, she could have summoned Cat Dancer again.

"You think I don't have another way besides Fusion to beat you?" Selena said. "Stupid! We are not that predictable, we can switch strategies if we can!"

"But after all, your Deck only focuses on attacking, and that is horribly and easily predictable."

"Shut up!" Selena yelled. She realized she had let him get the better of her. She could not stand it. She is a warrior, a fighter, she fights for Academia and for her pride as a duelist. She would not let anyone step in her way.

"Battle! Pink Panther, attack Sacred Pleiades!"

"Useless! Trap Card, Sacred Comet!" A literal comet crashed down on the ground, nearly knocking the panther off the path. "I summon Kaust from my graveyard and inflict its 1800 ATK as damage to you!" The comet broke apart, revealing the monster. It immediately fired an arrow at a shocked Selena, making her scream.

 **Selena** : 5000 - 3200 [0]

"Selena!" Barrett attempted to help.

She immediately waved her hand, stopping the large soldier. "I'm fine! Don't interfere! This is my first battle! I gotta win by myself! Don't help me!"

"Such persistent girl…" Hokuto noted. He had to compliment her strength and determination as a duelist.

"No need for compliment from an Xyz user like you! I order Blue Cat to attack Kaust-"

"Not gonna happen!" Hokuto interrupted.

"What?"

"Since the total ATKs of your monsters is more than twice of mine, the Battle Phase ends!"

"Dammit… the total ATK of my monsters is 6700…"

"And Pleiades only has 2500 ATK, which means you cannot attack me anymore!"

Barrett commented from the sidelines. "It has that effect to stop the battle as well… Selena cannot do anything anymore."

"That was a great move though, you got my respect Xyz asshole! Turn end."

"You wanna be respected, yet you behave like shit, ordering people to respect you?" Hokuto found her behavior to be disgusting, of course Selena did not take that well as indicated by the hardened face she made. "Sorry, your respect is wasted! Boku no turn, draw!"

" _Selena…"_ Barrett put his hand over his head, disappointed by the girl's behavior. Her desire to prove herself to the Professor had made her too prideful and arrogant, qualities that did not fit for any girls. _"Still as untactful as always…"_

"I normal summon Sacred Gredi!"

 **Sacred Gredi** LIGHT Warrior Effect LV4 **1600** /1400

"When this card is normal summoned, I can special summon a "Sacred" monster in my hand! Come! Sacred Sombres!" The female warrior with space-like wings appeared.

 **Sacred Sombres** LIGHT Warrior Effect LV4 **1550** /1600

"And then Continuous Magic, Sacred's Star Sign activate! This card will allow me to draw a card when I summon a "Sacred" Xyz monster. And then Kaust's effect!" The minotaur fired two energy arrows up high, raining down light.

 **Sacred Gredi** LV4 - 5

 **Sacred Sombres** LV4 - 5

"I, using the level 5 Sacred Gredi and Sombres, overlay! Xyz Shōkan!"

"Rank 5! Sacred Pleiades!" Another Pleiades appeared.

"Sacred's Star Sign's effect will allow me to draw a card, and then…" Hokuto took out a card from his Extra Deck. "I can Xyz Summon this card using the Overlay Unit-less Pleiades as an Xyz Material!"

This time, Barrett and Selena were genuinely surprised. This was a completely new technique for Xyz Summoning that they had not seen before.

"Rain down your dazzling light! Xyz Shōkan! Appear! Rank 6! Sacred Ptolemys Messier 7!" The highest Rank Sacred monster appeared from the portal, roaring.

 **Sacred Ptolemys Messier 7** LIGHT Machine Xyz Effect R6 **2700** /2000

"Sadly since I summoned Messier 7 this way, I cannot activate its effects this turn, but Pleiades would be enough now!" On cue, Pleiades slashed one of its Overlay Units, sending Pink Panther to Selena's hand.

 **Moonlight Blue Cat** ATK 2100 - 1600

"Battle! Messier 7, attack Moonlight Blue Cat!" The monster rammed the cat in bodysuit, destroying it.

 **Selena** : 3200 - 2100 [1]

"And now end the duel Pleiades! Direct attack!" The warrior began to swing its sword, ready to slash the female Osiris Red warrior. Hokuto was preparing to see Selena's panicked face, but to his shock, the hard expression on her face did not change. There was something more on that face, something certain…

She would not lose…

Selena suddenly waved her hand. "From the graveyard, I banish Moonlight Glass Slippers to summon Pink Panther from my hand and draw a card! Also Blue Cat cannot be destroyed this turn!" In a moment, Blue Cat reappeared on the field and headbutted the sword, causing Pleiades to throw itself back in surprise. It never thought that that female monster would do that masculine action.

 **Moonlight Pink Panther** ATK 1800 - 2300

 **Selena** : 2100 - 1900 [0]

" _Dammit…"_ Hokuto cursed himself in his mind. _"Kaust has 1800 ATK while Pink Panther has 2300 ATK, attacking it now would be suicide…"_

He decided to stop his attack just to be sure. "If so, I stop the Battle Phase, change Kaust to Defense Position and end my turn. But take this: you have zero card in your hand and you only have Pink Panther on the field. You cannot inflict damage to me. And even though you still have your Draw Phase, the chance of drawing a good card right now is very slim. You cannot win me dear girl!"

To his surprise, Selena smiled confidently, as if his taunting did not work one bit. "Is that really so?"

"What?" Hokuto became shocked.

"I am a Duel Soldier of Academia, a proud one. I have been training for the last three years for this very moment, the moment I get to the battlefield and fight like a true soldier, winning fights and accomplishing missions. So yeah, I believe in myself, I believe in my Deck, I believe it will answer my feelings when I hope for it."

"And I will WIN!"

"Watashi no turn…" Selena touched the top card of her Deck. Unknown to her and everyone else in that alley, the card was glowing faintly and her eyes were flashing purple.

"DRAWWWW!" Selena slowly turned the card around, and when the front face of the card was revealed, she smiled. "It's here!"

"What?"

"I activate the Magic Card from my hand, Moonlight Fusion!"

"Moonlight Fusion? A Fusion archetype-centric card?!"

"With this card, I can use Moonlight Pink Panther from the field and Moonlight Blue Cat in my GY to Fusion Summon!" The materials flew up high before joining in the Fusion spiral appeared behind.

"Appear again from the prideful spiral! Level 7! Moonlight Cat Dancer!" Hokuto could not believe Selena had summoned her ace out again, and this time using monsters from the graveyard as well. But he was sure that he would not give up.

"Sacred Pleiades's effect! I detach an Overlay Unit from it to return Cat Dancer to the hand! That your deck only focusing on attacking and having little defense will backfire on you!"

"Really?" Selena said, Hokuto lost his cool this time. "Moonlight Fusion's effect! By banishing a "Fusion" card from my graveyard, I can special summon the banished Blue Cat and you cannot target Cat Dancer for card effects this turn!"

"Shit!" Hokuto could only mutter in fear as Selena's monsters returned to the field.

 **Moonlight Pink Panther** ATK 1800 - 2300

 **Moonlight Blue Cat** ATK 1600 - 2100

 **Moonlight Cat Dancer** ATK 2400 - 2900

"And now Blue Cat will allow Cat Dancer to double its ATK!"

 **Moonlight Cat Dancer** ATK 2900 - 5800

"ATK… 5… 5800…?"

" _The duel is finished…"_ Barrett solemnly thought.

"Battle!" Selena yelled. "Moonlight Cat Dancer, attack Sacred Pleiades!" Cat Dancer did a flying kick at Pleiades, destroying it in a huge explosion. Hokuto groaned painfully from the blast. He was lost again, and this time, there would be no going back…

 **Hokuto** : 2500 - 0 [2]

Selena made the blade disappear and slowly advanced on the downed Hokuto, who slowly got up and walked back in fear. Fearful. For what they would do to him.

And what they would really do to him would be much, much worse…

Selena activated her Duel Disk, emitting a bright purple light that enveloped Hokuto. A short while later, Hokuto was gone…

Forever…

…

…

Selena pulled out the card of a carded Hokuto and waved it in victory.

"First kill…" She smiled at her first win, and she was eager to score more. She turned to Barrett, who remained emotionless and silent.

"Come on Barrett… let's go to the stadium…"

* * *

In the duel field, Gongenzaka was inspecting the space around him while blindfolded.

"The man Gongenzaka will not fall for those tricks!" He declared as he carefully heard, using his ears to their fullest. He finally located the position where his opponent was hiding, said duelist was caught red-handed.

"Susano-O direct attack!" The mechanized samurai waved its blade, creating a beam of energy that flew towards Yuzou and swept him off the ladder. He could only yell, wondering how Gongenzaka could find his hiding spot as he lost the duel.

 **Tanegashima Yuzou** : 400 - 0 [0]

The Action Field slowly disintegrated, Gongenzaka took off the blindfold.

"Just an easy thing!" He calmly explained.

* * *

"He won…" Ayu said.

"Next duel is Yuya-niichan!" Tatsuya could never know that it was actually Yuto.

"And now for the second duel!" Nico resumed. "Please come to the stage, Sakaki Yuya from You Show Duel School!" Yuto slowly walked into the field, nearly feeling overwhelmed by the loud cheering from the audience. He had not experienced that for quite a while. Yuto waved back at them, trying his best to keep Yuya's voice in check.

"Thank you! Thank you a lot!"

Shuzo noticed the worried looks on the kids, Yuzu, Ruri and Ryoga. "Oi oi! Why are you so worried? We just watching!"

Yuzu said. "Because his opponent is Kachidoki Isao! You saw his duel yesterday right?"

"The ace of LDS' Synchro course, Toudou Yaiba got badly beaten by him!" Tatsuya said in worry.

"Even more, Kachidoki is the runner-up of the last tournament!"

Gongenzaka got to the seat and sat down. "Since the champion has transferred, Kachidoki Isao is truly the number one candidate for the champion title of this year's tournament!"

Nico continued. "And his opponent is Kachidoki Isao from Ryouzanpaku Duel School!"

A member of that school in the VIP section rang the gong he held in his hand, noting the arrival of their strongest student, their most potential candidate for this Maiami Championship, Kachidoki Isao. The violent duelist had come to the stage, looking at Yuto like a predator. The audience of course lost their smiles at his sight.

Ayu said. "He's really scary, even before the duel!"

"Smiling in Duel is prohibited. That's the core of the Ryouzanpaku Style!" Shuzo explained. "To them, winning is everything. As you can see, in order to win, they will do it at all costs, no matter how they do it, fair or not. They duel very violently. The principal of Ryouzanpaku Duel School, Goudagawa Ryouzan, has always been criticized for this forced and violent Dueling. However, the school still managed to win multiple awards."

"Such a strict person…" Tatsuya said.

" _More like brutal and heartlessness…"_ Both Ruri and Ryoga agreed.

"Uh… furthermore, that is a boarding school. Students are not allowed to leave. I even heard that the students there would not meet their parents until they have become Pro!"

"I would have gone away from that school for good!" Futoshi wholeheartedly agreed with that.

"Strict as that school is, Ryouzanpaku Duel School still has many people wanting to join! The number of Pro they trained is number two, only behind LDS."

Gongenzaka then said. "In that school, the one better than everyone is that very Kachidoki Isao."

"No wonder he was so good in that kind of duel…" Sawatari whispered.

" _Be careful Yuto…"_ Ruri thought, hoping that her boyfriend would be fine.

Yuzu noticed, putting her hand on the girl's shoulders. "I'm sure he will be fine!"

"Now the two Duelists are facing each other, let's choose the Action Field!" Nico declared. The big Action Card in the Action Card sphere began to rotate, faster and faster, until the big "A" on it could not be seen and suddenly be visible again by a sharp stop.

"ACTION FIELD ON! Field Magic, Bamboo Forest of the Immortals, activate!" The Real Solid Vision machine activated, turning the entire field into multiple floating islands with several bamboo forests. Kachidoki was standing on a large and tall stone while Yuto was standing at the forest. The two Duelists looked at each other, tension grew, no one said anything, until Yuto decided to break the silence.

"Yesterday, I have seen your duel." Yuto said, keeping his voice as close to Yuya's as possible. Kachidoki gave him two punches to the air and a sick kick.

"I do not accept your Dueling! That is not Duel!"

Kachidoki resumed his standing stance and began chanting, not caring Yuto. "Duelists locked in battle."

Yuto gasped before chanting. Luckily Ruri had taught him the Action Duel chant yesterday. "Kicking the earth and dancing in the air alongside their monsters. They storm through the field!"

"Behold!" Isao continued while punching and kicking the air. "This is the newest and greatest evolution of Dueling!"

"ACTION…" Nico yelled, raising his hand.

 **DUEL!**

 **Yuto** : 4000 [5]

 **Kachidoki Isao** : 4000 [5]

* * *

Nico snapped his fingers, the bubble exploded, scattering the Action Cards. Isao waved his hand at Yuto in a "bring it on" sign to provoke him. Yuto showed him a card before slapping it down to the blade, trying to smile like Yuya. It was hard considering how the traumatic war dehumanized him. "From my hand, I normal summon Entermate Silver Claw!" A fox with silver fur and sharp claws on its legs appeared.

 **Entermate Silver Claw** DARK Beast Pendulum Effect LV4 Scale 5 **1800** /700

After being summoned, Silver Claw began to run.

" _According to what I have seen from Yuya, he would probably do this…"_ Yuto quickly climbed on its back and began riding it, making the audience cheer up happily. He still kept the stoic expression on his face while waving back at them.

"Oi Yuya-niichan!" Futoshi yelled.

"Watch out!" Ayu did the same.

" _What?"_ Luckily, Yuto reacted in time and dodged the large bush of bamboo. "Turn end!"

* * *

"Tsk…" Shun clicked his tongue. He was watching the duel between "Yuya" and Isao. Today, he noticed something strange from him.

"What?" Reiji wondered. "Something wrong?"

"His voice is lower than several days ago, it sounds like Yuto's. I don't know what happened to him, probably a sore throat or something, but I haven't seen him or Yuto since that night!"

"Maybe… I think of the same thing too…" The President calmly responded.

"What? What's wrong President?" Nakajima asked.

"He's not quite as energetic as he should be…"

* * *

Still standing on the same rock, Isao passively began his turn with a simple "Draw!" The purple hair duelist looked at his drawn card. "When only my opponent controls a monster, I can summon Soaring Earth Star Hayate without release!" A warrior in a fur-like costume and dark blue armor appeared.

 **Soaring Earth Star Hayate** EARTH Warrior Effect LV5 **2100** /0

"It's here!" Nico said. "Contestant Kachidoki has summoned a high level monster!"

Yuto was still riding on Silver Claw when he noticed Kachidoki beginning his move. "Battle! Hayate, attack Silver Claw!" The monster flew down and charged at the fox. Yuto quickly ran to the forest bamboo nearby. He noticed an Action Card tied in a tree, ready to be grabbed.

Suddenly, a short bamboo pole was thrown at Yuto, hitting right where Silver Claw was running, forcing it to dive away, missing the attempt to guide its master to the Action Card. Then another pole came and Yuto could see the direction of where it was being thrown. He quickly turned to that direction with quick reflex honed from the war and was generally unsurprised to find the only person who could do that: Kachidoki Isao. The duelist smiled smugly and grabbed the card. "Too slow! The battle still continues!"

On cue, the warrior thrust its stick at Silver Claw, destroying it. Yuto had anticipated it and rolled away. He then adjusted the wig to avoid it falling down.

 **Yuto** : 4000 - 3700 [4]

" _Dammit…"_ Yuto cursed. He took Silver Claw and sent it to the Extra Deck. "Pendulum Monsters go to the Extra Deck it if leaves the field!"

The "turn end" of Isao was overly complicated, consisted of waving his hands in a circular motion and posing. From the sidelines, the kids were mad at Isao's dirty play while Ruri grasped her hands in fear for Yuto.

"Dammit!" Ryoga expressed his anger. "He's physically attacking him! He could have gotten that Action Card!"

Isao waved his hand at Yuto again, provoking him to try to beat him. Yuto swallowed his rising anger. "You still keeping that Dueling? Then… I will… I will not let this go by! Ore no turn!" Yuto eyed the card. His eyes widened his shock, his body began shaking as he took notice of the name and the effects or the card.

Entermate Trump Witch…

The card that allow him to gain access to Fusion… the thing he hated the most…

Memories began to come back, flooding his mind. He remembered it, the sounds, the screams, the roar, the abomination…

The creepy sensation of hearing the word "Fusion" playing in his head like a recording, looping his head and resonating repeatedly.

" _Fusion fusion fusion fusion fusion fusion fusion fusion…"_

" _Yūgō Shōkan Yūgō Shōkan Yūgō Shōkan Yūgō Shōkan Shōkan Shōkan Shōkan…"_

" _ARGH ARGH ARGH ARGH ARGH…"_

" _Please please please please please please…"_

Yuto did not realize he was breathing heavily until the card slipped from his hand. He clumsily took it back up, still shaking.

" _No... no… I cannot use it… I will not use it… I will not…"_

Yuto quickly looked at his hand, thinking about what cards he would use. He could have simply left it, Rune-Eyes and Beast-Eyes of the Deck but then the number of cards in the Deck would be reduced by one, lower than the compulsory 40. He decided to grab two and showed them to Isao before slapping it down to the blade. "I, using the Scale 3 Entermate Partnaga and the Scale 8 Timegazer Magician, Pendulum Scale setting!"

"With this, I can summon multiple monsters with levels between 4 and 7!"

"Swing, Pendulum of the soul! Swing an arc across the nether!" Since Yuto had learnt how to speak the chant for the Pendulum Summon by watching footage of Yuya's duels, he did not have any trouble masquerading besides keeping the voice.

"Pendulum Shōkan! Appear now, my monsters!" Three monsters appeared from the portal.

"From the Extra Deck! Entermate Silver Claw! And from my hand! Entermate Whip Viper! And the beautiful and wonderous dichromatic eyes! Odd-Eyes Pendulum Dragon!" Unlike the usual smiles Yuya would give, Yuto instead kept a stoic face.

 **Odd-Eyes Pendulum Dragon** DARK Dragon Pendulum Effect LV7 Scale 4 **2500** /2000

 **Entermate Whip Viper** EARTH Reptile Effect LV4 **1700** /900

Yuto had to use all of his inner strength to say the next words. "The real fun has just begun!" The bright words from the Entertainent Duelist had become a luxury for him, it is impossible for him to truly feel the warmth and original meaning of those words.

To his surprise, Isao responded disinterestedly. "Fun?"

"Uh!" Yuto quickly said. "That's how it is supposed to be."

"I only come here to win."

Ignoring his words, Yuto continued. "Entermate Partnaga allows my monsters to gain 300 ATK for each "Entermate" monsters I control."

 **Entermate Silver Claw** ATK 1800 - 2400

 **Odd-Eyes Pendulum Dragon** ATK 2500 - 3100

 **Entermate Whip Viper** ATK 1700 - 2300

"And then Whip Viper's effect! I can change your Hayate's ATK and DEF in this turn!" The snake did the hypnotizing thing it usually did while using its effects, literally dropping the martial artist down in a rather shameful look.

 **Soaring Earth Star Hayate 2100** /0 - **0** /2100

"Battle! Odd-Eyes Pendulum Dragon, attack Soaring Earth Star Hayate!" The dragon roared before charging.

"Hayate's effect!" Isao said. "Since I only control it, I can negate an attack!" The warrior blasted energy towards Odd-Eyes, forcing it to stop its attack.

"Contestant Kachidoki had countered so effectively!"

"But my attacks are not over yet! Silver Claw, attack Hayate!"

Isao took out a card from his hand and slid it to the Magic and Trap slot in his Duel Disk. "Action Magic, Evade!" Hayate swung its blade, knocking the fox out of its way.

"Whip Viper, attack Hayate!" The snake listened the command and began to lung at the warrior, ready to inject poison at it.

Wasting no second, Kachidoki quickly ran to his right as fast as possible. He swiftly grabbed an Action Card hung on a bamboo tree and slid it to his Duel Disk.

"Action Magic, Battle Lock activate!" A literal lock materialized on the field, stopping Whip Viper. "You cannot attack my monsters this turn!"

"Otto! Contestant Kachidoki had used Hayate's effect and Action Cards to stop Sakaki Yuya's advance! How amazing!" Nico yelled.

"Tsk… my attacks are stopped…" Yuto murmured. He could not let this affect him, he is a fighter after all, this is nothing but ordinary to him. Besides, he still had to masquerade as Yuya as long as he could. Yuto smiled, shaking his head, making the goggles (Yuya's) he wore above his head shine a bit. This shocked Isao as he remembered this same smile, this same joy from him, from Sakaki Yuya, from the boy who duels for entertainment that he met three years ago.

…

 _That was an afternoon three years ago, the day he got accepted to the Ryouzanpaku Duel School when he was 13 years old. He heard a young, male voice while he was walking with the owner of that school Godagawa Ryozan._

" _Here I come dad!"_

" _Yoss! Come!"_

 _He turned to his right to see Sakaki Yusho and his son practicing dueling._

" _Sa! Make me surpise!"_

" _Let's go! Entertainment~!"_

 _Isao actually smiled at that beautiful scene happening in front of him. He was just a kind kid back then. But…_

" _Don't think Dueling is fun. The way you are about to go will not have that freedom. You got your Duel Disk from your parents, and the next time you see them, it will be the moment you become Pro."_

" _Until that time, you can only walk in the path of darkness."_

 _Isao glanced at the smiling Yuya one last time, the goggles shone under the warm sunlight of the sunset._

…

"That you and I duel… probably have been destined since then…"

Yuto was baffled. It seemed that Yuya and Isao had some history together. If so, he needed to find out. "What are you talking about?"

"Three years ago, I have met you, having a fun duel with your father. You still look like that same boy I met with a strong drive to duel for the smiles of others." He said in a slight mocking tone. "But now…"

"Now what?"

Kachidoki fired a threatening glare at him. "You may still look like that same boy, but I don't see that passionate drive anymore! It seems that you are someone different now!"

Yuto gasped. He realized his disguide might have worked on some people, but it would definitely fail with several ones, especially Isao, who seemed to have a grudge with Yuya. _"Dammit…"_

"Well…" Yuto cleared his throat before saying. "That's because you haven't seen things… things that might traumatize you…"

* * *

"What the hell is Yuya-niichan talking about?" Ayu wondered.

"He seems… frowned!" Tatsuya said.

"Get fired up Yuya! Burning with entertainment!" Shuzo tried to encourage "Yuya", not knowing the reality. Ruri, Ryoga and Yuzu could only look on in sadness, the daughter did not even bother to slap him with her fan to calm him down.

* * *

Reiji narrowed his eyes. Something was clearly off about Yuya this time. _"What's wrong with you Yuya? Has that night changed you a lot?"_

* * *

"Whatever you say. If you don't attack anymore, end your turn!"

"Hm…" Yuto reluctantly finished. "I will make you excited next time… Turn end."

"Draw!" Isao eyed at the draw card and went into action. "Since I control an EARTH monster, Sky Rising Star Tenma can be summoned without release!"

 **Sky Rising Star Tenma** LIGHT Warrior Effect LV5 **2100** /1000

"And then…" Isao pulled out a card, only the backing shown. Yuto, Ruri and Ryoga suddenly had a bad feeling creeping over them. "I use Tenma and Hayate as materials…"

" _Don't tell me…!"_ Yuto realized. He had heard about them from Ruri's description.

"To activate the Magic Card, Fusion!" The moment the image of the card got revealed, Yuto froze dead. The dreaded card, the card that destroyed his soul, was now right in front of him, and was about to be used again. At the same time, Ruri, Ryoga and Shun gasped as well, hands clenching in anger. Yuzu attempted to confront the two Resistance members sitting next to her but she stopped Ryoga eyed at her, telling her not to do anything.

"O stars racing through the heavens, soaring above the earth, now become one, and shine as the star of the eternal conqueror! Shōkan! Come! Conqueror Victory Star Idaten!"

 **Conqueror Victory Star Idaten** LIGHT Warrior Fusion Effect LV10 **3000** /2200

"What's this? A Fusion Summon from contestant Kachidoki!? After losing the champion title last year, he had evolved even further!" Nico exclaimed.

Gongenzaka noted. "It has 3000 ATK so it cannot beat the 3100 ATK Odd-Eyes, but if he attacks the other two then…"

" _I need an Action Card!"_ Yuto knew what he had to do now. He quickly began to run.

Meanwhile, Isao calmly explained. "Let me tell you the effect of Idaten. When this card battles a monster with a level lower than this card, its ATK becomes 0!"

"What the hell?" Yuto exclaimed. _"Which means only Dark Rebellion of Absolute Dragon can beat it? But I cannot summon the latter and the former is out of the question!"_

While Yuto was looking for an Action Card, Isao used his martial arts to cut off a bamboo stick and threw it at Yuto's feet, causing him to fall down. He quickly adjusted the wig.

"Yuya!" Ruri exclaimed in worry. Luckily, she did not say Yuto this time.

Isao began to run as he activated the Equip Magic Magical Star Sword. Idaten's spear turned into a long sword with a dark green handle and red and yellow blade. "This turn, by sending a Magic Card I get in my hand to the graveyard, increase the ATK by 100!"

Yuto could only look as Isao jumped through island after island and got into another bamboo forest, taking an Action Card. He then walked over to Yuto. "I send an Action Card to the graveyard, Idaten's ATK increases by 100 points!" The monster's eyes glowed orange.

 **Conqueror Victory Star Idaten** ATK 3000 - 3100

Yuto panicked, he began looking around and he spotted an Action Card on a bamboo tree behind him. As he began to run and climb up however, Isao knocked him out of the way and took the card instead.

"I send the second Action Card to the graveyard…"

 **Conqueror Victory Star Idaten** ATK 3100 - 3200

"The third card!"

 **Conqueror Victory Star Idaten** ATK 3200 - 3300

"The fourth card!"

 **Conqueror Victory Star Idaten** ATK 3300 - 3400

"The fifth card!"

 **Conqueror Victory Star Idaten** ATK 3400 - 3500

"The sixth card!"

 **Conqueror Victory Star Idaten** ATK 3500 - 3600

The You Show squad and the audience looked on in shock. The proud Entertainment Duelist "Sakaki Yuya", the source and the inspiration of the genuine smiles on their faces, was being beaten literally, helpless…

"He just kept playing dirty…"

"Yuya-niichan has 3700 LP…"

"He will lose!"

"Damn you Isao!" Ruri lost her temper. She jotted up and nearly yelled, luckily both Yuzu and Ryoga stopped her in time.

After avoiding Isao, Yuya finally got himself an Action… Trap…

"What? Minor Hinderance?" Yuto said as the card grew bright, enveloping Whip Viper before destroying it.

 **Odd-Eyes Pendulum Dragon** ATK 3100 - 2800

 **Entermate Silver Claw** ATK 2400 - 2100

"Sa! He had lost Whip Viper!" Sawatari exclaimed.

"If he gets another Action Card, I will lose!" Yuya said to himself as he began running to get himself one.

"There will be more!" Isao said as he caught up to him.

"What?" Yuto wondered. He was shocked to find an Action Card in his hand! "Action Card?"

"No way! Another one?" Ayu said.

"But it is an Action Trap!" Isao revealed, shocking everyone. "Jump Shot! It reduces Idaten's ATK by 400!"

 **Conqueror Victory Star Idaten** ATK 3600 - 3200

"So sad!" Yuto yelled. "You cannot defeat me with that weakened Idaten!"

"Then I will just have to recharge it again!" Isao said as he knocked Yuto down again. He grabbed an Action Card nearby, this time an Action Magic.

 **Conqueror Victory Star Idaten** ATK 3200 - 3300

"The eighth card!"

 **Conqueror Victory Star Idaten** ATK 3300 - 3400

"The ninth card!"

 **Conqueror Victory Star Idaten** ATK 3400 - 3500

"The tenth card!"

 **Conqueror Victory Star Idaten** ATK 3500 - 3600

In a short while, Idaten's ATK had returned to 3600, and with an extremely pained Yuto to add…

"And now I will get the final Action Card!" Isao declared.

"Not gonna happen!" Yuto said between breaths and pain.

"I will definitely not gonna let you grab an Action Card! Ever since then, you still walked on the bright path with no darkness!"

"What do you mean?"

"I have to walk in the path where only darkness awaits. I will not lose against a guy like you! I will definitely win!"

"We're gonna find out soon!" Yuto returned as both of them chased for an Action Card pinned to the ground.

"I will definitely get it!"

"Not gonna happen! Battle! Idaten, attack Odd-Eyes Pendulum Dragon! And its effect will reduce Odd-Eyes' ATK to 0!"

 **Odd-Eyes Pendulum Dragon** ATK 2800 - 0

"The wind of victory only blows at the person who had seen the darkness!" Isao said as Idaten nearly closed on Odd-Eyes.

" _Seen the darkness? Screw you! You haven't seen things!"_ Yuto thought in anger as he dived at the Action Card. The result was not immediately seen as a huge explosion occurred.

"Oi… The result is…?" Gongenzaka murmured.

" _Yuto…"_ Ruri preyed.

The dust cleared, revealing a Kachidoki Isao holding an Action Card pinning down Yuto's hand. Also, Odd-Eyes was gone.

 **Yuto** : 3700 - 100 [1]

Nico yelled. "Otto! Sakaki Yuya had not been able to grab an Action Card. He had taken a huge damage and his LP is now only 100!"

Isao walked off and turned to face the downed Yuto. "Action Magic, Encore! I activate Wonder Chance in the graveyard! Now Idaten can attack one more time!"

"No! If Idaten attacks Silver Claw, Yuya will lose!" Shuzo said in worry.

"Do something Yuya-niichan!" The kids preyed.

"Battle!" Isao declared. "Conqueror Victory Star Idaten, attack Entermate Silver Claw!" The monster threw its sword at the fleeing fox.

 **Entermate Silver Claw** ATK 2100 - 0

" _Dammit, I cannot lose! Yuya will be at risk!"_ Yuto quickly ran around for an Action Card. Kachidoki attempted to ram him out of the way. "Not gonna happen once again!" Yuto yelled as he slid down under Isao's space between his feet, nearly knocking him down. After avoiding him, Yuto quickly grabbed an Action Card on the ground and activated it.

"Action Magic! Quick Guard activate! Silver Claw is changed to Defense Position!" The fox gained a blue aura, signifying its new position. It was destroyed immediately after. The entire audience and Nico sighed in relief, Yuya had avoided losing this shamefully.

Isao brushed off the dust on his clothes. "Turn end. It seemed that you have avoided death, but your darkness is about to come."

Yuto slowly stood up, eyes looking down, devoid of emotions, only emptiness remained. Suddenly, the sky began to darken, thunder striking, raining began.

"Just fall down deep to the darkness."

"Darkness…?" Yuto suddenly said, eyes closed, hands turned into fists. He continued in a monotone. "You don't know what true darkness is… you are… you are only…"

"You are only brainwashed by your own stupidity…"

Pain suddenly went through his chest. He grasped, closing his eyes. When he opened them, he found himself in an empty space with the only color purple. He looked around and gasped in shock to see Yuya looking at him, seriously and grim, unlike his usual bright and smiling appearance. Guided by instinct, Yuto raised his hand, touching Yuya's shoulders. Yuya did the same thing to him and the two souls began joining together…

A lighting struck the ground, illuminating the figure standing in front of it. Yuto.

But it was not Yuto anymore, at least the Yuto that anyone got to know. His right bangs got slit up, his entire hair arched backwards slightly. His eyes was blue on the chamber and red on the pupil, his face became furious, his cape got arched back as well.

Isao opened his mouth and his eyes in shock, gasping. The "Yuya" he saw right now, was definitely not Yuya anymore. And for some unknown reason, he felt that something horrible would happen soon…

"Ore no turn, draw…" Yuya's pendant shone up as Yuto drew his card. "Swing again, Pendulum of the Soul! Draw an arc across the nether! Pendulum Shōkan! Appear now, my monster servants!"

"From my hand, Entermate Trump Witch!"

 **Entermate Trump Witch** DARK Magician Pendulum Effect LV1 Scale 4 **100** /100

* * *

"What? Trump Witch?" Shun exclaimed. "He could have used it to Fusion Summon!"

"He somehow did not use it?" Reiji wondered. With Trump Witch he could have set it in the Pendulum Zone in place for Partnaga, allowing him access to Rune-Eyes or Beast-Eyes.

" _The card he dropped earlier… that card…"_

" _Why is he not using it…?"_

* * *

"And finally…" Yuto showed a card before slapping it down. The card's name shocked Ruri, Ryoga and Shun.

"Phantom Knights Tattered Vambrace!"

 **Phantom Knights Tattered Vambrace** DARK Warrior Effect LV3 **0** /1800

* * *

"Phantom Knights?" Shun yelled in shock. "That is one of Yuto's cards! How did he have it? Did he attack Yuto and stole his deck!?"

* * *

"I have never seen him use this card before!" Ayu said.

"What is happening?" Futoshi wondered.

Yuto then proceeded. "Dark Dagger's effect! Its level changes to 4!"

 **Phantom Knights Tattered Vambrace** LV3 - 4

"Now he has 2 level 4 monsters!" Sawatari noted.

"Don't tell me…" Yuzu whispered.

"I, using the level 4 Tattered Vambrace and Trump Witch, overlay!" The mentioned monsters turned into purple swirls of energy before flying down to the Overlay Network.

"From the pitch-black darkness, rise up against the foolish oppression, Fang of Rebellion! Descend now! Xyz Shōkan!"

"Appear! Rank 4! Dark Rebellion Xyz Dragon!"

 **Dark Rebellion Xyz Dragon** DARK Dragon Xyz Effect R4 **2500** /2000

* * *

"Is this…? Pendulum Summon and Xyz Summon in one turn?" Nico yelled.

"What the hell?" Isao wondered.

"That is Yuto's dragon…" Ruri whispered.

Yuzu thought. _"Why did you do it Yuto…?"_

From the control room, Shun growled. "Why did that guy have Dark Rebellion?"

" _So you clearly have it…"_ Reiji said in his mind.

* * *

Under the dark sky and the pouring rain, Yuto made an angry face as he continued, still in a monotone. It seemed that he did not bother keeping his voice to be like Yuya's anymore. "Dark Rebellion Xyz Dragon's monster effect… activate! I detach one Overlay Unit, until the end of this turn, the ATK of a level 5 or higher monster my opponent controls is halved, and it gains the same amount." Electricity crackled on the dark dragon's wings as it blasted them at Idaten, strangling it and taking its strength away.

"Treason Discharge!"

 **Conqueror Victory Star Idaten** ATK 3600 - 1800

 **Dark Rebellion Xyz Dragon** ATK 2500 - 4300

"I detach an Overlay Unit again." The last Overlay Unit disintegrated.

"Treason Discharge!"

 **Conqueror Victory Star Idaten** ATK 1800 - 900

 **Dark Rebellion Xyz Dragon** ATK 4300 - 5200

"ATK… 5200…?"

"Battle. I order Dark Rebellion Xyz Dragon to attack Conqueror Victory Star Idaten!" The dragon roared before flying towards the warrior.

Isao quickly countered. "Idaten's effect! When this card battles a monster with lower level than it, that monster's ATK becomes 0!"

"Not gonna work…" Ruri whispered.

"Xyz monsters do not have levels, so the effect does not work!" Yuto revealed a fact, a fact that shocked Isao and made him lose his coldness.

"What? Not having levels is not considered to have a level of 0?!"

"Hangyaku no… Lightning Disobey!" Dark Rebellion charged its fang with energy before slashing Idaten, knocking back Isao and making him scream in pain.

 **Kachidoki Isao** : 4000 - 0 [3]

In complete silence, the Real Solid Vision field disappeared, the screen behind Yuto showed a picture of a raged Yuto with Yuya's disguide and declared his winning.

Nico announced the winner in fear. "The… the winner… is Sakaki Yuya!"

Shuzo nervously looked around before reluctantly clapping his hand. "G… Good job Yuya…"

"It's so fearful that I got shivers!"

"Yuya-niichan…"

"..seems different…" Little did he know, "Yuya" did.

Yuto returned to his normal personality. The moment he got control of himself again, he was shocked to find a downed Kachidoki Isao. Even though he had attacked him, he was just a teenager, a student polluted with brutal teaching from his teacher. He immediately ran to him.

"Kachidoki! Are you okay?"

Isao looked at him angrily before snapping Yuto's helping hand out. The Ryouzanpaku Duel School began to leave the seat. Isao bowed down at them in an apology. Yuto realized that he had won the duel, and judging Isao's action and the shocked looks from the audience, the You Show Duel School, Ryoga and Ruri, he had done something bad to him. He berated himself internally, he had let that unknown darkness inside him take control of him again, he had let his friends down again...

He had let Ruri down again…

" _Holy shit… What did I do…?"_

* * *

Nico resumed his MC job as he announced. "As you can see, this is the results of the matches today of the Maiami Championship. The contestants of the following match are…"

"Sakaki Yuya has Yuto's Phantom Knights cards… and Dark Rebellion…" Shun said to himself before deciding to look for him alone.

"Where are you planning to go?" Reiji stopped him.

"To meet him!"

"Not now! No matter what reasons, I must stop you from interfering with the tournament." Reiji stood up and looked at Shun. "The reason this tournament exists in the first place… don't forget about it. Besides, after his performance today, we cannot be 100% sure that he is Sakaki Yuya or not. Of course, if you are trying to find your sister, we no longer need her anymore. She is safe somewhere in this city I assure you, course you can choose to believe it or not."

Shun sighed. "Whatever. And you are right about Yuya today by the way." He pushed Nakajima out of the way and walked off.

"To make sure, I will have people watching out Kurosaki." Nakajima said.

"Um. And remember, do not let him see Kurosaki Ruri and Kamishiro Ryoga right now."

"The schedule has changed everyone!" Nico said, causing Reiji and Nakajima to look at the screen again. "About the duel that is about to happen, since contestant Shijima Hokuto of LDS is absent, the contestant Mokota Michio from Kirigakure Cooking School wins by default!"

"Absent?"

"President! Three hours ago, there is a strong summon reaction spotted in Maiami City."

"What is the method?"

"Fusion sir. The cameras have captured the scene, please take a look." The screen changed to a downed Hokuto and someone in a cloak, covering his head. That person then activated his Duel Disk, emitting a bright purple light, illuminating the area. After that, Hokuto was gone. The culprit then took out a card from his Duel Disk and waved it, apparently in victory. That person then turned around and walked away.

"Play backwards!" Reiji ordered.

"H… Hai!"

The screen then replayed, Reiji ordered to stop when the face of that person is shown. It was a girl with purple hair and green eyes.

"That's…" Nakajima could not hide his surprise. "You Show Duel School! Hiragi Yuzu!"

"No!" Reiji stopped him. "That is not Hiragi Yuzu. She is still there. This is someone else. Change the cameras to the ones in here. That girl might be here!"

A short while, that girl was spotted standing near the empty seats. At the place she was standing, an Xyz duelist Sakuragi Yuu was about to duel here. Reji then got off his chair and walked off the room.

"Where are you going?"

"To the Miami Stadium. Do not let Kurosaki go there." He ordered as he stood in the lift, going off the room.

"Copy President."

* * *

 **(Since the rest is like the anime, I will skip the garage section until this)**

* * *

" _The fated duel is about to come…"_ Ryoga thought as he stood inside the dark entrance, waiting for the duel. This is the duel that he did not expect to happen, especially in here, Standard. But it did not matter, he and Shun now had the chance to settle the scores again. They had not done this for quite a while.

From the seat, Nico Smiley announced the next match. "And now the duel between contestant Shirogami Taka and contestant Kamishiro Ryoga will commence!"

The reaction from the audience was a mix of joy and fear. Thanks to Shun, everyone in the stadium came to fear him, but also since Ryoga had given a spectacular performance, most of them cheered. They really hoped that Shark would win, but considering Shun's skill, they were not 100% sure.

A short while, the two contestants were now looking at each other, a hard feeling swept over…

The familiar feeling that both Shun and Ryoga realized they had missed. The nervousness and the adrenaline just from the thought of facing each other in a duel. The war had taken a lot from them…

And now they are given a chance to relive that moment again…

"Are you sure that you will beat me Ryoga, or as I call, Shark?" Shun broke the silence.

The Shark duelist returned the glare. "Sure or not, it will not matter. What matters now is I hate something from you." His voice while still netural, it had a slight hint of disgust.

"What do you mean?"

"I hate it when someone uses a fake name to enter this tournament!" Ryoga revealed, keeping the fact that Shun attacked innocent people away, understandably shocking everyone besides Yuto, Ruri, Yuzu and Sawatari, who simply shook their heads. Of course they made sure that the others would not recognize.

"What? That guy's name is fake?" Gongenzaka could not believe it. "It's against the rules!"

" _Course it is…"_ Sawatari muttered in his mind. He had known who Shun really is from Yuto and Ruri.

" _Are you crazy Ryoga?"_ Ruri and Yuto could not believe what her tentacle hair duelist was doing anymore. Things were already complicated.

"Am I right… Shun?"

"Hm… can't hide things from you…" Shun muttered. "Yes, my real name is Shun. I changed my name before the tournament and the organizers have agreed to use my fake name. I will not say why I did it because it's personal." Shun was really angry from the inside though that Reiji made him do this. He forced him to use a fake name to avoid seeing Ruri and Ryoga. He knew Ruri is in here and he would try to find her soon.

Unknown to him, Ruri was not sure whether she would see him after what he had done or not…

"Enough bantering Shark, shall we duel now? Talking more will not be good for entertainment." Shun activated his purple Duel Disk, if he prolonged the conversation more, more unpleasant things about who they really were would come out to the public and scare them.

"Very well…" Ryoga wasted no time. He touched his Duel Disk and activated it.

"The two duelists are now ready to duel! Let's choose the Action Field!" The card began to spin, faster and faster. It finally stopped, revealing…

"Action Field On! Field Magic, Future Metropolis Heartland activate!"

"WHAT?" Shun, Ryoga, Yuto and Ruri yelled as soon as the name of the card was revealed. They froze when the Action Field slowly got materialized and when it did completely, all of them clenched their fists, temper boiling in anger. There was only one thing that was on their mind right now.

" _Damn you Reiji!"_

Meanwhile, Reiji gave out a slasher smile, happily enjoying their rage.

Shrugging off the problem, Shun proposed.

"We will commence the duel like a normal Action Duel, but we do not use any Action Cards. You see what happened to Yuya and Isao when you tried to pick some and grabbed an Action Trap instead right?"

"Uh!" Ryoga agreed. "Old school stuff. Action Cards are stupid. Really. Cut off the Action Duel chant as well Nico. We want this duel to be serious!" He then turned to the You Show trio. "No offense."

"What the hell is Shark-niichan doing?" Ayu wondered.

" _There's something strange…"_ Shuzo thought. _"Why are things so different between Shun and Ryoga?"_

 **DUEL!**

 **Kamishiro Ryoga** : 4000 [5]

 **Kurosaki Shun** : 4000 [5]

* * *

"I take the first turn!" Shun declared. "From my hand, Magic Card Raid Raptors - Roar activate!" He took out a card from his Deck and slapped it down. "I special summon Raid Raptors - Vanishing Lanius from my deck!"

 **Raid Raptors - Vanishing Lanius** DARK Bird Beast Effect LV4 **1300** /1600

"And then I normal summon Raid Raptors - King's Lanius!"

 **Raid Raptors - King's Lanius** DARK Bird Beast Effect LV4 **1300** /1800

"Finally, Raid Raptors - Backup Lanius special summon!"

 **Raid Raptors - Backup Lanius** DARK Bird Beast Effect LV4 **0** /2100

"He now has three level 4 monsters…" Yuto whispered.

"It's here!" Sawatari said.

"I, using the level 4 Vanishing Lanius, King's Lanius and Backup Lanius, overlay!"

"Obscured falcon, raise your claws sharpened by adversity! Spread your wings of rebellion! Xyz Shōkan! Come forth! Rank 4! Raid Raptors - Rise Falcon!" Shun's signature monster returned.

 **Raid Raptors - Rise Falcon** DARK Bird Beast Effect LV4 100/ **2000**

"It's been quite a while…" Ryoga did not waste the chance. "…to see you summon this thing in Defense Position…"

"You're a strong opponent, I need to be careful…" Shun answered back, cold eyes piercing Ryoga's.

"Quite a while?" Shuzo wondered, not knowing how close those two really are. "Why did they say that…?"

"I set down 2 cards and end my turn! Come, Shark!"

Ryoga was ready for his first turn. "Let's go! Ore no turn, draw!"

"With this Magic Card, Foolish Burial, I can send-"

"Quit it!" Shun interrupted. "Rise Falcon's effect!" An Overlay Unit got detached. "That card's activation is negated and it is destroyed! Then you take 500 damage!" The card self-destructed and harmed Ryoga, but it was not anything mayor.

 **Ryoga** : 4000 - 3500 [5]

"Hm… If so, I activate the Magic Card Infinity Tooth!" Ryoga sent the top two cards from his Deck to the graveyard and drew one card. "Good! Continuous Magic, Water Hazard! I special summon Double Fin Shark from my hand!"

 **Double Fin Shark** WATER Fish Effect LV4 **1000** /1200

"And then I special summon Spindle Angler since I control a "Shark" monster!" A black anglerfish with two heads materialized from the card. It clenched its teeth, hungry for battle.

 **Spindle Angler** WATER Fish Effect LV4 **1800** /1600

"2 level 4 monsters…" Yuzu noted.

"What Rank 4 monster will he summon?" Sawatari wondered.

"Double Fin Shark can be treated as two materials for an Xyz Summon, so I will use the level 4 Double Fin Shark and Spindle Anger to overlay!" The purple shark turned into two before joining with the anglerfish to the Network.

"Otto!" Nico said. "Contestant Kamishiro Ryoga has a monster that can be treated as multiple materials!"

"Ain't it a little lazy…?" Reiji whispered in the control room. To be honest, the idea of a monster being treated as multiple Xyz Materials seemed to be really stupid although it would be really good for the battlefield.

"With these monsters, Overlay Network constructing! Xyz Shōkan!" A large beam of light shot out, nearly blinding Shun.

"Appear now, Numbers 32! Rank 4! Marine Biting Dragon - Shark Drake!" One of Ryoga's ace monsters showed up. Since it used Double Fin Shark as material, it only had two blue Overlay Units orbiting around it as opposed to the usual three.

 **Marine Biting Dragon - Shark Drake** WATER Sea Dragon Xyz Effect R4 **2800** /2100

"There it is… your main ace monster…" Shun said. "You immediately go to serious mode?"

"For a duelist like you, I cannot play recklessly… I know you very well…" Ryoga whispered the last sentence to avoid making anyone hear about it.

"Well then! I will not hold back either! Come!"

"Let's go Shun! Shark Drake, attack Rise Falcon! Depth Bite!"

"By detaching an Overlay Unit, Rise Falcon is not destroyed!" The attack was stopped mid-track.

"However, since it used Spindle Angler, my Shark Drake can have an additional attack! Go now!"

"Once again Rise Falcon!" Another Overlay Unit disintegrated, blocking the bite from Shark Drake.

"And since Backup Lanius was sent to the graveyard…" Shun solemnly said as he took out a card from his Deck and showed it to Ryoga, earning a hardened look from the Shark duelist and shocking ones from the audience. "I can add a "Rank-Up-Magic" card from my Deck!"

"I set down two cards and end my turn."

"Ore no turn, draw! Continuous Magic, Raid Raptors - Supply activate!" A barrack with a red "Raid Raptors" crest materialized.

" _Uuhhh… You have activated that card… things are not going to be easy for Shark…"_ Yuto smiled. He remembered this particular play he made while he last duel him.

"And then I activate the card I have added earlier! Rank-Up-Magic Raid Force activate!"

"Contestant Shun has activated that special Rank-Up-Magic card!" Nico exclaimed.

"Using Rise Falcon as an Xyz Material…" The falcon flew to the Overlay Network. An explosion occurred. "Rank-Up Xyz Change! Appear now!"

"Rank 5! Raid Raptors - Blaze Falcon!"

 **Raid Raptors - Blaze Falcon** DARK Bird Beast Xyz Effect R5 **1000** /2000

"It's that card!"

"The monster that can make direct attacks!"

"Shark-niichan is in danger!"

"Due to the effect of Supply, I can draw a card!" Shun drew a card and immediately pointed his hand at the red falcon. "Blaze Falcon's effect!" An Overlay Unit detached, multiple energy blasters came out from its back and blasted beams at the shark-like dragon.

"Trap Card, Sharking!" Ryoga countered. A bubble appeared around Shark Drake and stopped the beams. "That effect's activation is negated and I can draw a card." Ryoga drew one card and revealed it. "I have drawn Metabo Shark, a "Shark" monster, so I can draw another one!"

"Nice Shark…" Shuzo said. "He negated the mass destruction effect and drew two cards at the same time."

"But Blaze Falcon can attack my opponent directly!" Shun reminded. "Go!" The falcon flew towards Ryoga and struck the ground near him. He did a backflip to avoid it.

 **Ryoga** : 3500 - 2500 [2]

"And after inflicting damage, Blaze Falcon can destroy your Shark Drake!" Blaze Falcon opened its rocket holders from its back and fired rockets at Ryoga's field, destroying the marine dragon. Royga slid backwards, covering his eyes from the smoke.

"And then the effect of Raid Raptors - Supply activates! When a "Raid Raptors" monster destroys an opponent's monster by battle or card effect, the opponent takes 400 damage for each of its Levels or Ranks!"

 **Ryoga** : 2500 - 900 [2]

"Sa! Shark now only has 900 LP!" Sawatari noted.

"And his field is empty. How could he fight back?" Shuzo wondered.

"He will." Ruri spoke up, gathering attention to her. "He will not lose that easy…"

"Hm… Thank you for destroying my Shark Drake Shun…" Ryoga smiled at him, earning a "What?" from Shun.

He then activated his set card. "Trap Card open! Shark Revenge Splash!" Shark Drake returned from the card. "The monster summoned this way lose 1000, and its current ATK will be inflicted to you as damage!" The purple monster blasted energy taking the form of a shark at Shun, knocking him backwards.

 **Shun** : 4000 - 2200 [1]

"Otto! Contestant Kamishiro Ryoga has resurrected his ace and inflicted damage to Shun!"

"But now Shark Drake only has 1800 ATK, it may destroy Blaze Falcon but it will be vulnerable during Shun's next turn!" Tatsuya pointed out.

Ruri smiled, disagreeing with that. "It's not gonna happen Tatsuya-kun. And there is one thing to note, Ryoga only has 900 LP now, which means he can do one thing with Shark Drake."

"What will he do Ruri-niichan?" Ayu asked.

Ruri just smiled. "You'll see…"

"Nice Ryoga." Shun calmly said. "I did not expect you to reserve that card, but my turn is not over yet. Since I took damage, I can special summon Raid Raptors - Avenge Vulture!" Shun swung his hand down the blade, slapping a card down, a mechanized vulture materialized from a small bubble.

 **Raid Raptors - Avenge Vulture** DARK Bird Beast Effect LV4 **1700** /100

"It only has 1700 ATK, still 100 ATK short in compared to my Shark Drake. You wanna give me a target to destroy? That monster does not have a graveyard effect!" Ryoga mocked Shun. Of course he only did it for drama because he knew what Shun would do anyway.

"During the End Phase, the effect of Raid Raptors - Supply will allow me to tribute Avenge Vulture to draw a card." Shun brought the number of cards in his hand to 1. "Turn end!"

Ryoga started his second turn. "Ore no turn, draw!"

He raised his hand up and grabbed his palm into a fist. "I, using Marine Biting Dragon - Shark Drake as an Xyz Material." The monster unfolded its wings by making it slowly disappear and slowly flew up to the Overlay Network.

"Chaos Xyz Change!" A huge explosion occurred.

"Naniiii?" Nico roared. "Chaos Xyz Change? What the hell is that?" He was surprised by this, like the rest of the audience.

"What is that?" Futoshi wondered.

"Is that what you are talking about Ruri?" Yuzu asked. Ruri smiled in response.

* * *

"What the hell is that?" Nakajima muttered in pure surprise.

"A Rank-Up?" Reiji speculated.

* * *

"Appear now, Chaos Numbers 32! Marine Biting Dragon - Shark Drake Veiss!" The new monster was similar to Shark Drake in shape, but it was completely different from it. The body was now white as opposed to black and the shape was much sharper overall. It now had three red glowing holes on its two legs and the back, a purple spike on its head. The number "32" could be seen on the left side of its neck.

 **CNo.32 Marine Biting Dragon - Shark Drake Veiss** WATER Sea Dragon Xyz Effect R4 **2800** /2100

"What-what-what-what is this? Contestant Kamishiro Ryoga has summoned a new Xyz Monster by using Shark Drake as an Xyz Material, WITHOUT a Rank-Up-Magic? The tournament is starting to get more interesting and unpredictable!" Nico yelled excitedly.

Shuzo muttered. "Chaos Xyz Change… it's similar to Shun's Rank-Up."

"But Shark Drake Veiss is still Rank 4, not 5!" Yuzu said to her father.

"And there is more." Ruri said.

"Shark Drake Veiss can only use its effect when you have 1000 LP or less… you took damage from Supply just to wait for this?" Shun deduced.

"Yep! And that effect is incredibly powerful if you remember! By detaching an Overlay Unit and banishing Spear Shark from my graveyard, your Blaze Falcon loses its ATK and DEF!" The white monster ate an Overlay Unit and blasted the ground, opening a portal, allowing the red shark with a sharp spear on its head to fly out and stabbed the armor or Blaze Falcon, nullifying its power.

 **Raid Raptors - Blaze Falcon** **1000** /2000 - **0** /0

"Yoss! Now Shark can win this duel if he destroys Blaze Falcon!" Sawatari excitedly pointed out.

"I will beat you this time Shun! Battle!" Ryoga smiled, declaring his attack. "Shark Drake Veiss, attack Blaze Falcon!"

"Depth Chaos Bite!" Purple energy erupted from the monster as they flew at Blaze Falcon, whose owner closed his eyes for a moment, not doing anything…

"With this, I will win Shun…"

Shun suddenly opened his eyes, pointing his hand towards his set card.

"Quick-Play Magic, Rank-Up-Magic Escape Force!"

"What!?"

"This card negates the attack!" A barrier formed, redirecting the energy away. "And Rank-Up my monster by 1 Rank!" Blaze Falcon turned into energy and flew up to the Overlay Network. Flame appeared behind the Xyz soldier.

"Prideful falcon, spread your wings dyed in the blood of heroes! Advance through the path of revolution! Rank-Up Xyz Change! Come forth! Rank 6! Raid Raptors - Revolution Falcon!"

 **Raid Raptors - Revolution Falcon** DARK Bird Beast Xyz Effect R6 **2000** /3000

"Since an Xyz Summon was done, I can draw a card, and Revolution Falcon's effect! I can destroy your Shark Drake Veiss and inflict 1400 damage!" The monster flew up high and released bombs. "This is the end of the duel Shark!"

"Not gonna happen! I banish Armor Shark to negate destruction this turn!" The bombs exploded while still airbone. Ryoga then set down two cards to conclude his turn.

"Hope those two face-down cards would help Shark during Shun's next turn, or he will lose!" Gongenzaka said.

"Ore no turn, draw! I normal summon Raid Raptors - Mimicry Lanius!"

 **Raid Raptors - Mimicry Lanius** DARK Bird Beast Effect LV4 **1100** /1900

"Battle! Revolution Falcon, attack Marine Biting Dragon - Shark Drake Veiss!"

 **CNo.32 Marine Biting Dragon - Shark Drake Veiss** ATK 2800 - 0

"Trap activate!" Ryoga responded. "Shark Circle! I destroy Shark Drake Veiss!" The white dragon exploded and from the smoke, Hammer Shark returned. "To call back Hammer Shark from my graveyard and gain LP equal to Shark Drake Veiss' ATK. Also my "Shark" monsters cannot be destroyed this turn!"

 **Ryoga** : 900 - 3700 [1]

"But you will still take damage! Go now! Revolutional Air Raid!" The bombing run struck the ground, knocking Ryoga backwards. The audience were trembling in fear again, children began to cry. They once again had to witness the war scene during Shun's duel with Sora.

 **Hammer Shark** ATK 1700 - 0

 **Ryoga** : 3700 - 1700 [1]

Giving Ryoga no time to get up, Shun quickly ordered the next attack. "And then, Mimicry Lanius, attack Hammer Shark!"

 **Ryoga** : 1700 - 600 [1]

"During the End Phase, I tribute Mimicry Lanius to draw a card. Turn end."

Swallowing his nerves, Nico spoke up through the mic again. "With the continuous attacks from Shun, Kamishiro Ryoga only has 600 LP left even though he still has Hammer Shark on the field. How could he come back during his next turn?"

"Shark's condition is very bad now. If he cannot find a way to get rid of Revolution Falcon, then he will lose next turn!" Gongenzaka told the trio.

"That's right!" Sawatari said. "He has the level 4 Hammer Shark on the field. From what we had known, Shark only has Black Ray Lancer, Aero Shark and Shark Kaiser, all are Rank 3, Abyss Splash is Rank 5, Shark Drake and Veiss are Rank 4. Unless he has another Rank 4 monster or change Hammer Shark's level somehow, he could not Xyz Summon."

"And one thing to remember everyone!" Tatsuya said. "Extra Deck-centric Decks usually have weak Main Deck monsters in terms of ATK."

"What will Shark do to get out of this situation?" Yuzu wondered.

"No. He still has not lost all options yet." Ruri reassured the You Show trio. "It seems…"

"It seems what?"

"It seems that he will use his real ace monster…"

* * *

"Such a real fight between Resistance members President!" Nakajima informed Reiji in the control room. "They have a lot of protective cards in their disposal."

"Of course. In the battlefield, a single mistake can cost everyone's lives..."

* * *

"Just like old times Shun…" Ryoga smiled as he reminisced. "You have always been a strong opponent. It's sad that you have changed a lot. Just like what they said, I could not recognize you anymore…"

"I have to do it for the sake of home! And I will not stop until I get what I want!" Shun boldly declared, not daring to think that his sister was sadly looking at him now.

"Very clear. If you continue to behave like this, I will stop you. With DUELING!"

" _Strange…"_ Shuzo noted. _"They talk as if they knew each other the entire time… who Shark really is…?"_

"Ore no turn, draw! I normal summon Metabo Shark!"

 **Metabo Shark** WATER Fish Effect LV4 **1800** /500

"2 level 4 monsters…" Shun said to himself. "It's coming out?"

"I, using the two level 4 Hammer Shark and Metabo Shark, overlay! With these two monsters, Overlay Network constructing!" The two monsters turned blue and flew up to the Overlay Network, from there it shot out a large stream of light. "Xyz Shōkan!"

"Appear now! Numbers 101!"

"What? Numbers 101?" Nico thought out loud, everyone else was dumbstruck.

"Unappeased Soul placed aboard the Ark. Arise from the abyss so deep not even light can reach it!" From the light, a large white ship appeared. It consisted of two long "wings" with a red centerpiece, where a monster was piloting the ship. Two large white ship-like pieces joined together, forming a protective gear for the monster, above, below and the sides. On the outer side of the right wing, a blue number "101" could be seen.

"Rank 4! Silent Honors Ark Knight!"

 **No.101 S** **・** **H** **・** **Ark Knight** WATER Water Xyz Effect R4 **2100** /1000

"Silent Honors Ark Knight's monster effect activates! By detaching an Overlay Unit, your Revolution Falcon will become its Overlay Unit!"

"What the hell?!" Nico yelled.

"A removal effect?!" The You Show trio and the audience were surprised of course.

"Eternal Soul Asylum!" Energy went through the two wings, disassembling the top part of the right wing. It then revealed a bar where a chain fired out from, piercing Revolution Falcon. The chain then got pulled back to the bar, bringing the falcon with it. The monster was then absorbed to the wing and turned into an Overlay Unit for Ark Knight, ending the existence of a powerful monster.

"A very powerful effect indeed!" Sawatari said. "That's why you said it Ruri!"

"Yep. This is his real ace monster. But Shun will not falter by this. He had faced this monster before." Ruri said small enough.

"You may have removed my Revolution Falcon Shark, but I still have trick on my sleeves!" Shun swung his hand on the interface of his Duel Disk, activating a card. "Counter Trap, Raid Raptors - Revenge Reborn! I can special summon Blaze Falcon from the graveyard and attach this card to it as an Overlay Unit." The red falcon returned and gained an Overlay Unit to use later.

"Then I can destroy your Ark Knight!" The resurrected falcon fired a laser beam at the white ark.

"It will not work! Ark Knight can detach an Overlay Unit to avoid destruction!" Hammer Shark rematerialized from the Overlay Unit and hit the beam instead.

"Battle! I order Silent Honors Ark Knight to attack Raid Raptors - Blaze Falcon!" Numerous pads opened from the two wings, revealing multiple barrels, ready to fire at Blaze Falcon.

"Million Phantom Blood!" The barrels fired purple energy beams, ready to hit the red falcon.

Shun countered. "Since Blaze Falcon has been summoned by Revenge Reborn, it cannot leave the field once per turn!"

"You still take the damage however!" Ryoga reminded as the beams blasted at Blaze Falcon. The beams did not destroy it, but Shun still took damage.

 **Shun** : 2200 - 1100 [2]

"Turn end…"

"Ore no turn…" Shun closed his eyes as he calmly drew his next card. He brushed his shirt arrogantly. "Hm… Blaze Falcon and Ark Knight both only have one Overlay Unit each… how about changing it right now?"

"Blaze Falcon's effect activates!" An Overlay Unit from Blaze Falcon disintegrated and blasted at the ark. The ship quickly absorbed its last Overlay Unit to prevent its destruction.

"Now Ark Knight cannot protect itself anymore." Shun smiled as Ryoga hardened his face in worry. "Blaze Falcon, direct attack!"

"Trap activate!" Ryoga acted. "Destruct Potion!"

"What?" Shun was caught off guard.

"I destroy Ark Knight!" The trap turned into energy and hit the ark, destroying it. The debris flew down behind Ryoga. "And gain LP equal to its ATK!"

 **Ryoga** : 600 - 2700 [1]

"Good move Ryoga, you destroyed your Ark Knight to avoid the burn effect of Supply… but sadly, it would not work!"

"What do you mean?"

"Quick-Play Magic, Raid Raptors - Lure! Your Hammer Shark returns to the field!"

"NO!" Ryoga could only yell as Hammer Shark got summoned. He then had to cover himself from the direct attack.

 **Ryoga** : 2700 - 1700 [1]

"When Blaze Falcon inflicts damage, it can destroy one monster you control." On cue, Hammer Shark exploded, sending debris close to Ryoga, which would have left a cut on his face.

"Ryoga!" Yuto yelled.

"He's getting too far!" Ruri said.

 **Ryoga** : 1700 - 100 [1]

Nico then resumed. "What a masterful play! Even though Shark destroyed his monster and gained LP to avoid Blaze Falcon's effect, contestant Shun quickly summoned a monster to Shark's field in order to use Blaze Falcon's effect!"

"Hate to say this but… that guy Shun is really strong…" Although he hated Shun for harming Sora, Gongenzaka had to admit his very advanced skill in Dueling. He would not be able to stand a chance if he had to duel him someday.

"I set down two cards and end my turn. At this moment, Raid Raptors - Supply destroys itself. But there is one thing to remember Shark. Revenge Reborn prevent me from battle damage involving the monster using it as an Overlay Unit once per my opponent's turn. Even if you manage to bring out a monster to destroy Blaze Falcon, you need at least two monsters with high ATK to beat me."

Ryoga touched his Deck, ready for his next turn. _"Shun is just as strong as always… I could bring back Ark Knight or Shark Drake with Resurrection of the Dead in my hand, but then it would not have Overlay Units to use its effects, lest damaging Shun. And then during his next turn, he may bring out Revolution Falcon from his graveyard or even worse, Arsenal Falcon to end me. I need to bet everything on this draw…"_

"Ore no turn… DRAWWWW!" Ryoga yelled as loud as he could. Everyone kept silence, waiting for the moment Ryoga inspected the card, some even held their breaths.

The Shark duelist turned the card around. He widened his eyes in shock…

He had drawn the card he needed to win the duel!

"It's here Shun!" The Raid Raptors duelist narrowed his eyes in anticipation.

"First off, Resurrection of the Dead!" Ark Knight returned to the field.

"But it only has 2100 ATK!" Shun reminded.

"I know. Which is why I will use this card!" He activated the remaining card in his hand.

"Rank-Up-Magic Barian's Force!" The card materialized, enveloping the large ark, readying it for the change.

"What the hell is this! Contestant Kamishiro Ryoga has activated a Rank-Up-Magic card from his hand!"

"Yay! Go on Shark!" Sawatari cheered.

"Oh boy…" Yuto muttered.

"Here we go…" Ruri had the same feeling.

"With this card, I can Rank-Up an Xyz monster, and special summon a Chaos Xyz!"

"I will use the Rank 4 Silent Honors Ark Knight to overlay! With this monster, Overlay Network constructing! Chaos Xyz Change!"

"Appear now, Chaos Numbers 101! Guardian of souls that have yet to mature, become the dark knight and crush the light!" The pilot of the Ark flew out of the centerpiece, energy from the ark flying with it and charged it. The monster assembled itself, first its hands, then the legs and its abdomen. It then grabbed a blade with a triangular end and swung its around for a moment. It was then that its full body was revealed. A large warrior with black armor, red energy running underneath and a number "101" on the back ornament on its right leg. Finally, instead of a blue Overlay Unit orbiting around, Dark Knight had a red diamond-shaped crystal as its Overlay Unit.

 **CNo.101 S** **・** **H** **・** **Da** **rk Knight** WATER Water Xyz Effect R5 **2800** /1500

"And then, I detach its Overlay Unit to special summon Ark Knight from my graveyard!" The moment the Overlay Unit got detached, Ark Knight rematerialized and showed up again.

"But now Dark Knight does not have Overlay Units anymore! It cannot activate its effects!" Nico said through his microphone.

"There's no need to!" Ryoga said to Nico loudly. "Dark Knight does not need to use Overlay Units to activate its main effect!"

"Main effect?"

"Once per turn, Dark Knight can target 1 monster the opponent controls, and turn it into this card's Chaos Overlay Unit!"

"Turning an opponent's monster into a Chaos Overlay Unit!?" Yuzu said in surprise. "This is way stronger than Ark Knight!"

"Yep." Ruri said. "This is his evolved ace monster, the trump card that he only reserved for hard opponents…"

"Dark Soul Robber!" The knight swung its blade around before blasting energy at Blaze Falcon, creating an explosion. From the smoke, purple energy flew towards Dark Knight and formed into a Chaos Overlay Unit.

"Shun, now your field is empty, you will lose this turn!"

"I will not lose like that! Trap Card, Xyz Reborn! I special summon Revolution Falcon from my graveyard!" On cue, the falcon returned from the raging flame behind it and the trap turned itself into an Overlay Unit for it.

"Now… can your dare to attack this card?"

"Sa! Revolution Falcon has returned! Shark-niichan could not attack it!"

"Is that so?" Ryoga suddenly said, catching everyone's attention. "Let's find out…"

"Dark Knight, attack Revolution Falcon!"

"You crazy?" Shun wondered. "Revolution Falcon will drop its ATK and DEF!"

 **CNo.101 S** **・** **H** **・** **Da** **rk Knight** **2800** /1500 – **0** /0

"I know! Which is why I will banish Sharking to take no damage this turn!" Dark Knight was destroyed by the bombs Revolution Falcon unleashed, but Sharking prevented him from taking damage.

"And now Dark Knight's effect! Since this card still has Overlay Units when it is destroyed, I can special summon this card! Return from Limbo!" A portal opened, allowing Dark Knight to rise up. It then raised its blade, generating light that enveloped Ryoga.

"And I gain LP equal to its original ATK!"

 **Ryoga** : 100 - 2900 [0]

"What a nice move and a powerful effect!" Nico commented. "Contestant Ryoga managed to avoid damage and use Dark Knight's destruction to bring it back and increase his LP!" The audience clapped their hands. They never thought this duel would be so long like this with a lot of unpredictable moves and constant LP loss and gain from Ryoga. And this time, the You Show trio could not hide their proud smiles.

"At this moment!" Ryoga said. "I banish Shark Circle to destroy Revolution Falcon!" The large wing bird exploded.

 **Shun** : 1100 - 3100 [0]

"Even though you gain 2000 LP, I will deplete them during this Battle Phase!"

"Dark Knight, direct attack!" The attack was so fast that Shun did not have time to react. He was knocked back from this powerful blast.

 **Shun** : 3100 - 300 [0]

"Yossa! Shun only has 300 LP!"

"If he uses Ark Knight to attack, the duel will be over!"

"The duel ends now Shun! Ark Knight, direct attack!"

The smoke cleared, everyone waited for Shun's LP counter to reach 0, but it never happened…

 **Shun** : 300 [0]

"What? What happened? What did you do-" Ryoga realized that Shun's remaining Trap Card was gone. "Don't tell me-"

"Yes… When you use Ark Knight to attack me, I activated Raid Raptors - Readiness. This sent it to the graveyard from which I can banish it to allow me to take no damage this turn…"

"What the…" Ryoga sighed. He had lost the chance to beat Shun and make him open his eyes. "Turn end…" He muttered disinterestedly.

"Ore no turn… draw!" Shun looked at his drawn card for a moment.

He then turned to Ryoga. "Shark… this duel is over…"

"What?"

"Rank-Up-Magic Soul Shave Force activate!"

"What? Soul Shave Force!?"

"With this card, I pay half of my LP to bring back Revolution Falcon from my graveyard!"

 **Shun** : 300 - 150 [0]

"And then I will use this card to overlay!" The monster turned into a swirl of energy before crashing down to the portal, causing a huge explosion.

"Dauntless falcon. Hoist up the flame of anger, become the flash of light that burns the land to ash! Rank-Up Xyz Change! Soar! Rank 8! Raid Raptors - Satellite Cannon Falcon!"

 **Raid Raptors - Satellite Cannon Falcon** DARK Bird Beast Xyz Effect R8 **3000** /2000

Ryoga stepped back in fear. He knew he would lose the duel since he had no cards to protect him anymore…

"Satellite Cannon Falcon's monster effect activates!" The Overlay Unit exploded. "Your Dark Knight loses 800 ATK for each "Raid Raptors" monsters in my graveyard! And I have 8!" The white falcon pointed its cannons at Dark Knight and blasted it, draining it completely of its ATK.

 **CNo.101 S** **・** **H** **・** **Da** **rk Knight** ATK 2800 - 0

"Battle! Satellite Cannon Falcon, attack Silent Honors Dark Knight!" The falcon flew up very high, reaching the atmosphere. It flew out of the Earth and looked down at the stadium.

The Raid Raptors crest appeared from its back as it began charging for its aerial attack.

"Once again Ryoga, I have beaten you in a duel… even though I do not like this anyway…"

"Eternal Avenge!" Satellite Cannon Falcon fired the shot. The blast intensified as it advanced down towards the Maimai Stadium. Everyone looked on in fear, as if the blast would cause a big explosion. And the attack finally connected. Dark Knight groaned painfully as it was obliterated to pieces. Ryoga yelled as he was knocked back very far. Reiji had changed the Solid Vision Level at the last second to avoid causing a disaster.

 **Ryoga** : 2900 - 0 [0]

Silence crept over the stadium as the night came, no voices resonating as the virtual Heartland City slowly disappeared along with Satellite Cannon Falcon and Silent Honors Ark Knight. Shun deactivated his Duel Disk and came near to Ryoga, who looked up at him in defeat.

"I won… Shark… now I will play by my own rules and find Ruri. And if someone stops me, I will beat him… even you…"

Ryoga could only keep silence as Shun turned around and began to walk away…

* * *

After watching Ryoga's duel, everyone went back to their houses. Yuzu and Ruri in Shuzo's house, Ryoga and Yuto in Yoko's. The next day will be the Round of 16 in the Maimai Championship. The contestants will be Hikage, Umesugi, Takeda, Tsukikage, Carl, Mokota, Ashley, Bram, Tairyobata, Halil, Dennis Macfield, Olga, Gongenzaka, Yuya (actually Yuto), Shun and Yuzu. In Yoko's house, Ryoga, Yoko and Yuto were eating dinner, the latter had taken off the wig while Yoko had persuaded the former to stay in her house. Ryoga finally agreed on Yuto's behalf. Despite the situation, they tried their best to eat dinner like normal.

"Yuto!" Yoko decided to ask the serious teenager.

"Yes Yoko-san?"

"Can you please tell me what happened to Yuya? You must have known something right?"

Yuto put down the bowl and sighed. He obviously did not know where Yuya is now, but seeing the pleading look of the poor mother who was kind enough to let him and Ryoga stay here, he must speak something to make her feel better, even if only a bit.

"I don't really know Yoko-san. During that night, Yuya lost a duel against someone who looks similar to me and him and lost consciousness. His name is Yugo. I tried to wake him up when suddenly lightning appeared and he woke up. He then gave me the pendant and his ace monster Odd-Eyes Pendulum Dragon to me, entrusting me to make people smile and protect them from further threats in this world. He then disappeared in the light. I am not 100% sure, but I think Yuya is very near here, probably…"

"Probably what Yuto?" Ryoga wondered.

"You two may not believe it but… he may me…"

Yuto looked pleading at Yoko, as if he wanted her to believe this. "…inside me…"

Yoko stared at the lookalike of her son for a while, thinking whether to believe what he said or not. A short while later, she looked down and shook his head, sighing.

"Okay… I hope so Yuto…"

"We will try our best to find him Yoko-san. Don't worry too much." Ryoga reassured the mother.

"And if you happen to meet Yugo, please don't blame him. He was just trying to save his friend from the enemy as well, probably Academia too."

Yoko decided to agree to avoid further bad mood. "Ok… I will clean the dishes. Get some sleep. You two will have a hard tomorrow."

After Yoko went to the kitchen, Ryoga talked to Yuto.

"Are you sure that Yuya is inside you?"

"Honestly I'm not sure Shark…" He shook his head. "But I have a feeling that Yuya is inside me. I'm still not sure, but I had to say something to make Yoko-san feel better."

"And that's the only thing you could say…" He concluded.

Yuto nodded.

"Come on, let's get some sleep…"

…

…

After eating dinner and having some conversations, it was time to sleep. Yuzu told Ruri to sleep in her room tonight, at least to make her feel better and having a companion to sleep with is good.

"There is still one thing I wonder Yuzu…" Ruri trailed off.

Catching Ruri's sullen mood, Yuzu asked. "What is the thing you wonder Ruri?"

"It's just…" Ruri sighed, taking a deep breath before staring elsewhere. "It's just that if I manage to find Yuya… I don't know what to say when I see him… he will be mad at me of course but… I don't think he will accept my apology… Can't blame it though, I'm extremely guilty for lying to him and all of you…"

Ruri said nothing anymore, too emotional and messy to say anything else despite still keeping her emotions in check. Yuzu looked at her quietly for a while before putting her hand on top of Ruri's shoulders, making the purple hair girl look at her.

"Ruri, don't think too hard on yourself anymore. I understand why you had to do it Ruri. You had to do it for your own sake, and everyone has the right to do that to protect themselves. So yeah, I was angry at first, but I understand what happened to you and your people. So yes, I forgive you. Truly. And I'm sure Yuya will forgive you too!"

"Yeah I hope so… thank you Yuzu…"

"We're friends Ruri, and friends are supposed to understand and forgive each other."

"Thank you very much Yuzu. And get yourself some sleep, tomorrow is going to be a big day to you and Yuto!"

"Of course, I will win the tournament for Yuya."

"Not thinking about yourself but Yuya?" Ruri caught what she was saying and decided to joke.

"Shut up!" Yuzu blushed, throwing a pillow at Ruri who caught easily. "We're still friends, things are still not too far unlike you and Yuto who nearly had it in Yuya's room!"

"Jealous?" To Yuzu's surprise, Ruri coyly said back. "If you feel jealous, I will arrange a room for you and Yuya!"

"Damn you Ruri!" The room then turned into a war with the girls throwing pillows at each other.

At least the relationship between Ruri and Yuzu was good again.

* * *

To everyone's surprise, the Round of 16 will be played out as a Battle Royale with all of the advanced contestants dueling each other in a time limit of 24 hour around Maiami City starting at 12 AM with the Action Field Wonder Quarter activated around the city. The duelists will then have to find at least 2 Pendulum Cards scattered around the large Action Field in order to challenge another duelist to duel, who wins will acquire the Pendulum Cards of the loser and can use them later. After announcing the rules, Nico starts the duel chant and snaps his fingers, declaring the start of the Battle Royale. All 16 duelists immediately run out of the stadium and begin the largest duel ever.

Little did they know, the next 24 hours will change their lives for forever…

* * *

 **Fanfic OC Cards**

 **Moonlight Glass Slippers (Magic Card)**

If you control no monsters: draw 2 cards, then return 1 non-"Moonlight" card from your hand to the bottom of your Deck, otherwise send your entire hand to the GY. If you control no monsters: you can banish this card from your GY; special summon 1 "Moonlight" monster from your hand, and if you do, draw 1 card. It cannot be destroyed this turn.

 **Moonlight Fusion (Magic Card)**

Fusion Summon 1 "Moonlight" Fusion Monster from your Extra Deck, using monsters in your hand or field and/or banishing monsters from your GY as Fusion Materials. When your opponent activates a card effect that targets a "Moonlight" Fusion Monster you control and this card is in your GY: (Quick Effect) You can banish 1 "Moonlight" or 1 "Fusion" card from your GY, then target 1 "Moonlight" Fusion Monster you control and 1 banished "Moonlight" monster or in the GY; the first target cannot be targeted for your opponent's card effects this turn, also special summon the second target. You can only use this effect of "Moonlight Fusion" once per turn. During the End Phase of the turn this effect is activated, return this card to your hand.

 **Sacred Comet (Counter Trap Card)**

When an opponent's monster declares an attack: target 1 Level 5 or lower "Sacred" monster from your GY; negate the attack, and if you do, special summon it, then inflict damage to your opponent equal to its original ATK.

 **Minor Hinderance (Action Trap Card)**

Destroy 1 monster you control with the lowest ATK (your choice, if tied).

 **Spindle Angler**

WATER Fish Effect LV4 1800/1600

If you control a "Shark" monster; you can Special Summon this card from your hand. Up to twice per turn: you can declare a level between 3 and 5, then target that many WATER monsters you control, those monster's levels become the declared level until the end of this turn. You cannot Special Summon monsters the turn you activate this effect, expect WATER monsters. A WATER Xyz Monster Xyz Summoned using this card as material gains this effect:

*This card can attack twice per Battle Phase.

 **Raid Raptors - Supply (Continuous Magic Card)**

Destroy this card during your 3rd End Phase after this card is activated. Each time you Xyz Summon a "Raid Raptors" monster: draw 1 card. Once per turn, if a "Raid Raptors" monster you control destroys an opponent's monster by battle or card effect; inflict damage to your opponent equal to its Levels or Ranks x400. During either player's End Phase: you can tribute 1 "Raid Raptors" monster you control; draw 1 card, and if you, you can only Summon or Special Summon "Raid Raptors" monsters during your next turn.

 **Sharking (Counter Trap Card)**

When an opponent activates a card effects while you control a "Shark" monster: negate the activation, and if you do, draw 1 card, then if it is a "Shark" monster: you can reveal it, and draw 1 more card. You can banish this card from your GY: You take no damage this turn.

 **Armor Shark**

WATER Fish Effect LV3 0/2100

This card cannot be used as an Xyz Material. If you control a "Shark" monster; you can special summon this card in Defense Position. WATER monsters you control cannot be destroyed by battle or card effects. You can discard this card or banish this card from your field or GY; WATER monsters you control cannot be destroyed this turn.

 **Shark Circle (Trap Card)**

Target 1 "Shark" monster you control; destroy it, and if you do, gain LP equal to its original ATK, also special summon 1 other "Shark" monster from your GY. WATER monsters you control cannot be destroyed this turn. During the Battle Phase, you can banish this card from your GY; destroy 1 monster on the field, and if you do, its controller gain LP equal to its original ATK.

 **Raid Raptors - Revenge Reborn (Counter Trap Card)**

When your opponent activates an effect while you control no monsters: special summon 1 "Raid Raptors" Xyz Monster from your GY, and if you do, attach this card to it as material. That monster gains these following effects:

*Once per turn, if this card would leave the field; it is not.

*Once per opponent's turn, you take no battle damage from attacks involving this card.

 **Raid Raptors - Lure (Quick-Play Magic Card)**

During your Battle Phase: Target 1 monster in your opponent's GY; special summon it to your opponent's side of field in Defense Position. Your opponent takes no damage from attacks involving that card.

* * *

 **Phew! Such a long chapter isn't it? This is officially the longest chapter in my story by now!**

 **Before any of you complain, please let me explain why Selena's duel was short. Hokuto focuses on field control while Selena focuses on pure attacking, which means she would pack little defense to her disposal. I have used the Rin vs Selena duel as an excuse to have her use some more defensive cards, but she still could only use a few to keep her in character.**

* * *

 **Next Chapter Preview**

 **Battle Royale**

The 16 duelists begin the Battle Royale around the city, unknown to them, dark forces are ready to lurk around and steal their lives…

 **This is matrixnis, out!**


	28. Scale 28

**Hello everyone! I am back with a new chapter!**

 **Sorry for the delay, this is because: Busy life + Depression + Prom + Exams = lack of motivation. Luckily, I managed to get some back so here I go.**

 **This will be similar to the anime, expect for several things and I really like one of them. I think that particular change is very good and I hope you like it as well.**

 **Let's rock and roll!**

* * *

 **Chapter 28: Battle Royale**

* * *

"How you doing?"

The first question Yuri asked as soon as he got into Barrett's room. Yesterday while he was walking in the garden, someone suddenly materialized in front of him. It was Barrett and he seemed to have been wounded. Yuma and he quickly carried him to the doctor's room for treatment and he awoke yesterday. After getting a little bit better, the one-eyed proud warrior of Academia explained the whole thing, about why he and Selena disappeared this morning, how Selena won her first duel in the battlefield against an LDS student and carded him, how they met Akaba Reiji, the Professor's son then Barrett proceeded to lose against him and was wounded, after that he managed to return to Academia after seeing how Reiji would not do anything to Selena since they have met a year ago when the then-20-year-old Reiji ventured to Academia and discovered some "unpleasant" truth.

Yuri found Selena to be very stubborn to go to Standard alone, without permission and cause a massacre there when there was really no need to, not counting the fact that there were Xyz survivors going to there for some reason. The Professor had speculated after hearing the story that they were there to capture Reiji to use as ransom to force him to stop the war, but he knew his son too well to believe that. Reiji would form a group of Duelists to fight him. Also the Professor needed the girls for his plan, namely Selena, Rin, Ruri and Hiragi Yuzu.

"I'm doing well now, don't need to worry about me." The old man said as calmly as ever, nothing out of ordinary for an aged person like him, and for another person Yuri rarely intimately interacted with ever since he was in Academia with Selena.

"I know you well enough to know you're lying. The wound is still bad."

"Just don't worry about me too much. That's who you are now…"

The last sentence caused Yuri to stop and think about himself a bit. It's true that he had changed for the last three years after that incident with Selena and after the horrendous training in the Jungle with Sanders as his trainer, most of his morality had been washed away in place for a new, sadistic desire to card any opponents he faced. He could even card Academia members if he wanted given his high status in the hierarchy of the Duel school but he did have some limits and virtues, he would not disobey the Professor since he had guided him to the Project, giving him the chance to satisfy his urge of hunting and the head of Academia did give him the chance to go to Xyz and fight with the solders occasionally for hard missions. About the Project though, he did wonder why he had to capture the four girls in each dimension that shared the same faces as Selena, even more confused after he realized Rin's close friend, apparently named Yugo or Fusion if he wanted to misspell it to mock her, also had the same face as he. But he did not dare to ask the Professor since his orders are number one priority and he did not want to break the trust he had given to him.

"I… I still have limits you know… I still care about you and others…"

"But do you care like you did when you were younger?"

That completely stopped Yuri cold. He knew he had lost a lot after the car accident, and especially after the incident and the subsequent training from hell, but he came out as a stronger man, respected by many and feared by all. He felt good to finally be like that after a harsh childhood. So he guessed it was worth the price.

"Things happened… and we changed Barrett… like you losing an eye…"

Normally, if anyone in Academia, not counting the Professor, mocked him for his eye injury, Barrett would wordlessly beat them, but right now in front of him was Yuri, a boy he cared and respected, he could not do that. He sadly thought about the old times. Selena and Yuri were very close to him when they first got there that he felt like those two were his children. He had lost his wife and his kids when he was younger so he treasured him a lot. And now seeing their strained relationship with them not talking to each other, Yuri nearly bordering on insanity and Selena replacing childhood friend for the desire to fight and prove herself to the Professor really hurt him. He had tried to mend the bond back but they were both too selfish to do. He would usually do not sleep at night thinking about the two's situation.

"Yeah… things happened… and we forgot who we really are…"

"What do you mean Barrett?"

"I mean you and Selena."

Yuri gritted his teeth and looked away, shaking his head in denial. "Don't tell a single thing about that bitch in front of me again Barrett! I don't want to hear anything about her!"

"I want you and Selena to make up and be friends again Yuri, just like old times… you two are orphans and you two only have each other to truly give comfort to each other…"

Yuri and Barrett did not say anything anymore. The quiet atmosphere in the room was slowly causing pain to both of them yet they did not care one bit. Luckily Yuri's Duel Disk flashed, indicating new orders for him.

"Yes tell me the orders Professor."

"You seemed bored, unlike who you usually are." Leo said, noticing the rather moody predator.

"Nothing Professor."

"I hope so. Anyway, come to the main hall and bring Yuma with you. We have something important."

"I got it Professor! I will come soon!" He politely obeyed as usual. He then turned to Barrett before closing the door.

"I have to go, see you later… and…"

"…I don't think I can come back to the weaker me before…"

The door closed, leaving the sad Barrett behind thinking about the old times again.

Yuri came to Yuma's room and knocked the door, but there was no reply.

"Yuma? Yuma?"

Nothing.

"Where is that fool? It seems that he is not in his room…"

Yuri then walked around the hall, trying to look for the traitor of Heartland quietly like a predator looking for his prey. When he came across the Jungle area, he suddenly hear loud voices.

"WHAT? What do you mean, stop bringing her HERE? Who do you think you are to tell me that!?"

"I told you not to harm our prisoner! She is just a normal teenager brought into this meaningless war! You don't have the rights to harm her by forcing her to duel and torturing her like that! Especially after she was nearly raped by one of your GREATEST SOLDERS! I am Tsukumo Yuma, the Professor's right hand man, you hear it right? I am his right hand man, which means I am superior to you, and you have to listen my orders! If you dare to disobey, just ask the Professor. And now, stop torturing Rin and bring her back to her cell and DO NOT EVER DO IT AGAIN!"

"Do what he says Sanders!" Yuri decided to intervene. He walked into the jungle, the dreaded jungle, the worst jungle he had ever been. He noticed Rin was lying on the ground, badly beaten and several downed Obelisk Blue students.

"What do you mean Yuri?" The instructor angrily asked.

"Yuma's right! She is completely innocent! You have no right to harm her like that. And to prove my point, I am also the Professor's right hand man and I am WAY superior to you! DO WHAT HE SAYS!" He really hated Sanders a lot for what he did to him three years ago but also thanks to him he was now much stronger and more confident.

Sanders growled, making death glares at the two teenagers. Yuri swore he whispered bad words about him and Yuma under his breaths, but he let it by for now, there was another important thing to worry about. The instructor reluctantly brought her back with Yuma following behind to make sure.

"Yuma!"

"What?"

"Come with me to the hall room, the Professor has some orders for us. I can assure you that that man would not harm that girl Rin again."

"Fine." He then turned to Sanders. "Do not dare to hurt her!"

The traitor of Heartland and the predator of Academia then walked together to the hall.

"Thank you."

Yuri looked at Yuma. "What?"

"For helping me back there."

"Don't think about it like that. I did it for my own benefits too."

"So that you can hurt her when you're alone with her? You should be lucky that I do not stop you from that."

"You said not to hurt her, but not to hurt her emotionally."

"Just be careful Yuri. She may break out of prison somehow, and you will be shamed that she has escaped Academia. The pride the predator of Academia will be completely destroyed."

"Dare she would do it."

"Whatever…"

They went to the room and bowed in front of the Professor respectfully.

The old man gave them the order to stand up. "Okay. Stand up." They stood up and listened to his orders. "I call you two here because we have located Hiragi Yuzu and Selena's location."

"Nice!" Yuri smiled with interest. "Where are they Professor? Tell me, so that I could hunt them down badly…"

"Calm down junior. They are in Standard. Several groups of Obelisk Force and Shiun'in Sora have already gone to there. You will go there at night to capture the girls, and if the information from our spy Dennis Macfield was correct, Kurosaki Ruri was there as well."

"Yoss!" Yuri could not hide his excitement, much to Yuma's disdain. "Three birds with one stone! I cannot wait for the night to come!"

"And Yuma!" He turned to the spiked-hair teenager. "Your mission is to go to the LDS building with another high-ranking member of Academia and stop my son Reiji there from intervening with the battle."

"I got it Professor." Yuma politely answered. "But who will I go with besides Yuri?" The Professor simply eyed forward, urging Yuma and Yuri to look behind. There was a man standing at the door, tall, long black hair arranged irregularly and green eyes. He wore a long purple trench coat with long sleeves, white lines and black pants.

"You two will go with him…"

Still standing in the shadows, the man introduced himself.

"My name is… Darkness…"

* * *

The bewildered expressions the spectator and the competitors made were completely understandable, given the unsuspected nature of the change in the rules of the Round of 16. Little did they knew, instead of creating a more interesting challenge, it was actually a ruse made by none other than the head of the organizer, Akaba Reiji. The President of LDS was standing next to the Chairwoman Akaba Himika, both looking down at the Center Court Stadium.

The woman complimented her son's strategy. "A city-wide Battle Royale is surely a good idea, Reiji-san."

"If we now tell them an enemy from the other dimension will show up, the city will be in chaos. That's why we will send the 16 people having won in Youth Class to the city and then they will eliminate the enemy lurking in the Battle Royale…" Reiji explained thoroughly as he turned around to face his first batch of Lancer. "The ones who will really stop the enemy will be those eight in front of you. They are all LDS so it is much easier for the campaign."

Himika then spoke up to them. "For the glory of LDS and for protecting our world, I trust in you guys!"

"Yes!" All of them said. Reiji nodded at the Lancers and turned to see Kurosaki, who was leaning besides the door.

"I think you are clear now Kurosaki. Your mission is to find potential Duelists amongst those 15 people in the Stadium in case of emergency."

"So you don't want me to fight the enemy? I cannot promise that. If those 8 are down then I will have to engage in battle."

Feeling hurt by the soldier's harsh words, Yuu berated. "You're too arrogant for a Youth!"

Without turning to see him, Shun gave thèm ăn "encouraging" sentence. "Try your best to survive." He then opened the door and walked off the room.

* * *

The moment the timer hit 12:00:00, Nico Smiley snapped his fingers, the bubble containing Action Cards broke, scattering a lot of them around the city. All 15 duelists ran around the city, either alone or with a companion. Yuto with Yuya's disguise and Yuzu were running with Yuzu in the city, the three Knight of Duels were running together under the bridge, Michio stood at the bank of the river, Gongenzaka tried to look for Action Cards at the pier, Takeda and Ken were doing the same in the city, Halil was looking for the cards at the other part of the pier.

Nico explained the rules again. "First off, if the contestants cannot find 2 Pendulum Cards hidden in the city, they cannot duel! Use those cards as ante and the winners will get the cards. We will decide the winners according to the numbers of Pendulum Cards they get in the end."

Yuya and Yuzu were looking for Pendulum Cards in the bushes. Despite the ongoing tournament, they did not forget that Kurosaki Shun was participating in this tournament.

"After all Kurosaki will not come right?" Yuzu asked.

Yuto quickly answered. "No. He is one of those 16, he will come. Besides, he still does not know where his sister Ruri and Ryoga are now, although they were extremely close by."

"Well let's split up to find Pendulum Cards!" Yuzu proposed then she ran off in the other direction.

Yuto knew there was one thing he needed to do to her, and he quickly called her because they would not meet each other again for at most 24 hours. "Uh Yuzu! Yuzu! Wait up!"

Hearing the request, Yuzu stopped running and turned to Yuto. "What? What's wrong Yuto-"

Yuzu let out a gasp of surprise when Yuto slowly approached her. His hands slowly went upwards until it touched the pendant, and with full of respect, he solemnly took it off his neck and wore it around Yuzu's own.

The pink hair girl was confused. This pendant was Yuya's and now Yuto wore it to take place for Yuya during his mysterious absence, but he took it off and wore it to her? And he did it with such manliness and warmness at the same time? Those questions danced around her head, and she had to find a quick way to know why the survivor of Resistance did that do her.

"Yuto… What are you doing? Why are you giving the pendant to me? You're supposed to-"

"You have the right to." Yuto talked her off. His calm demeanor instantly stopped her continuous questions. "Look. I don't know what happened to Yuya and why he hasn't come back yet, but he must have done it for a reason. And the pendant you're wearing now, it is his important belonging. If you wear it, the most important person to him wears it, then he will know it and come back to you and all of your friends."

"The most important person to… him?" Yuzu asked, blushing. She never thought Yuya would think of her like that, and now Yuto was pointing out to her in a way that made them a couple or something. Just that thought reddened her cheeks more.

"Yes, I'm sure about that. Ruri had told me about you and Yuya and the relationship between you two. And I'm sure he will be back. In the meantime, try your best to win the tournament and be careful okay?"

Touched by his words, Yuzu froze for a bit before nodding to Yuto. "Okay. I hope so. Be careful!"

"I will." Yuto promised back and watched Yuzu running away. The short time he had known Yuzu personally, he knew she was a strong girl like Ruri. She is kind, passionate, burning with passion and caring for people, especially Yuya. He was sad that Ruri had to lie to her to get herself safety, but she had no other choice, luckily Yuzu forgave her but he could not say the same thing to Yuya judging by the angered expression he had when he found out who Ruri really was. And with that, he was sure that the pink hair girl would be okay, she had always been and she would be.

From the Stadium, Nico announced. "Now, let's get the stage ready for the competitors! Action Field ON!"

"Field Magic, Wonder Quartet activate!" The moment the name and the image of the card was announced, purple spheres appeared from all round the city: coming out of buildings, sliding out from the pads under the bridge of directly below the surface, under the bank of the river, from the docks. Those were numerous Real Solid Vision machines installed. The light engulf the entire city, changing the scenery completely. From the aerial view of the city, the northwest part of the city turned into a volcanic-like area, the northeast part became some kind of ruins, the southeast part now looked like a forest and the southwest section was covered in ice, looking like the image of the Action Field Wonder Quartet.

"Volcano!" That was the position Yuya was standing.

"Ice!" Yuzu and Gongenzaka stood there.

"Forest!" Michio was there.

"Ancient Ruins!" The place that the Knight of Duels chose as their territory.

"The four stages have been set! The deadline is at noon. Who will claim the prize? Let's watch and find out!"

* * *

At the ground, stuck between a small fissure was a Pendulum Card, made by LDS. And the Entertainment Duelist Sakaki Yuya, or rather, the Resistance member Yuto in disguise did not waste the chance to take it up. The war had honed his senses and this was nothing compared to what he had to do six months ago back in his home.

"So you have two Pendulum Cards now?" A young, male voice spoke up from his right. Yuto quickly turned to there and saw two people, the people he wished he would not see again.

Takeda Makoto and Umesugi Ken.

The bastards who kidnapped Ruri and Ryoga and tortured them in a violent duel in the pier where he and Shun failed to rescue them before Akaba Reiji captured them again.

"Our Ryouzanpaku Duel School will be your opponent!"

"You will fell complete shame." Ken added to the warning.

Yuto stood still, channeling the memories of his duel with Kachidoki Isao as motivation to beat those two up. He had to win and he had to keep Yuya's character in check, he had failed massively last time and luckily not many people seemed to notice much.

" _A 2 vs 1 duel… ordinary…"_

* * *

"Look! It seems that the first Duel will happen in the "Volcano" area? Competitors Takeda and Umesugi from Ryouzanpaku Duel School will fight against Sakaki Yuya from You Show Duel School!" Nico announced the potentially first duel. While the spectator got fired up, the You Show trio was obviously concerned.

"Yuya-niichan!"

"The two duelists from Ryouzanpaku?"

"This is the interesting concept of Battle Royale!" Nico said.

"According to the Ante Rule, deal the Pendulum Cards!" Takeda said. Ken and Takeda pulled out one each and Yuto did the same.

 **DUEL!**

 **Yuto** : 4000 [5]

 **Takeda Makoto** : 4000 [5]

 **Umesugi Ken** : 4000 [5]

* * *

Nico announced "Each contestant has bet one Pendulum Card and now they begin to Duel…"

"President!" Nakajima said to the elevating Akaba Reiji as he looked at the screen.

"What's the situation?"

"The Duel between Sakaki Yuya and Ryouzanpaku Duel School has begun."

"…whose tactic will be more superior?"

* * *

Ken and Takeda waved their hands, biding Yuto to go first. Compared to the slasher smiles Academia soldiers made, this was nothing to him. Yuto quickly began his turn.

"I normal summon Entermate Amenboat!"

 **Entermate Amenboat** WATER Insect Effect LV4 **500** /1600

His opponents taunted. "Sa, come!"

"You will be pulled into…"

"…the darkness called "failure"!"

Hearing those taunting coming from those two assholes was overly funny for him. Those two were simply stupid boys who like to use their skills to hurt people, without considering the consequences if they play with the wrong person. And Yuto could not manage to give out a "Ha!"

"What?"

Yuto drew a smile on his face before saying. "Darkness called "failure"? Come on…" Yuto mocked them back as he set down two cards and end his turn.

* * *

In the Ice area, Gongenzaka punched a glacier, revealing an Action Card inside it. He pulled it out, complimenting himself.

"Yoss! I have two Pendulum Cards now!"

A mischievous laughter of a girl suddenly sounded from afar, putting Gongenzaka in caution.

"Who's there?"

From behind the frosty wind, a girl smiled at him as she ran away. Gongenzaka gave chase.

* * *

"Ore no turn!" Takeda began his turn. "The person who can use Pendulum is now no longer you! I, using the Scale 5 Pendulum Statue Purple Shield and the Scale 11 Pendulum Statue Purple Sword, Pendulum Scale setting!"

"Now I can summon monsters whose levels are between 6 and 10! Pendulum Shōkan!" Two monsters flew down from the Pendulum Portal.

"Appear now, Earthly Wind Star Tsumuji! Heavenly Wind Star Arashi!"

 **Earthly Wind Star Tsumuji** EARTH Warrior Effect LV6 **2200** /0

 **Heavenly Wind Star Arashi** LIGHT Warrior Effect LV7 **2300** /0

"Purple Sword's Pendulum Effect! Once per turn, increase all of my Warrior-Type monsters' ATK by 200!" With that, all of Takeda's monsters gained a yellow aura.

 **Earthly Wind Star Tsumuji** ATK 2200 - 2400

 **Heavenly Wind Star Arashi** ATK 2300 - 2500

"Battle! Tsumuji, attack Amenboat!" The monster pulled back the arrow and released the string, firing the arrow.

Yuto countered. "By changing Amenboat to Defense Position, this battle is negated!" The arrow hit a barrier in front of Amenboat and disappeared.

"But I still have another monster to attack! Go now, Arashi!" On cue, Arashi also began to ready its arrow, causing Yuto to run for Action Cards, one of which was found on a rock across the stream of lava. However, Ken knocked him out of the way, nearly causing him to slip down to the hot lava while Ken jumped across easily and got the Action Card. The arrow got fired and destroyed Amenboat.

"Action Magic, Flame Ball activate!" Multiple flame balls fired out from the card and hit the ground near Yuto.

 **Yuto** : 4000 - 3800 [2]

"This is not the end yet!" Takeda told Yuto from above. "Magic Card, Fusion activate!"

" _Fusion!?"_ Yuto tried his best not to yell out in anger at the sight of the card.

"Blow, wind! Rage, storm! Surging God of Destruction, reign over this land! Fusion Shōkan! Come, Level 10! Fujin the Great Storm Star!"

 **Great Storm Star Fujin** WIND Warrior Fusion Effect LV10 **3000** /2200

"During the End Phase, Fujin inflicts 500 damage for each Warrior-Type monster on the field!" The monster swung its axe, creating a whirlwind that nearly blown Yuto, but as a fighter, he quickly grabbed a large piece of rock nearby to protect himself.

 **Yuto** : 3800 - 3300 [2]

* * *

The cold atmosphere of the Ice area which was made real by the Real Solid Vision caused Yuzu to hug her hands tightly, one of them touching Yuya's pendant, as if she wanted Yuya to be here and warm her with his warm body or at least his jacket. She reminded herself to wear a sleeved shirt next time. However for someone…

"It's hot!"

Yuzu turned to her left to see a boy washing his face with a hankerchef. His not-so-fluent Japanese accent gave way that he is a foreign Duelist. "It's never been this hot before!" The moment he saw Yuzu, he became overjoyed. He quickly ran to her and gave her a welcoming hand.

"You are Hiragi Yuzu!"

"What?"

"I am Halil from Anatolia's LDS! A Fusion course exchange student! It's a pleasure to meet you!"

Yuzu also politely replied back. "It's a pleasure to meet you too!"

"You're the Fusion user who beat Masumi! I want to duel with you!" He said excitedly like a fanboy.

"Etou…" Yuzu hesitated before accepting. "It's fine! But I haven't found the second Pendulum Card!"

"I have found three!" Halil said as he pulled out one of his Pendulum Cards from his pocket and gave to Yuzu. "If I give Yuzu one then you will have two, enough to Duel!"

"Uh… thank you a lot! You're very kind!"

"But I will not lose a Duel!"

"Hm! And I never want to!"

Each duelist then assumed their fighting stance and got a Pendulum Card to deal. From the stadium, everyone was excited and Nico announced the duel.

 **DUEL!**

 **Halil** : 4000 [5]

 **Hiragi Yuzu** : 4000 [5]

"Burn Yuzu! Get fired up!" Shuzo encouraged his daughter.

"Two duels at the same time!" Ayu said excitedly.

"But with Yuya-niichan…" Tatsuya sadly whispered as he looked at the screen of the duel between Yuto and the Ryouzanpaku. Ruri and Ryoga silently prayed for their friend.

* * *

"Ore no turn!" Ken began his turn. "My Pendulum will be on the show soon! I, using the Scale 5 Purple Shield and Scale 11 Purple Sword, Pendulum Scale setting!" The Pendulum Scale on Ken's field was now set, ready for the Summon.

"With this, I can summon monsters with levels between 6 and 10! Pendulum Shōkan!"

"Appear, Earth Thunder Star Todoroki! Heaven Thunder Star Senkou!"

 **Earth Thunder Star Todoroki** EARTH Warrior Effect LV6 **2100** /0

 **Heaven Thunder Star Senkou** LIGHT Warrior Effect LV7 **2400** /0

* * *

"Watashi no turn!" Halil declared his first turn of the duel. "I normal summon The Demonic Spirit of the Lamp La Jinn!" The moment Halil slapped down the card, a jinn appeared. It did not wear clothes so Yuzu could get a good view of its muscular build.

 **The Demonic Spirit of the Lamp La Jinn** DARK Demon LV4 **1800** /1000

"2 cards set, turn end!"

"Watashi no turn, draw!" Yuzu smirked as she had drawn a Pendulum Card she had found earlier. _"Good! Now I will…"_

Yuzu took out another card and set the Scale. "I, using the Scale 3 White Butterfly and Scale 9 White Flower, Pendulum Scale setting!"

"Finally, my Pendulum Debut!" The two monsters in the Pendulum Zones flew up, and that was when Halil countered.

"Continuous Trap, Magic-Absorbing Lamp activate! Negate the activation of a Magic Card my opponent activates and add it to my hand!"

"Eh?"

"Please give me White Flower!" Yuzu pouted, she had no other choice though so she took White Flower of the Scale and threw it to Halil, who caught it easily.

" _This is nothing! I will not back down easily like this! Just because one of my cards is stolen doesn't mean I would give up!"_ Yuzu encouraged herself before proceeding. "I normal summon Melodious Diva Opera!"

 **Melodious Diva Opera** LIGHT Angel Effect LV4 **2300** /1000

"2300 ATK…" Halil said. "Too high for a level 4 monster to be normal summoned. It must has a restrictive effect!"

"You're right." Yuzu confirmed. "It cannot attack this turn. Turn end!"

* * *

Gongenzaka finally found the girl, who had her back turned to him. It seemed that she had intentionally stopped here and wanted to duel the man.

"This place is warm, just like the country where I have been born!" She then eyed at the big boy. "I have a feeling that I will not lose anyone here!"

"During the first month of the year, I climbed to the frosty mountains to practice!" Gongenzaka said back.

The girl finally turned around, revealing herself. "My name is Olga from the LDS' Northern Europe branch. Synchro course exchange student."

* * *

"Watashi no turn, draw!" Halil began his second turn. He squealed at the sight of his drawn card: a Pendulum Card. However, he said it out loud, causing Yuzu to remind him not to.

"I, using the Scale 1 Red Devil and Scale 9 White Flower, Pendulum Scale setting!" However, he set Red Devil in the…

Monster Zone…

He tried putting it there multiple times, not knowing where to exactly put it, annoying Yuzu greatly. After a long and uncomfortable lesson about Pendulum Cards, Halil finally placed Red Devil correctly.

"With this, I can summon multiple monsters with levels between 2 and 8 right?"

"Pendulum Shōkan! Appear now, Red Lamp! Purple Lamp!" The summoned monsters had some sort of a dangerous appearance, the red one had a long nose and sharp teeth, the purple one had five fingers in place for its hair.

 **Red Lamp** ? ? Effect LV3 **900** /?

 **Purple Lamp** ? ? Effect LV4 **1600** /?

"Whoopee! I have Pendulum Summoned!" Halil raised his hand up in joy. "It's Entertainment! Red Lamp's effect! When this card is Special Summoned, it inflicts 600 damage!" The nose released fire at Yuzu, at least warming her a bit.

 **Yuzu** : 4000 - 3400 [3]

"Then Purple Lamp's effect activates! I can add a Magic Card "Fusion" to my hand! And I will activate it now!"

"Genie called from the darkness! Embrace your sweltering soul and be reborn! Yūgō Shōkan! Please, come out! Blazing Genie of the Lamp - Fire Jinn!" It was similar to La Jinn in appearance, besides the fiery rings around its neck and body and the reddish skin.

 **Blazing Genie of the Lamp - Fire Jinn** FIRE ? Fusion Effect LV7 **2400** /?

"When it is Fusion Summoned, Fire Jinn inflicts 600 damage!" Once again, the poor pink hair girl was subjected to the hot flame.

 **Yuzu** : 3400 - 2800 [3]

" _He's playing a burn deck! How can Yuzu get over this…"_ Ruri thought from the spectator seat.

"And then, Red Devil's Pendulum Effect will increase FIRE-monsters' ATK by 300!"

 **Blazing Genie of the Lamp - Fire Jinn** ATK 2400 - 2700

Yuzu began to look for an Action Card and Halil will not let her do that. "Battle! Fire Jinn, attack Opera!" The jinn flew towards the scared singed. The former decided to joke her a bit by waving his fingers before poking Opera, disintegrating it.

 **Yuzu** : 2800 - 2400 [3]

"And now Purple Lamp direct attack!" The purple wave of energy from Purple Lamp hit Yuzu and sent her sliding on the surface of the ice. During the sliding, Yuzu noticed an Action Card and grabbed it quickly, but right after that she… flew down to a slope!

Halil quickly followed her, using Fire Jinn as hovering transport…

* * *

While Yuto was still looking for an Action Card, Ken continued. "Purple Sword's Pendulum Effect!"

 **Earth Thunder Star Todoroki** ATK 2100 - 2300

 **Heaven Thunder Star Senkou** ATK 2400 - 2600

"Battle! Todoroki, Sakaki Yuya direct attack!" The monster jumped towards Yuto, clubbing the ground and sending Yuto flying.

 **Yuto** : 3300 - 1000 [2]

The boy quickly adjusted the wig and looked around. There was an Action Card on a rock but as he tried to take it, Takeda stomped his hand.

"Where is your Duel that you are going to show!?" He grabbed the card, did the backflip and activated it. "Action Magic, Flame Ball!"

 **Yuto** : 1000 - 800 [2]

"And then, Senkou direct attack!"

Yuto countered. "Continuous Magic, Entermate Pinch Helper!" The trap hit the lance of Senkou, forcing it to stop its attack. "Negate the direct attack and special summon an "Entermate" monster from my deck with its effects negated! I special summon Entermate Rakudown!"

 **Entermate Rakudown** EARTH Beast Pendulum Effect LV4 800/ **1800**

"If so, I activate the Quick-Play Magic, Supremacy Fusion!"

"What?" Yuto exclaimed. "Another Fusion!?" Losing the duel and damaging Yuya's reputation concerned him more than the anger of Fusion right now.

"Flash across the heavens! Echo through the earth! Lightning God of Destruction, reign over this land! Yūgō Shōkan! Come forth! Supreme Thunder Star Raiji!"

 **Supreme Thunder Star Raiji** WIND Warrior Fusion Effect LV10 **3000** /2200

"This card can inflict piercing battle damage, and it can attack since this is still the Battle Phase! Go now Raiji!" The monster charged energy on its sword, readying to release it.

"Trap Card!" Yuto acted. "Defense Draw! Battle damage becomes 0 and I can draw a card!" The attack destroyed Rakudown but when it was about to hit Yuto, a barrier formed from the trap and shielded Yuto.

* * *

Under the slope, Olga and Gongenzaka were dueling.

 **Noboru Gongenzaka** : 2400 [2]

 **Superheavy Samurai Taima-2** EARTH Machine Effect LV1 **500** /300

 **Olga** : 2600 [1]

 **Arctic Beast Blizzard Wolf** DARK ? Effect LV4 **?** /?

 **Arctic Beast Polar Penguin** ? ? Tuner Effect LV3 **?** /?

"I end my turn!" Gongenzaka finished his turn, getting ready for what Olga may throw at him.

Olga touched the top card of her Deck. "Watashi no turn-"

"AHHHHHHHH!"

A loud female scream from above caught Olga's attention. The moment she looked up, she was hit by someone and fell down. And that person was…

"Yuzu!" Gongenzaka noticed her.

"Gongenzaka!"

"Hey! What do you want!? You don't get up and I will not forgive you!" Olga yelled at Yuzu, who was sitting on her.

Yuzu quickly got out and apologized to her. "I-I am sorry!" Suddenly, the Duel Disk beeped, notifying something. She looked at it.

"Battle Royale Mode, Joining. Tag Duel."

"Eh?"

"Tag Duel?" Gongenzaka's Duel Disk's automated system said the same thing.

Halil hovered on Fire Jinn behind Olga. "Excuse me! What does this mean?"

Nico announced. "Oh! It seems that the two Duels in the Ice area have been merged together?" The screen changed to an announcement of a 2 vs 2 duel. "Oh it's here! The Tag Duel between Hiragi/Gongenzaka Team and Halil/Olga Team have been set!"

"Yuzu-neechan and Gongenzaka's Tag?" Tatsuya wondered.

"Shivieru!" The usual tic of Futoshi nearly caused Ryoga to hit him in the head, but he managed to control himself. Meanwhile, Ruri was more worried on Yuto's duel.

* * *

At the Forest area, Hikage and Tsukikage were protecting Selena from afar.

At the Ancient Ruins area, Kurosaki Shun was surrounded by the three Knight of Duels.

"We found you Shun! We are going to beat you!"

"The person who defeated your teammate Charles was Kamishiro Ryoga, not me!"

"But he beat Charles, and you beat him, so we are going to beat you, at least as a present to the fallen Charles!"

"We'll see…"

From the control room, Reiji was watching the whole thing through the large holographic screen, especially at Yuto, who he thought was Sakaki Yuya, though he began to doubt it considering the change in him.

" _Is he really Yuya…?"_

* * *

"You now have no other options, you are going to lose soon!" Takeda warned.

"We will throw you to the abyss of darkness!" Ken said.

" _I cannot lose! For Yuya's sake!"_ Yuto then shouted from below. "As I have said earlier, I will not lose against the two of you! I will WIN! You will lose for hurting me and my friends!" He ran for an Action Card. Of course those two did not know that Yuto was talking about Ruri and Ryoga since Reiji had erased their memories.

* * *

Reiji found what "Yuya" said to be interesting. _"Those two had never harmed any of his friends… but…"_

* * *

"It's useless to resist!" Takeda said. "During the End Phase, you will take 1000 damage from Fujin!"

"I end my turn!" As soon as Ken said that, Fujin created a whirlwind from its lance. It slowly went to the fleeing Yuto.

" _Am… am I… going to lose…?"_ Yuto sadly thought when suddenly, something shielded him from the blast.

From the rock above, someone raised his hand at the materialized card.

Entermage Damage Juggler.

"It's no good to steal the show alone!" That person caught the duelist's attention. Yuto then looked at him. He was a teenager with red hair, green eyes, he wore an odd-looking long-sleeved blue collared shirt with an orange jacket on the left side, partially hiding the blue one underneath. He then smiled and requested.

"Let me join in the duel!"

Unexpected for everyone, his Duel Disk… stole the grand entrance…

"BOO! Intrusion Penalty, 2000 Points!"

"WHAT-~OOHHH~NOOOOO~~OH~~~~" The teenager was struck with electricity and yelled painfully before sliding down in complete shame, losing color. Yuto, Ken and Takeda all sweat dropped at the sight.

* * *

"The person who just appeared is the exchange student from LDS' Broadway branch! Dennis Macfield! But he had lost 2000 LP due to the intrustion." Nico informed to the spectator.

"What does it mean?" Ayu wondered. She did not know what had happened.

"It didn't happen from Yuzu-neechan…" Tatsuya did not know either.

"Uh… Let me explain!" Nico said. "In contestant Hiragi's case, she was originally dueling with Halil. In contestant Dennis's case, since he was dueling against no one when he joined in another duel, he has to take the penalty."

Ruri and Ryoga looked at his face, sensing something different from him.

" _Why does he seem to feel…?"_

* * *

"Owww… that hurts… ah… it is called "de ochi" right? Ma, gotta calm down."

"Wait up! Why is the effect damage gone?" Yuto wondered, imitating Yuya's voice.

"Ah… that thing? Right after joining this duel, I send Entermage Damage Juggler to negate the effect damage from a monster and negate that monster's effects as well. So he cannot activate Fujin's effect during the End Phase anymore!"

"You saved me? Why-"

"Nani! No need to say thank you."

Takeda harshly said. "Don't do trivial stuffs!"

"Oioi… so rude. I am planning on providing more entertaining shows!"

* * *

From the Tag Duel in the Ice area, Olga had joined with Halil to face against Gongenzaka and Yuzu. She began her turn by drawing a card.

"I, using the level 4 Arctic Beast Blizzard Wolf and the level 3 Arctic Beast Polar Penguin, tuning!"

"Let your guard down and you're dead! It's piercing horn is just the tip of the iceberg! Synchro Shōkan! Come forth! Level 7! Arctic Beast Iceberg Narwhal!" A monster destroyed the ice around it to break free. It looked like an ice-coated serpent, its right arm resembled a toothed whale, whose tip was used like a drill to break the ice earlier.

 **Arctic Beast Iceberg Narwhal** ? ? Sychro Effect LV7 **2700** /?

"Yoss! Iceberg Narwhal, Yuzu direct attack!"

Yuzu quickly activated a card in her hand. "Action Magic, Blind Blizzard! Force the Battle Phase to end!" A frost wind began to blow.

Olga did not stop there. "Narwhal's effect activates! It negates the activation of a Magic or Trap card when it attacks and destroys it!" The drill destroyed the trap and was about to attack Yuzu.

"Superheavy Samurai Taima-2's effect activates!" Gongenzaka countered. "I change the attack target to this card!" Narwhal changed its target to Taima-2 and began to drill through it, but failed since Taima-2 negated its battle destruction once per turn.

 **Gongenzaka** : 2400 - 200 [2]

"Gongenzaka-"

"Don't worry about me! This is a Tag Duel!" He explained to the worried Yuzu.

* * *

"Yoss! Let's end this duel! Boku no turn, draw!" Dennis began his turn.

"Sakaki Yuya's LP is 200, a Flame Ball will finish him!" Ken and Takeda began to jump, finding an Action Card. While Yuto began to worry, Dennis let out a "Wow! Wonderful!" and ran with Yuto.

"Hey! Are you Sakaki Yuya right? My name is Dennis Macfield! LDS' Broadway branch exchange student!" Yuto found his manners to be pretty annoying but he let it out this time. "Your first duel is awesome! It made me feel excited!"

"Hey! We are in a Duel…"

Takeda had found an Action Card and activated it. "Action Magic, Flame Ball!"

Yuto had found one as well and was about to activate it when…

"Entermage Flame Eater! Negate the effect damage and special summon this card from my hand!" A monster consisted of a large head with a funny expression, a wizard hat and a cape below it appeared. It opened its mouth and absorbed the flame ball flew up from the lava.

"What?" Takeda exclaimed.

Dennis could not stop his fanboying though. "Ah ah your next duel, I feel a little disappointed."

Ken also activated one Action Card. "Flame Ball again!"

"Action Magi-"

"Flame Eater special summon again!" Another Flame Eater ate the flame ball.

Dennis became annoyed at Ken and Takeda's constant interruptions. "Nanana stop it! I want to talk to Yuya! Don't cut off- eh? Wait!"

"I have two monsters with the same level now…"

Yuto gasped. _"Xyz Summon!"_

"Which mean I can do "this thing"! I, using the two level 4 Entermate Flame Eater, Overlay Network constructing!" The two large balls turned into red swirls of energy and crashed down to the portal.

"Show Must Go On. Artisan of the air, swing across the stage with grace! Xyz Shōkan! Come forth! Rank 4! Entermage Trapeze Magician!" From the radiant Overlay Network, a monster came out smiling. It was a humanoid monster in a white magician outfit, a purple cape around its neck. It wore a mask with a white conical hat and it wielded a two-headed stick on its left hand.

 **Entermage Trapeze Magician** LIGHT Magician Xyz Effect R4 **2500** /2000

Right after that, Dennis jumped on Trapeze Magician and flew with it, sending sparkles down the field. Yuto was shocked not only by the bright and colorful monster, but also something inside him was surging. A memory. A memory of…

Sakaki Yusho…

Yuya's father riding a magician-like monster…

It was strange, but warm at the same time, he felt like it was warming his very broken soul inside…

The memories he never had about him, was now playing in his mind...

A memory that he was sure only one person would have…

" _Yuya…?"_

Dennis completed his riding and jumped down in front of the amazed Yuto. "Sa! View this!" Trapeze Magician flew down to the lava and shone up brightly in purple, sending colorful stars and sparkles around. Everyone in the stadium was amazed, they cheered and yelled and smiled happily.

"It's like the style of Sakaki-senpai!" Shuzo yelled in excitement.

"This boy is adorable!" Yoko squealed.

"As long as Trapeze Magician is on the field, any effect damage that is equal or lower than this card's ATK is reduced to 0. Which means you two cannot rely on the Action Magic Flame Ball anymore." Dennis explained. "Now, my role is finished. Turn end!"

"Uh? That's it?" Yuto wondered.

"You are better suited for the "climax"!" Dennis explained.

* * *

In the Forest area, Selena was watching the entire thing happened in the Volcano area.

" _Dennis Macfield… a Xyz user… a challenge is near…"_

Selena decided to walk to the Volcano area, ignoring the changed news in the Ancient Ruins area, where Shun was cornering the Knight of Duels with his signature monster Raid Raptors - Rise Falcon.

"Battle! Raid Raptors - Rise Flacon! Destroy everything! Brave Claw Revolution!" The fiery falcon flew up high before crashing down, finishing the foreign duelists.

"These guys are completely not fitted to be Lancers." Shun concluded before walking away.

* * *

"Ore no turn, draw! I normal summon Superheavy Samurai Glo-V!" A smaller monster in Gongenzaka's arsenal. The only thing that was significant was its large purple mechanical gloves.

 **Superheavy Samurai Glo-V** EARTH Machine Effect LV3 **100** /1000

"And then I discard a "Superheavy Samurai" monster in my hand to special summon the Tuner Monster Superheavy Samurai Horaga-E!" A small monster with a large trumpet appeared.

 **Superheavy Samurai Horaga-E** EARTH Machine Tuner Effect LV2 **300** /600

"Let's go! I, using the level 1 Taima-2, level 3 Glo-V and level 2 Horaga-E, tuning!"

"Rise your war cry. Divine ogre! Show yourself. On this battlefield of raging ice and storm! Synchro Shōkan! Now depart for the front! Level 6! Superheavy God Oni Shutendo-G!" A red-armored samurai with a large brown club showed up.

 **Superheavy God Oni Shutendo-G** EARTH Machine Synchro Effect LV6 500/ **2500**

"Since I only have monsters in my graveyard, after Synchro Summoning, Shutendo-G can destroy all Magic and Trap cards my opponent controls!" All of the Magic and Trap and Pendulum Cards on Halil and Olga's field materialized before being destroyed.

 **The Blazing Genie of the Lamp - Fire Jinn** ATK 2700 - 2400

Halil sadly remarked. "Since Magic-Absorbing Lamp is destroyed, your White Flower returns to your hand." Halil threw the card back to Yuzu, who smiled at the sight of it.

"Shutendo-G, attack Fire Jinn!" The monster swung its club before hitting the red jinn, destroying it.

 **Halil** : 4000 - 3900 [0]

"Yoss!" Gongenzaka celebrated!

"That's Gongenzaka!" Yuzu cheered. "Turn the tables in only one move-"

"Really?" Halil suddenly said. "Since Fire Jinn is destroyed, I can release Purple Lamp to destroy Shutendo-G and inflict 600 damage!"

"What?" Fire Jinn got inside the lamp and together they flew towards Shutendo-G and exploded itself, costing Gongenzaka the duel.

 **Gongenzaka** : 200 - 0 [0]

"And now Iceberg Narwhal's effect!" Olga pointed at Yuzu who was running towards Gongenzaka. "You will take 600 damage as well!" The toothed whale opened its mouth and sent multiple ice balls at Yuzu.

 **Yuzu** : 800 - 200 [4]

Gongenzaka weakly got up. "Yuzu… I left the baton behind for you! The baton named "Pendulum!" I leave the rest to you!"

Yuzu agreed and smiled. "I got it!"

Halil spoke up. "Such a beautiful friendship! I will try to learn it! But now you only have 200 LP! I will finish the duel on my next turn!"

"Not yet! Not until you enjoy my "Show" first! Atashi no turn, draw!"

" _Pianissimo! Yes!"_ She smiled, realizing she could finish the duel right then and there. "I, using the already set White Butterfly and the Scale 9 White Flower, Pendulum Scale setting!"

"With this, I can summon monsters whose levels are between 4 and 8!"

Yuzu closed her eyes, taking a deep breath, thinking about her friend. _"Yuya… I don't know what happened to you… or why you disappeared… but please… whatever happened to you… be safe… Yuto and I are handling things in this tournament and we are making sure that your reputation will be retained when you come back… so please… don't worry and return to us as soon as you can…"_

Yuzu opened her eyes, sharpened by her resolve. The pendant she wore around her neck began to glow, the Pendulum appeared above her head, swinging between the Scales. "Swing! Pendulum of the Soul!"

"WHAT?" Gongenzaka, Halil and Olga were shocked, as well as the spectator and her family and friends.

"Contestant Hiragi Yuzu is chanting the Pendulum Summon chant of Sakaki Yuya!" Nico exclaimed in shock.

"That's Yuya's chant!" Shuzo yelled.

"Why is she chanting it?" The kids wondered.

Yoko, Ryoga and Ruri looked at each other, nodding in understanding. They knew why she did it. " _To honor Yuya's wishes and wish him back…"_ They all thought the same thing.

From the Volcano area, the screen on the Ice area displayed. Yuto could not keep his smile when Yuzu chanted. Unknown to him, someone was materializing besides him, smiling brightly as well.

"Draw an arc across the nether! Pendulum Shōkan! Appear now!" Two monsters flew down.

"Melodious Songstress Soprano! And Melodious Maestra Prodigy Mozart!"

 **Melodious Songstress Soprano** LIGHT Angel Effect LV4 **1400** /1400

 **Melodious Maestra Prodigy Mozart** LIGHT Angel Effect LV8 **2600** /2000

"With the effect of Soprano, I can Fusion Summon without a Fusion Magic! I use Soprano and Prodigy Mozart!" The two monsters flew up high and began joining in the musical Fusion spiral. "Angel's song! Supreme genius! With the guidance of the baton, gather your power! Yūgō Shōkan! Now come here to the stage! Sing the song of victory! Floral Melodious Saint Bloom Diva!" Yuzu's newest ace monster returned to the field, ready to sing the song of victory.

 **Floral Melodious Saint Bloom Diva** LIGHT Angel Fusion Effect LV6 **1000** /2000

"Battle! Bloom Diva, attack Iceberg Narwhal!" Bloom Diva sang as the ice monster charged at it. It then raised its hands forward, stopping the advance and creating a strong wind.

"Even with Bloom Diva's effect, I will still have LP left!" Olga reminded.

"Quick-Play Magic, Pianissimo!"

"What?"

"Bloom Diva's ATK is now 100 and it cannot be destroyed this turn!"

 **Floral Melodious Saint Bloom Diva** ATK 1000 - 100

"W-What is that!?"

"Sa, the stage is set! Bloom Diva, sing with all of your best! Reflect Shout!" The wind was combined with a blue whirlwind, finally destroying Narwhal and ending Olga.

 **Olga** : 2600 - 0 [1]

Halil admired. "Such a beautiful Duel! I will learn!"

"Sa! It's your turn now!"

"But you cannot attack anymore! It's over now!"

"No! It's still possible!" Yuzu showed a card to Olga before activating it. "Quick-Play Magic, Fusion Cancel! Bloom Diva returns to the Extra Deck and its materials from the graveyard, Soprano and Prodigy Mozart will be special summoned!" Bloom Diva shone up before separating into the monsters that was used to summon it.

"No!" Halil screamed. "The combined ATK is…"

"4000! Enough to finish you this turn! Battle! Prodigy Mozart, Soprano!" Soprano breathed and Prodigy Mozart raised it baton, the piano-decorated wings behind it shone up light green.

"Direct attack!" Soprano sang to release circular waves and Prodigy Mozart created a blast of energy at Halil, finishing the duel in a one-turn-two-kill.

 **Halil** : 3900 - 2500 - 0 [0]

* * *

"Using her skills and Sakaki Yuya's summon chant, contestant Hiragi Yuzu had won with a spectacular Entame-Duel!" Nico announced. "The four Pendulum Cards will be given to the Hiragi-Gongenzaka pair!"

"It's your turn next! Show the Entame-Duel!" Dennis said to Yuto, who nodded.

"Uh!" Yuto gave a small smile, clearly trying to keep character. "Ore no turn, draw!"

"I, using the Scale 1 Red Devil and Scale 7 Red Angel, Pendulum Scale setting!"

"With this, multiple monsters whose levels are between 2 and 6 can be special summoned at the same time!"

"Swing, Pendulum of the Soul! Draw an arc across the nether! Pendulum Shōkan! Appear now!"

"Level 4, Entermate Silver Claw! Level 4, Entermate Whip Viper!"

 **Entermate Silver Claw** DARK Beast Pendulum Effect LV4 **1800** /700

 **Entermate Whip Viper** EARTH Reptile Effect LV4 **1700** /900

"And then, level 4 Whip Viper and Silver Claw, overlay!" The two animals went to the Overlay Network, shooting out a stream of light.

"From the pitch-black darkness. Rise up against the foolish oppression, Fang of Rebellion! Descend now! Xyz Shōkan! Come forth! Rank 4! Dark Rebellion Xyz Dragon!" Yuto finally summoned his signature monster.

 **Dark Rebellion Xyz Dragon** DARK Dragon Xyz Effect R4 **2500** /2000

"You have finally gone to the darkness?" Takeda mocked.

"That you summon the dragon from the darkness is the proof!" Ken said.

Yuto solemnly looked at his dragon, patting its head gently, feeling the pain and the sorrow it felt. He always knew that, the pain of the bad reputation, the pain of its fellows in the war and the very fact that it got destroyed every time it was brought out to fight with Yuto. That's why he always tries his best to protect it in his Duels. Today, he played the role of Sakaki Yuya in his absence, partly because of his fault. The time he watched Yuya's duels against Michio and Sawatari, he felt his true passionate dream of bringing smiles to people, he felt the real fun from Yuya's heart, which was also resonated in his own, warming his heart for a bit. Furthermore, Dennis's duel style seemed to resemble Yuya's and it was equally bright, colorful and appealing. With that, he decided to try to duel with smiles again like what he did before, slowly regaining the passion of Dueling and he hoped Dark Rebellion would smile as well.

He turned around, facing the Ryouzanpaku Duel Schools students confidently. "No… that's not right…"

" _I'm gonna hate this… but at the same time… it feels good… is this what you're feeling every time Yuya…?"_

Yuto smiled, mimicking Yuya's words. "The real fun has just begun!"

"It's showtime! Everybody enjoy!" Dennis announced. He then rode with Trapeze Magician and scattered dust, iluminating the entire field.

Yuto proceeded by jumping on Dark Rebellion just like what Yuya would do with Odd-Eyes Pendulum Dragon. "Dark Rebellion Xyz Dragon's monster effect! By detaching an Overlay Unit, it halves the ATK of a level 5 or higher monster the opponent controls and gains the lost amount!" Fujin was struck by the purple energy Dark Rebellion created, losing ATK.

"Treason Discharge!"

 **Great Storm Star Fujin** ATK 3000 - 1500

 **Dark Rebellion Xyz Dragon** ATK 2500 - 4000

"I will use the last Overlay Unit as well! Treason Discharge!"

 **Supreme Thunder Star Raiji** ATK 3000 - 1500

 **Dark Rebellion Xyz Dragon** ATK 4000 - 5500

"Battle! Dark Rebellion Xyz Dragon, attack Fujin and Raiji!" The dragon assumed its flying stance and charged energy on its fang, beginning the end of the duel.

"Hangyaku no… Lightning Disobey!" Dennis' Trapeze Magician created sparkles during Dark Rebellion's flight, colorfully illuminating the field and finishing the duel in the most appealing way.

 **Ken** : 4000 - 0 [1]

 **Takeda** : 4000 - 0 [1]

Dark Rebellion jumped down gracefully and to Ruri's delight, Yuto smiled brightly. This combined with the spectacular duel that he and Dennis just did made her smile as well. She had once again felt the fun Dueling can bring again, just like before. She mentally thanked Yuya and Yuzu for that.

"Yuto truly smiles…" Ryoga whispered to Ruri. "I can see it from his face. He truly smiles."

"Ryoga…"

"I got it back way earlier when I first duel Yuya, and during my duel with Charles, I managed to feel fun again. All thanks to him."

"Yeah, we own him a lot…" Ruri smiled.

"We will find him later. Don't fell sad."

* * *

"Gongenzaka!" Yuzu said as she gave two Pendulum Cards to him, who politely declined.

"You won the duel Yuzu, I cannot take it."

"But this is a Tag Duel…"

"So I will only take the card I bet earlier." He took Red Devil. "It's a long road ahead. We will try our best together."

"Yeah!" Yuzu agreed. "Let's do it together!"

* * *

"Thank you Dennis!" Yuto thanked the teenager.

"I always wanted to see once! Sakaki Yusho Junior!"

" _Sakaki Yusho?"_ Yuto thought. "Eh? You know Yu-my father?"

"Of course! The Duelist I admire!" Dennis excitedly said.

"Oi Dennis!"

"What?"

Yuto hesitated before asking. "Have uh… have we met before?"

"You kidding?" Dennis said. "I have only seen you in TV!"

"Oh sorry for that…" Yuto scratched his head. "Anyways, that was really interesting, I really mean it!" Of course, he had not felt that for quite a while. "We will try our best until the very end!"

"Uh!" Dennis offered a handshake to which Yuto gladly agreed.

* * *

After winning, Yuzu went to the Volcano area to find opponents, where she met Dennis. He introduced that he was Yuya's friend and won with him against the Ryouzanpaku students. Dennis wanted to duel Yuzu and be her friend as well, but the way he approached her was rather too… intimate for a stranger, causing Shuzo to freak out. After exchanging a bit about both being Entertainment Duelists, they initiated a Duel. Even though Yuzu had brought out her ace monster, Dennis used his skill and his magic tricks to entertain everyone and win the duel.

* * *

Meanwhile In the Ancient Ruins area, Yuto was slowly walking under the bridge to find duelists to duel. Suddenly he felt something strange. A killer instinct hiding, waiting for the exact moment to come out and devour him. Yuto stopped moving, eyes moving left and right, trying to identify the source.

"I know where you are. Come out now, stop playing like chickens!"

A full second later, a shadow slowly came out from the pillar on the left. Someone slowly came out, until that person was in full view. That long blue bangs, he knew too well who had it, and the predator-like eyes as well.

"Shun…"

"I have been waiting for you…" Shun hardened his face and looked at Yuto. "Where is Yuto!?"

"Yuto?" Ayu said.

"Who is he?" Futoshi asked.

"Dammit…" Ruri muttered. _"Shun and Yuto have met, and my brother did not know Yuto was in disguise!"_

"I know about Yuto fighting Shiun'in Sora, and you intruding in! And then Yuto suddenly disappeared. What happened!? What did you do to Yuto? Or rather…"

"Who are you really?"

"Look Shun-"

"Stop!" Shun clenched his fists. "Do NOT address me informally like that! You must have done something to him. And if you are still disagreeing, why are you having Yuto's card, Dark Rebellion Xyz Dragon!? And there is one more thing!"

"What thing?" Yuto said although Yuto knew what Shun might say.

"You do not act like what you usually do! I expect to see the smiling and colorful Sakaki Yuya, the teenager who would like to take risks to win. But here you act much more subdued, your voice is lower than usual, it sounds like Yuto. You also seemed to be much more mature than what I have known from you. Just a few days cannot change a person easily like that! So tell me, what happened to Yuto, and who you really are!"

" _Shit! Shun nearly found out!"_ Yuto frantically tried to find an answer, and his choice, although he still talks with the lighter voice like Yuya's voice, was incredibly poor. "I am Sakaki Yuya, I don't know what happened to him. But if you keep terrorizing people like this, the people you hurt, the spectator, the kids, what would someone close to you think? Would they treat you like their relative when they know you have done horrible things?"

Shun yanked Yuto's orange shirt and yelled. "I don't care! I have lost too many people! I lost my friends, my parents, my sister and now I lost my comrades! Yuto included! So I ask you one last time, what happened to Yuto and why did you have his dragon!? And are you really Yuya-"

"This card can make a direct attack thanks to its effect!" Yuto and Shun heard a voice and they turned to see a member of the Knight of Duels, Carl.

"I order Assault Knight Slash to direct attack!" The knight raised its sword and shot out a purple energy beam, forcing Yuto and Shun to crouch down.

"Assault Knight Slash can reduce the battle damage to 0!" On the other side of the field, Ashley announced as his own knight shielded him from damage. Yuto and Shun realized that they were in an ambush. Ashley, Carl and Braham are trying to harm them using their monster effects.

Smiling confidently, Carl ended his turn. "Turn end. I don't know how, but it seems these stones are murmuring…"

Ashley continued. "Let's kick those annoying stones! Ore no turn! Assault Knight Slash direct attack!" Another energy beam fired at Yuto and Shun, they managed to dive away.

"Assault Knight Slash can reduce the battle damage to 0!" Braham's own monster protected him, continuing the dirty chain of attacks.

Shun gritted his teeth. "Tsk. You assholes use Duel to hurt me?"

"You love to cause trouble Shun!" Yuto said, earning a harsh "Shut up!" from the Raid Raptors Duelist.

"Turn end." Ashley coldly said. "We will continue until we break those stones."

"Wanna get out, then just join in!" Braham proposed. "Just take the initial 2000 LP penalty and you're good!" Of course Yuto and Shun could not take that bait easily, they could have run into the situation where they had no cards to activate in their hands, not to mention having to protect themselves from the continuous direct attacks. "Ore no turn! Assault Knight Slash, direct attack!" This time, the slash knocked the Resistance Duelists away, with Yuya nearly falling down if he did not grab the pillar outside the field on time and Shun actually falling down below, but he managed to slow down his descent and landed down safety. Luckily, the spectator was not sent into a panic since there was no camera capturing that fall.

"It seems he could not hold himself and fall down…" Ashley said. The Knight of Duels then checked down to see if Shun was still there, pained from the fall, but to their surprise, Shun was no longer there. He had run away. And there was even a bigger surprise, a surprise waiting for them ahead…

Yuto climbed up to the pillar, looking at the field. He nearly yelled when Shun was no longer there.

"Shun!" Yuto whispered, but then he heard footsteps in front of him. Those footsteps…

Fast…

In line…

Similar…

" _No… can't be…"_ Yuto felt his heartbeat was getting faster and faster. Just thinking about it crept him out again. He looked at the bridge…

NO!

Obelisk Force! They are here!

WHY!

* * *

Both Nakajima and Reiji gasped when they saw the Obelisk Force.

" _They are here now! Must be looking for Selena!"_

"They're…"

Without answering, Reiji immediately ordered. "Cut off the connection to the Ancient Ruins area!" Right after that, the connection was lost, leaving Nico Smiley and the spectator confused and bewildered.

* * *

As if the nightmare was not enough, there was another person, slowly coming out of the pillar behind the three Obelisk Force members…

"Where is Shun? Where is he? I know he ran away from you! Where is HE!?" The question was not really a question. It was more of the demand…

Yuto wiped his eyes to make sure that was not real, but no…

Short…

Blue hair…

Sweet face…

But full of malice inside…

And that lollipop…

No…

…

…

Shiun'in Sora is back!

" _No… no no no no…"_

"Sora!" Yuto yelled. The kid did not bother to answer back and turned to the Obelisk Force.

"You guys handle those three! Don't let them stand in my way."

"Sora!" Yuto continued to yell at him. "Stop this Sora! Stop this!"

"What does that mean?" Carl said.

"Who you guys are anyway?" Ashley asked.

The mook with a red gem on his mask answered. "Obelisk Force." All three of them then activated their Duel Disks, three red sword-like blades shot out.

"Battle Royale Mode, Joining!"

* * *

After losing the duel, Yuzu gave to Dennis two Pendulum Cards, sadly remarking that she was lost. But Dennis managed to brighten her mood and proposed that he and Yuzu would be friends from now on. They would all try their best to win the tournament.

"There's no room for you!"

A female voice spoke up. They turned around to see a girl with purple hair, a black shirt underneath a red jacket and shorts. She was looking at Dennis angrily.

"Because you will be beaten by me right here!"

Both Yuzu and Dennis gasped in surprise. The boy in particular while still remained surprised, he was smiling inside.

" _Good… Ruri, Yuzu and Selena are here now…"_

* * *

Right after Selena revealed herself, the connection in the Volcano area was lost. The crowd began roaring angrily.

"I have cut off the connection President!"

Reiji then contacted the Lancers who were sitting inside the back of an LDS van. "It's your turn now. As potential members of the Lancers, show me your skills."

* * *

Yuto jumped down between platforms, desperately trying to stop the attack, but he had failed. The Knight of Duels have fallen.

"Huh! Standard's Duelists are nothing but amateurs." The Red Obelisk Force commented before activating his Duel Disk.

Yuto gasped. A pain ran inside him, memories of Heartland citizens running away from the burning buildings and being carded appeared on his mind. A card then touched the ground, with the image of a scared Carl…

"Haaahhh! This is not within the rules!"

"Still is! The loser disappeared is that rule!" And without mercy, the Obelisk Force slowly approached the cowards…

"Stop…" Yuto pleaded.

"Stop…"

Two purple streams of lights shot out…

Two worthless but still human lives taken away by those slasher smiles…

Three people died…

Where would they be now…?

In heaven… or hell… or both…?

Only one thing he knew…

The pleading had failed…

He had to fight again…

And someone else subconsciously yelled for the same thing…

"STOPPPPPP IT NOWWWWWW!"

* * *

 **Man this was dark I guess, but it is still only the beginning of the nightmare Professor Leo will put all of the characters in.**

 **And that was it! Yuzu using Yuya's Pendulum Summon chant as a way to remember him and hope him back! Whatever it would be an one-time thing or not depends on the readers' comments.**

 **I leave the Yuzu vs Dennis duel out to keep Bloom Diva's anime effects intact. For some reason, the writers changed Bloom Diva's battle damage reflect to effect damage, allowing his Deck to work around it by using effect damage negation cards. Also some GX characters will be back, starting with… you know right?**

* * *

 **Next Chapter Preview**

 **Vengeance from the White and Anger from the Black**

The residents of the Synchro Dimension go through another sweep from Security while three of them unknowingly begin their one-way-journey. Meanwhile Yuto was pushed with anger and unleash the abomination.

 **This is matrixnis, out!**


	29. Scale 29

**Welcome back everyone!**

 **Sorry for the delay, there are a lot of things going on that I could not finish this chapter quickly, but now I have done it and here we go!**

 **Thank you for the comments about Yuzu using Yuya's chant, it's really warm just from thinking to be honest.**

 **This chapter will cover the events in Ep. 45-46 with some insight to the Synchro Dimension. The Synchro part though will have a lot of deep issues and actual death so be sure to prepare yourself mentally before reading.**

 **Enjoy this chapter!**

* * *

 **Chapter 29: Vengeance from the White and Anger from the Black**

The old orphanage went through another ordinary day, the younger kids playing in the playground in the front yard, the older kids talking to each other or doing other things, the young adults working to earn money for the orphanage as they could not rely on external help, especially in this crapsack society. After some harsh times, everything was returning to normal, people were smiling again, but it could not be said to one person…

…

Yugo…

He was still the same, or even worse after that day. Right after being teleported back to City, he went back to the drinking spot and attempted to get drunk again, but Yusei, Aki and Shinji were already there to stop him, waiting for the idiot to return. When Yugo became too stubborn and persisted not to come back to the orphanage, Shinji had to punch him in the face and knock him out. They then carried him back and as they predicted, the kids and the head of the orphanage were standing in front of the house, some immediately running out and catching Yugo to bring him back to his room, others asking the grown-ups what happened but they managed to dodge this question by assuring them Yugo would be okay. Of course with what Yugo had displayed after Rin had been kidnapped, they clearly knew it was a lie, but luckily they understood why Yusei, Aki and Shinji had to say it and said nothing.

All what the kids said to each other were: "Respect Yugo for what he is going through, not inquire him anything and try to help him as much as we can."

Thanks to the advice from the kids and his older friends, Yugo managed not to drink for several days since he returned from his duel with that tomato hair boy. Now thinking back, he felt regret for that. He jumped into conclusions too quickly and let his emotions get the better of him, preventing him from realizing differences between that boy and the kidnapper. He did not know what had happened to him, when he could think again after losing himself for some reason during his duel, a large pillar of light struck from probably where that boy felt down after losing (he knew he won the duel by looking at the display on his Duel Disk) and after that he was transported back here for some reason. He hoped that boy would be okay, and he promised to himself if he got the chance to see him again, he would say sorry to him and his friends and relatives.

Right now he was fixing his D-Wheel when suddenly some people got to the orphanage and yelled loudly. He recognized that it was Aki and Yusei. Yugo immediately ran out to see both of them tired from running.

"People, get ready! Something serious is happening!" Aki said to others in a hurry.

"What happened Aki?" Yugo asked.

"It's Security!" Yusei answered for her. "They are doing the sweep again, we need to get outta here and hide until they finish! I managed to get her at her working place and ran back together!"

"Dammit! Those merciless Tops-police assholes!" Yugo swore before turning to the orphanage. "All right people, Security is doing the sweep again, you kids all need to stay here, the adults will protect all of you! Shinji, deal with Security while we are away!"

"Got it!" Shinji nodded and hid his D-Wheel. They obeyed without question.

"All right Yusei, Aki! Get in your D-Wheels!" The D-Wheelers got in their respective D-Wheels and rode off the orphanage. Everyone else in the orphanage returned to their usual duties to avoid suspicion from Security.

They drove through the streets, avoiding Security and trying to outrun them. This caused Security to focus their numbers on them. During the way, they saw numerous people being herded like cattle and checked like prisoners. After using force to capture people they thought to be Physic Duelists, The Security used a special device that detected power within a Psychic Duelist and when they did, they captured those people and sent them to the Underground to force them to duel. After a while, it was too much to handle.

Aki proposed. "Let's split up to cut them off!"

"Got it! We'll regroup at our old spot at Stardust River!" Yugo and Yusei said and all of them separated at the closet T-junction. The Security also split up and began chasing them in three separate groups.

" _If I still chase them in the Commons, people will get hurt… I need to go to somewhere else…"_ Yusei thought while looking at the people in the street and the chasing Security before roaring the engine. He rode to the bridge and went up.

"The suspect has got on the bridge!" One officer said.

"I will force him to stop! The rest of you follow behind!" Another officer said. They all rode up to the bridge and continued chasing Yusei. That particular officer then sped up, leaving the rest behind quite far. Usually this would earn him some paperwork for breaking orders but he really wanted to capture Yusei today because if he successfully did so, he would retain his amazingly perfect 100% arrest record, earning recognition from Roget and more money in the progress.

No matter how good Yusei's D-Wheel was after extensive tuning, Security and Tops in general just got better access to high-quality engines for their D-Wheels and both he and the officer knew it. After not too much time, the officer had managed to keep close to Yusei.

"The D-Wheel in front. Please stop immediately! This is Security speaking! The D-Wheel in front. Please stop immediately!"

"Sorry, you cannot force me to stop!" Yusei sarcastically replied back. He quickly sped up, the officer did the same.

He then requested to force Yusei to stop, which was permitted. "Understood. Coercive enforcement, commence!" He then clicked something on his Duel Disk on his D-Wheel and activated. "Field Magic, Speed World Neo, set on!"

"Duel Mode, on. Auto-pilot, stand-by!" The energy blade appeared and a wave or energy emitted from his D-Wheel, affecting Yusei's own since a same announcement on his was activated as well. From the Commons, multiple large pillars from numerous locations erupted, causing the citizens down there to yell out in joy as they would see a duel happening again. The pillars then opened, separating into six. Each one of them then lengthened, connecting another part of the nearest pillar. The underpart then opened and assembled up, creating the safety rails for the newly created roads, and from each smaller part of the rails formed a yellow trapezium energy ring, finishing the Riding Duel road.

Yusei and the officer continued to ride fast until they reached a corner, where they both swiftly crossed and yelled at the same time.

 **Riding Duel…**

 **Acceleration!**

 **Duel Chaser 227** : 4000 [5]

 **Fudo Yusei** : 4000 [5]

* * *

"It's a big mistake to duel me! I will take you Top asshole down!" Yusei boldly declared. "Ore no turn! I discard Level Stealer from my hand to special summon Quick Synchron!" A small cowboy figure appeared, doing the fanning as its fancy entrance.

 **Quick Synchron** WIND Machine Tuner Effect LV5 **700** /1400

"And then from the graveyard, I reduce Quick Synchron's level by 1 to special summon Level Stealer!"

 **Level Stealer** EARTH Insect Effect LV1 **600** /0

 **Quick Synchron** LV5 - 4

"I, using the level 4 Quick Synchron and the level 1 Level Stealer, tuning!"

"Clustering stars will call upon a new force. Become the path its light shines upon! Synchro !"

"Appear now, level 5! Junk Warrior!"

 **Junk Warrior** WIND Machine Synchro Effect LV5 **2300** /1300

"To end the turn, I set a monster in Defense Position and a card down!"

"I will say this first." 227 spoke up. "My Riding Duel arrest rate is 100%, there's no way I'll lose to rats like you! Watashi no turn, draw! From my hand, Jutte Knight summon!" A circle appeared besides 227, shining, then it opened, allowing a small humanoid monster to come out. It carried a nightstick with a red handle on its right hand, ready to capture any criminals.

 **Jutte Knight** EARTH Warrior Tuner Effect LV2 **700** /900

"Next, I reduce Junk Warrior's ATK by 500 to special summon Sasumata Gardna from my hand!" A monster in Japanese fighting costume wielding a wooden shield, a long spear came out.

 **Sasumata Gardna** EARTH Warrior Effect LV3 1000/ **2000**

 **Junk Warrior** ATK 2300 - 1800

" _Level 5 Synchro Monster… it's here!"_

"I, using the level 3 Sasumata Gardna and the level 2 Jutte Knight, tuning!"

"A chase to the ends of Hell! Behold! The soul of integrity! Synchro Shōkan! Appear now, Level 5, Goyo Chaser!" From the piercing light, came out a monster dressed like a Edo-period police officer. It had a long stick connected to weights by a rope behind.

 **Goyo Chaser** EARTH Warrior Synchro Effect LV5 **1900** /1000

"Finally, Equip Magic, The Strongest Shield to Goyo Chaser!" A shield was equipped to Chaser's left arm, both acting as protection and a power-up tool.

 **Goyo Chaser** ATK 1900 - 2900

"Capture Junk Warrior Goyo Chaser!" The monster spun its stick before throwing it at the warrior, breaking its armor and making it explode. Yusei covered himself from the ensuring smoke.

 **Yusei** : 4000 - 2900 [1]

"After destroying a monster, Goyo Chaser will force it to work for it but it loses half of its ATK!" On 227's field, Junk Warrior returned.

 **Junk Warrior** ATK 2300 - 1150

"I will not fall for it again!" Yusei suddenly declared before activating a reverse card. "Trap Card, Harmonia Mirror! I take control of my Junk Warrior back!" A mirror appeared, pointing at Junk Warrior, making it flew over to Yusei's field.

"What?" 227 exclaimed in shock. "So you have predicted this scenario…"

"You Security assholes use this trick the whole time! It is completely normal that I have prepared something for that! You cannot steal my monsters without payback!" Yusei said, annoying the officer.

"Such bratty mouth!" 227 gritted his teeth. "I set down 2 cards and end my turn!"

"Ore no turn!" Yusei drew his next card. "From my graveyard I special summon Level Stealer again!" The bug reappeared after going through Junk Warrior.

 **Junk Warrior** LV 5 - 4

"And then Righty Driver normal summon!" A small blue female monster with long blue hair with a driver in place for its right hand appeared.

 **Righty Driver** EARTH Machine Tuner Effect LV1 **100** /300

"Its effect will let me special summon Lefty Driver from my deck!" Yusei summoned a monster similar to Righty Driver but it was now yellow and the driver was in place for its left hand.

 **Lefty Driver** EARTH Machine Effect LV2 **300** /100

"Since Lefty Driver was special summoned, its level can become 3 this turn!"

 **Lefty Driver** LV2 - 3

"Level 1 Righty Driver and Level 1 Level Stealer tuning! Gathering wishes will call out a new speed's horizon! Become the path its light shines upon! Synchro Shōkan! Synchro Tuner, Formula Synchron!" Yusei summoned one of his favorite monsters, the monster he got from his dad. It was a mechanized monster with the chest shaped like a kart.

 **Formula Synchron** LIGHT Machine Synchro Tuner Effect LV2 **200** /1500

"When this card is Synchro Summoned, I can draw a card. Then I Reverse Summon Shield Wing!" A small teal dragon with silver wing materialized.

 **Shield Wing** WIND Winged Beast Effect LV2 **0** /900

"Level 2 Shield Wing, Level 3 Lefty Driver and Level 2 Formula Synchron tuning! Gathering roars turn into an echoing arrow which tears through the sky! Become the path its light shines upon! Synchro Shōkan! Show yourself, Junk Archer!" Another Junk monster in Yusei's arsenal, an archer in yellow armor showed up.

 **Junk Archer** EARTH Warrior Synchro Effect LV7 **2300** /2000

"Junk Archer's effect activates! The target Goyo Chaser will be banished! Dimension Shoot!" The monster fired an arrow at 227's monster, making it disappear.

"Too amateur!" The officer suddenly yelled before activating his set card. "Trap Card, Reverse Dimension! My Goyo Chaser got back to the field again!" Before it got completely disappeared, lightning erupted from Goyo Chaser, removing the arrow and allowing it to stay on the field.

"You predicted I would banish your monster?" 227 responded Yusei's question with a smirk. "If so it will be gone by battle! Junk Archer, attack Goyo Chaser! Scrap Arrow!" The second arrow this time successfully did its job, destroying 227's monster.

 **Duel Chaser 227** : 4000 - 3600 [1]

"Next, Junk Warrior! Scrap Fist!" The mechanized warrior spun its right hand before flying towards 227 and delivered a straight punch, nearly knocking the officer out of his D-Wheel. Yusei took this chance to run ahead of him.

 **Duel Chaser 227** : 3600 - 1300 [1]

"Yossa!" Yusei exclaimed in joy. "Take that asshole!"

"Hm… I still have more plays to play… I will not lose to a dangerous Physic Duelist like you!" 227 declared.

"I am not a Psychic Duelist by any means! You are barking up the wrong tree!"

"You think I would believe a lie easily like that?" 227 threw back. "For the last three years, we have been trying our best to capture remaining Psychic Duelists in the entire world. Those assholes are abominations of humanity that must be removed at all costs! And I have met a fair share of incorporative Duelists like you and I have succeeded in capturing all of them! So get this clear! You will not escape the law, and you will suffer for what you did to the world!"

"Shut up!" Yusei yelled. He had lost his temper. "First off I am not a Psychic Duelist! Second, Physic Duelist or not, they are still people. They deserve to be treated equally like everyone else, they are not abominations like what you said! What all of you did to them is completely unacceptable, just like the discrimination you Tops put on all of our heads! I will not lose and I will not go to the underground!"

"Bullshit! You will lose quickly like what you deserve to!" The officer said. "Let's resume the duel! Trap Card, Lost Star Descent! Goyo Chaser is Special Summoned from the graveyard in Defense Position!" On cue, the destroyed monster returned to the field.

 **Goyo Chaser** LV5 - 4

"If so, I set down a card and end my turn!"

"Watashi no turn!" 227 drew his card. He looked at it and summoned it. "From my hand, I normal summon Torapart!" Two identical clown-like mannequins tied together on each end by a disk showed up.

 **Torapart** DARK Warrior Tuner Effect LV2 **600** /600

"And then Magic Card, Resurrection of the Dead! Reappear, Jutte Knight!" The small monster from the beginning of the duel returned.

"I, using the level 4 Goyo Chaser and the level 2 Torapart, tuning! You who bares the fangs of a wild beast, seize your prey! Synchro Shōkan! Level 6, Goyo Predator!" From the light, flew out a monster with clothing similar to Chaser, but it was bigger, it had a purple scarf on its upper body and it wore a more demon-like mask.

 **Goyo Chaser** EARTH Warrior Synchro Effect LV6 **2400** /1200

"Finally, level 6 Goyo Chaser and level 2 Jutte Knight, tuning!"

"Synchro Shōkan! Level 8, Goyo King!" The upgraded Goyo monster now wielded a two-edged sword. It was much bigger, more muscular, the scarf was now red.

 **Goyo King** EARTH Warrior Synchro Effect LV8 **2800** /2000

"This monster will finish the duel!" 227 told Yusei. "Battle! First off, Goyo King, attack Junk Archer!" The monster readied its sword.

"In battle, Goyo King gains 400 ATK for each "Goyo" monster I control!"

 **Goyo King** ATK 2800 - 3200

The monster slashed its sword at the archer, obliterating it.

 **Yusei** : 2900 - 2000 [1]

"Goyo King's effect activates! I take control of your Junk Warrior!"

"What?" Yusei could only yell as his monster was being taken control again. "Such dirty tactics!"

"Dirty tactics?" 227 nonchalantly answered back. His glasses gave a glare, a threatening glare that told Yusei the duel would be over real soon. "We arrest fugitives by any means necessary, and especially Physics Duelists like you!"

"Damn you!" Yusei swore.

"Say whatever you want. But remember this, Junk Warrior has 2300 ATK and your LP is now only 2000. All it takes for you to lose the duel is a simple direct attack from it! At least I will give you the honor of being taken down by your trusted pathetic monster!"

"No monsters are pathetic!" Another reason Yusei hated the Tops: treating cards like shit.

"I order Junk Warrior to attack its former master!" The large puncher spun its right first, generating energy around it. "Scrap… FISTTTT!"

Yusei continued to stare at the road silently, seemingly accepting his loss as 227 predicted. But no, he suddenly glanced back, smiling confidently.

"Trap Card activate!"

"What?" 227 gave out a gasp of surprise. The card got flipped up.

"Stardust Re-Spark! When an opponent's Special Summoned monster declares a direct attack that would cause me to lose the duel, I can negate it to draw a card!" The trap turned into an energy sphere, blocking the fist from hurting Yusei.

"And then I special summon Stardust Dragon Starlight from my Extra Deck!" As Junk Warrior got knocked back from the impact, the sphere shone up brightly, blinding 227 and onlookers below the bridge. Then from the sphere formed a dragon that flew out, allowing everyone to admire its beauty.

"Appear now! Level 8! Stardust Dragon Starlight!" It was a white, sparking dragon with beautifully radiant wings, the feathers illuminating the sky. The head was shaped like the edge of a sword, highlighting its power and it packed some muscle on its abdomen to further prove that point. The body was full of white armor plates, the orbs on its chest was orange, similar to the orbs on Yusei's Riding Duel outfit.

 **Stardust Dragon Starlight** WIND Dragon Synchro Effect LV8 **2500** /2000

"No way… that Physic Duelist asshole had negated the attack… and summoned a dragon from his Extra Deck?" 227 mumbled in fear.

"Behold!" Yusei said. "This is my power! The power to crush you and win this duel! Stardust Dragon Starlight!" The dragon roared immediately after its master finished boasting.

 **Goyo King** ATK 3200 - 2800

"Tsk… turn end…" 227 reluctantly ended his turn.

"Ore no turn, draw!" Yusei smiled after seeing his drawn card. "This duel is going to be finished right now! I normal summon Junk Synchron!"

 **Junk Synchron** DARK Warrior Tuner Effect LV3 **1300** /500

"Its effect will allow me to summon Level Stealer back!" The small bug returned. "And now, Level 1 Level Stealer and Level 3 Junk Synchron, tuning!"

"Synchro Shōkan! Appear now, Level 4, Arm's Aid!" A mechanized arm with red fingers appeared from the light.

 **Arms Aid** LIGHT Machine Synchro Effect LV4 **1800** /1200

"And now, Stardust, wield that arm to your hand!" The white dragon obeyed and placed the arm on its right hand.

 **Stardust Dragon Starlight** ATK 2500 - 3500

"ATK… 3500!"

"Battle! Stardust Dragon Starlight, attack Goyo King! Straight Sonic!" The dragon clenched its right arm into a fist and delivered a punch to Goyo King's face, destroying it.

 **Duel Chaser 227** : 1300 - 600 [0]

"Damn you… but I still have 600 LP left!"

"No! The duel is gone now! When your Goyo King is destroyed and sent to the graveyard, the effect of Arms Aid will deal its 2800 ATK as damage to you!"

"What? No- no way!"

"Feel the wrath of the Commons and the people who you took their justice away!" Yusei yelled. Stardust Dragon struck its hand to the ground, destroying part of the Lane and sent 227 flying backwards, causing him to lose the duel. Of course, the officer managed to bail out, saving his own life.

 **Duel Chaser 227** : 600 - 0 [0]

* * *

After evading the cops, Yugo contacted his friends.

"Aki, Yusei, you copy?"

"I copy Yugo!" Yusei replied.

"I copy…" Aki said but with a hint of sadness.

Yugo quickly took notice but he knew it was not the time to inquire her about it. He decided to leave it for later. "All right! Yusei, Aki, come to the spot!"

"We got it!" Both Yusei and Aki answered and they all rode to the spot. It was the ruined two-story building hidden pretty deep in an alley near the Stardust River where Yugo, Rin, Yusei and Aki would go to and have some fun during harsh times. Yugo got there first, after that Yusei came, and eventually Aki.

"Good to see all of you back!" Yugo smiled.

"Same thing!" Aki replied.

"Okay now we're here, we should wait until they stop searching and we go back." Yusei proposed.

"Obviously. But Aki!" Yugo turned to the red hair girl. "What has happened to you? You seemed rather depressed when you contacted us."

"Yeah I noticed that too." Yusei went to Aki. He asked gently. "What's wrong?"

"Don't hide to us Aki." Yugo said when he saw the hesitant expression on the Physic Duelist's face.

"Well um…" Aki breathed to calm herself down before continuing. "I met him."

"Who?"

"…*****…" Aki revealed, making the boys surprised.

"What? *****? Your friend back in Arcadia Movement?" Yusei exclaimed in shock.

"Uh. For some reason, he was trying to capture me and forced me to duel him. I managed to win, but then…" Aki looked down, feeling gutted for what had happened to him. "He… he… gone…"

"Gone?" Yugo wondered. "Calm down Aki. Please tell us what has happened."

Aki then proceeded to tell them what had happened…

* * *

After maneuvering for several minutes, Aki managed to outrun the Security by forcing them to crash with the oncoming truck which she skillfully avoided. The skills she obtained back when she was Dueling at the Underground helped her greatly, not that she felt grateful for one bit.

"Phew… they're gone. Let's hide somewhere…"

Aki spotted an alley that was pretty well-hidden from the outside. She easily noticed it because she went to there to hide whether Security did its raid. She slowly rode to there, but the moment she got to see it better, she was shocked to find another person waiting for her there…

He was a tall, young man. He wore a cobalt Riding Duel suit with yellow accents, a grey cuirass with high collar, two small yellow rhombus ornaments on each end of the chest part and two grey orbs on the knee part of the suit. He wore matching grey gloves and boots, a helmet and red sunglasses. His D-Wheel, the one-of-a-kind D-Wheel that she was sure only he would have. It only had one large wheel on its back, the blue front was shaped like a blade…

She never expected to see him again. She had to take several seconds to compose herself and make sure that person in front of her…

…

…

…

"Bruno?"

* * *

"Bruno! Are you Bruno right? Bruno?" Aki asked him, yet Bruno did not reply. He continued to glare at her with an emotionless face, the frown look made Aki concern greatly.

"Hey! Are you listening? Bruno!?"

"Course Aki. I am Bruno." Bruno finally spoke up.

"Bruno!" Aki gasped. She could not believe this. Her friend in Arcadia Movement, one of few people in her past who was suffered the same fate as she did was now right here. She could not believe she could see him again!

"I can't believe it… it's you! I… I… I could not believe that you're here! I've been trying to look for you after I escaped! You have escaped from the Underground too?"

"Yes." Bruno smiled.

Aki could not hold herself any longer. She was too happy to see him, her friend again. She got off her D-Wheel and ran to hug him, but as she opened her arms and was about to hug Bruno in happiness, he suddenly thrust his hand forward, knocking Aki back. The force was so strong that Aki felt down.

The red hair girl held her stomach in pain and in disbelief. "Bruno? What did you… ah! What are you doing?" She could not make out what was happening, or more specifically, what was wrong with Bruno? Had the days in the Underground changed him that much? "Why did you push me!?"

"Duel me…" The man simply said. His expression remained cold, but Aki could sense a killer instinct in his eyes, the eyes she dreaded. She knew it too well, since she wore that same eyes three years ago…

"What? Duel you?" Aki said in bewilderment. "What is wrong with you Bruno? You were not cold like this before!"

"If you want to find out, then duel me now, or…" Bruno inserted a card to his Duel Disk, multiple fireball appeared behind him and flew at Aki, who narrowly avoided. He then took out another card and showed it to her. Fireball. "The next strike will not be intentionally missed."

Aki was at the complete loss of words. The friend she got to know in Arcadia, the cheerful and optimistic Bruno was now as cold as ice, and for some reason he had changed a lot, and in a bad way. She could not recognize the old Bruno behind that red sunglasses anymore…

But she could not play the role of a helpless girl in front of him. She needed to be strong now, she needed to duel him, win and find out what was wrong with her old friend. Regaining normal breath back, Aki stood up, looking at Bruno fiercely but also full of concern at the same time.

"Fine, I will duel you! I will win, and I will find out why have you changed, and I promise I will bring the old you back! Bruno!"

"Very well…" Bruno concluded before getting on his D-Wheel, Delta Eagle, as he used to enthusiastically say to her and his friends back then. Aki also got on hers and both of them roared the engine, getting ready for the duel.

"First person who crossed the right turn up there will take the first turn. Got it?" Bruno proposed, still in a cold voice.

"Got it!" Aki replied back.

"Duel Mode On, Auto-pilot Standby!"

Bruno activated the interface on his Duel Disk. "Field Magic, Speed World Neo, set on!" A large blast of energy swept through the area, opening the fated Riding Duel.

Aki and Bruno eyed at each other before both of them began to ride forward. The girl could not stop looking at Bruno in concern, wondering what had happened to him.

" _Bruno… What is wrong with you? You are not like this before I last saw you…! I will find out why and help you!"_

They went faster and faster until they came to the right turn where they both swiftly drifted. Aki attempted to ride ahead of Bruno but he suddenly increased his speed, preventing Aki from doing so.

"Riding Duel…" Bruno said.

 **Acceleration!**

 **Izayoi Aki** : 4000 [5]

 **Bruno** : 4000 [5]

* * *

"Boku no turn!" Bruno declared his first turn.

"Please stop this Bruno!" Aki pleaded. "You don't have to do-"

"I normal summon Tech Genus Catapult Dragon!" Bruno cut off Aki's sentence. After he slapped his card down to the blade, a creature similar to the Komodo dragon with the long head shaped like a catapult appeared.

 **Tech Genus Catapult Dragon DR-08** EARTH Dragon/(Machine) Effect LV2 **900** /1300

"Once per turn, Catapult Dragon allows a level 3 or lower tuner monster to be special summoned. Come out, Tech Genus Jet Falcon!" A falcon with red hair, yellow eyes, grey feathered wings and a jet-like equipment behind its back flew out from the card.

 **Tech Genus Jet Falcon WB-09** WIND Winged Beast/(Machine) Tuner Effect LV3 **1400** /1200

"Level 2 Catapult Dragon, Level 3 Jet Falcon, tuning!" Three Synchro rings appeared after being changed to from the falcon, sweeping through the dragon, changing it to two stars and a bright stream of light erupted inside the rings.

"Limiter Removal Level Five! Regulator Open! Thruster warm up, OK! Up link! All clear!"

"Go! Synchro Shōkan!"

"Come on! Level 5, Tech Genus Hyper Librarian!" A humanoid monster wearing a white cloak, white costume and holding a book on its left hand appeared.

 **Tech Genus Hyper Librarian SCX-110** DARK Magician/(Machine) Synchro Effect LV5 **2400** /1800

" _There it is… Bruno's main Synchro monster!"_ Aki thought at the sight of the familiar magician. She had faced this monster many times back then and she would always have to try to get rid of it as soon as possible due to its wonderful effect.

"Since Jet Falcon was used as Synchro Material, it inflicts 500 damage!" The librarian pointed its book at Aki and from it, multiple digital rectangles went through Aki with five successfully doing so, hurting the former Black Rose Witch. Since Bruno was also a Physic Duelist, the attack combined with Real Solid Vision damaged her way more than normal, though she had developed a high tolerance to pain.

 **Aki** : 4000 - 3500 [5]

"1 card set, turn end!"

"Still that same strategy Bruno!" Aki told him. "Which means deep inside that cold and ruthless exterior, there is still the old you in there! I will make it come out! Watashi no turn, draw!"

"Since I control no monsters, I can special summon Rose Warrior from my hand!" A female monster in a red dress showed up.

 **Rose Princess** DARK Plant Tuner Effect LV5 **2100** /1200

"Then its effect will let me add the Level 3 Rose Fairy to my hand, and I will special summon it!"

 **Rose Fairy** WIND Plant Effect LV3 **600** /1200

"Then Rose Warrior's Level becomes 2!"

 **Rose Warrior** LV5 - 2

"I, using the Level 3 Rose Fairy and the Level 2 Rose Warrior, tuning! Prideful princess from the heaven, now descend down and swing the blade of justice! Synchro Shōkan!"

"Appear now, Level 5! Rose Warrior!" From the Synchro light came out a female monster. It wore floral armor, it wielded a sword with a rose-decorated handle. It also had white headband, blue eyes and white skin very similar to Aki.

 **Rose Warrior** DARK Warrior Tuner Effect LV5 **2000** /1800

"Since there is a Synchro Summon, Hyper Librarian allows me to draw a card!" Bruno said as he drew one card from his Deck.

"Rose Warrior's effect! I can discard the Level 1 Glow-up Bulb to make it gain 800 ATK in this turn!" As Aki discarded a card in here hand, the warrior glowed a blue aura, signifying its increased strength and power.

 **Rose Warrior** ATK 2000 - 2800

"I will get rid of that monster! Battle! Rose Warrior, attack Tech Genus Hyper Librarian!" Aki declared her attack, the sword women jumped up high, ready to slash its sword at the mechanical librarian.

"Such amateur play!" Bruno said before clicking a button on the interface of his Duel Disk, allowing his set card to activate. "Trap Card, Battle Stun Sonic!" The sword hit a large barrier that the trap formed, stopping the female warrior's attack. "Then I special summon the Tuner monster, Tech Genus, Cyber Magician to the field!"

 **Tech Genus Cyber Magician SC-01** LIGHT Magician/(Machine) Tuner Effect LV1 **0** /0

" _Tsk… he countered my attack and summoned Cyber Magician… don't tell me he will summon it in his next turn?"_ Aki decided to end her turn right here.

"Still doing the same play… too predictable Aki." Bruno commented.

"Don't say that thing to me when you are about to do the thing that I have known you would surely do!" Aki countered. "You're just as predictable Bruno, and with that, you are still the Bruno I know! That Tech Genus deck, that D-Wheel, that strategy, that unique summon chant. All of these, only you, Bruno, is the only person I know who has it! Please explain what has happened to you Bruno! I can help you, please!"

"A stupid girl like you will not help one bit." Bruno said back, still keeping his low and calm voice. He then touched the top card of his Deck. "Boku no… turn!"

"Tech Genus Armored Wywern summon!" A blue dragon with black armor showed up.

 **Tech Genus Armored Wyvern DR-04** EARTH Beast/(Machine) Effect LV4 **0** /0

"Level 4 Armored Wyvern and Level 1 Cyber Magician, tuning! Limiter Removal Level Five! Booster Launch OK! Inclination OK! Ground Support! All Clear! Go! Synchro Shōkan!"

"Come on! Level 5! Tech Genus Wonder Magician!" From the light, a female monster came out. It wore a crimson dress with light blue wings behind and it had long pink hair.

 **Tech Genus Wonder Magician SCX-1000** LIGHT Magician/(Machine) Synchro Tuner Effect LV5 **1900** /0

" _Synchro Tuner… it's here."_ Aki cautiously eyed at the summoned monster.

"Hyper Librarian's effect will allow me to draw a card, and I can banish Armored Wyvern to draw another card!" Bruno increased his hand size to 4. "And now…" Bruno suddenly sped up, his D-Wheel and he himself glowed purple. "Level 5 Hyper Librarian and Level 5 Wonder Magician, Tuning! Limiter Removal Level Ten! Main Bass Booster Control! All Clear!"

"Infinite power, here be released, and pierce through to beyond the dimension! Go! Accel Synchro!"

"Come on! Level 10! Tech Genus Blade Gunner!" A huge explosion occurred behind Bruno's D-Wheel, nearly knocking Aki of her own. From the ground, a green mechanical monster with a large blade burst out by slashing its blade, destroying a portion of the ground which Aki dodged skillfully. The tremendous power of Accel Synchro was more than that of an average Physic Duelist as she noted to herself.

 **Tech Genus Blade Gunner MAXX-10000** EARTH Machine Accel Synchro Effect LV10 **3300** /2200

"Finally, I equip Blade Gunner with Gravity Blaster, increasing its ATK by 400!"

 **Tech Genus Blade Gunner MAXX-10000** ATK 3300 - 3700

"Battle!" Bruno pointed at Aki's monster. "Blade Gunner, attack Rose Warrior! Shoot Blade!" The blade of Bruno's Accel Synchro monster fired multiple energy bullets at the female monster.

"Rose Warrior's effect activates!" Aki quickly acted. "I send the Level 3 Night Rose Knight to the grave to increase Rose Warrior's ATK!"

 **Rose Warrior** ATK 2000 - 2800

"But it will still be destroyed!" Bruno reminded as Rose Warrior attempted to dodge the bullets but one of them managed to hit it, making it scream in pain before exploding, causing pain to Aki.

 **Aki** : 3500 - 2600 [2]

"If Rose Warrior leaves the field, I add Night Rose Knight back to my hand!" Aki revealed.

"When a Synchro Monster is destroyed, I can special summon Tech Genus Metal Skeleton!" A Terminator-like monster showed up.

 **Tech Genus Metal Skeleton ZO-02** DARK Zombie/(Machine) Effect LV2 **1100** /0

"Direct attack!" The monster launched multiple needles, hitting the ground and exploding like missiles. Aki once again had to endure the massive pain.

 **Aki** : 2600 - 1500 [3]

"I set down a card and end my turn."

After regaining normal speed, Aki approached Bruno. "Bruno! Why are you hurting me like this! We were friends remember? Bruno!"

Bruno remained silent, causing Aki to become impatient.

"Bruno! Stop saying nothing like that! Look at me and say something! Do it Bruno! I ask you to do this as a friend!"

And Bruno did turn back for a moment, but the icy glare of his eyes was enough to shut down Aki's hope of speaking to him. "I am now hunting all of you! All of the damned Physic Duelists like you! The people who have caused misery to me!" He yelled at the top of his lungs.

"Misery?" Aki wondered. "I haven't done anything bad to you Bruno, only the Security did! Or…" Aki realized, she should have done it earlier. "You were forced to? What did… what did Security do to you? What did the Tops do to you?"

"You wanna know?" Bruno said in a raspy voice. He looked at the front of the street before recalling…

…

…

…

 _After Arcadia Movement fell, many Physic Duelists joining that organization, young or old, male or female, strong or weak, innocent or not, were captured and framed for planning to cause a revolution although this was a lie by the Security that no one seemed to notice. Among those who were captured were Aki and Bruno…_

…

…

 _While there were true that several of them were pretty dangerous, the majority of them were innocent people who wished to live peacefully with everyone in this world, but they were now captured and forced to go to the Underground Labor Facility. The condition was very harsh, they had to work continuously, 24 hours a day 7 days a week with barely any time to rest. And some of them, some of the most powerful Physic Duelists, or mostly innocent ones were taken to the Underground Dueling Area to entertain those people there. And because of the Physic Duelists conspiracy, there was another place, an extremely disgusting place for them, a literal hell on the planet Earth, way more horrible than the Sabaneta Prison in Venezuela. A place which was a complication of forced Duel, labor, horrible living condition, violence, police brutality, shaming and sexual abuse and so on…_

 _Area PD…_

…

…

 _Those were the days that Bruno never forgot, the extremely disgusting living condition, the repeated duels with fear of many other types of abuse. Living in literal hell, he began to hate the reason he was here, the cause he blindly joined in, the very thing that made himself Bruno…_

 _Physic Duelist…_

…

…

 _The trauma was too much for a teenager like him that he did not want to escape Area PD a year after, when many inmates there caused a prison outbreak and escaped with Aki being one of them. One day, he was about to give up, he was about to use a modified card whose tip was very sharp when one person came. The person he hated a lot, as much as Physic Duelist…_

 _Jean-Michel Roget…_

" _You have the potential Bruno… I want you to be…"_

" _Something more…"_

…

…

"After that I managed to get out of the Area PD and worked for Roget ever since." Bruno finished recalling.

Aki froze completely. She knew that too well for she was once there, but what happened to Bruno was _much much much much more worse_. She now truly, completely felt lucky to have Yusei to help her return back to what she used to be, or a small part of it. She had heard about a certain Duelist who captured many Physic Duelists who were hiding, but she never expected it was Bruno. Things have gone horribly bad for him, the times in that place had dehumanized him greatly to the point that he hated Psychic Duelists and was willing to work for the person who caused this to him and hunt down his very fellows.

"Bruno…" Aki mumbled. "I… I ah… I'm… I'm…"

"Sorry for what happened to me?" Bruno cut her off. "Stop it! You understand what happened to me now? You UNDERSTAND?"

"Bruno…"

"I am now a Physic Duelist hunter, a person who will bring an end to the abomination of this planet! And I will not stop until they are completely gone or I am no longer exist! Now, proceed with your turn! I will beat you down and force you to feel the pain I have gone through!"

"Bruno I…" Aki looked down, tears flowing from her eyes. "I am… I am sorry once again for this. I sorry for not trying my best to find you and others, leaving many people like us to suffer." She took a deep breath, trying to take in as many air as possible to gain courage. Aki then opened her eyes, facing Bruno. "But I will not go to down there ever again! I will not look from the sidelines anymore! I will fight, and I will fight till the end to save every Physic Duelists as I can, starting from you! And I surely will bring you back!"

"Watashi no turn!" Aki drew her card. "DRAW!"

"From my hand, I summon Night Rose Knight!"

 **Night Rose Knight** DARK Warrior Tuner Effect LV3 **1000** /1000

"Then its effect allows me to special summon Botanity Girl!" A female monster with an outfit of some plants like pitcher plant and Venus flytrap showed up.

 **Botanity Girl** WATER Plant Effect LV3 **1300** /1100

"I, using the Level 3 Botanity Girl and Level 3 Night Rose Knight, Tuning! Proud sorceress of the forest, now emerge from the magical seal and display your magnificent power! Synchro Shōkan!"

"Appear now, Level 6! Rose Sorceress!" A beautiful female monster appeared. It wore a green dress, it wore two rose hairpins and it wielded a green rod with a red gem in the middle.

 **Rose Sorceress** DARK Plant Synchro Effect LV6 **2200** /1600

"Since Botanity Girl is sent from the field to the graveyard, I add Revival Seed Fighter from my Deck to my hand."

She then pointed at her former friend. "Bruno! I will use all of my strength to bring you back!" Aki declared. "After showing up from the Extra Deck, Rose Sorceress destroys your Gravity Blaster!" The monster charged energy on its rod and blasted it at Bruno's Equip Card, destroying it.

"And then its effect activates! Your Blade Gunner loses half of its ATK and Rose Sorceress increases its own by the lost amount! Rose Spin!" Aki's monster created a floral whirlwind, affecting the mechanical sword man and stealing its power.

 **Tech Genus Blade Gunner MAXX-10000** ATK 3700 - 1850

 **Rose Sorceress** ATK 2200 - 4050

"Battle! Rose Sorceress, attack Blade Gunner!" The female monster readied its rod before blasting a floral, spiral whirlwind, enveloping the skeleton and crushing it repeatedly, making it explode. Its debris scattered, nearly hitting Bruno.

 **Bruno** : 4000 - 1800 [2]

"I'll finish the duel right now!" Aki told the emotionally destroyed former friend. "I banish Botanity Girl to make Rose Sorceress attack a second time!" The dress the sorceress wore glowed brightly in green.

"Rose Sorceress, attack Tech Genus Metal Skeleton!" The monster charged its rod and released energy, slowing going towards Blade Gunner.

"Counter Trap open!" Bruno suddenly countered. "Tech Genus Mechanical Reborn! I return Metal Skeleton back to the Deck to bring back Blade Blaster!" The skeleton shone up brightly before shafeshifting into Blade Gunner. "And end the Battle Phase! Your attack is futile Aki!"

"Dammit…" Aki muttered. "But now you have taken 2200 damage, it would not take me much to defeat you on my next turn and bring you back! I set down two cards and end my turn. At this moment, Rose Sorceress returns its ATK to normal." A card materialized face-down near Aki before disappearing.

 **Rose Sorceress** ATK 4050 - 2200

"You think you can defeat me? If I remember correctly, you barely managed to win in our duels back in Arcadia!"

"But I still win in some, and you are mentioning it, which means you still remember me, you still remember the old times, the moments we share together when we were young! I know the real you are inside that façade Bruno, and I will do my best to bring it out! Just wait for me, I will do it on my next turn!" She gave a smile.

"The real me…" Bruno muttered. His eyes suddenly became softened. "The real me… the real… me…"

"Bruno?" Aki rode near him, finding his behavior suspicious. "What's wrong Bruno-"

"AHHHHHHHHHH!" Bruno suddenly held his head in pain, screaming.

"Bruno! Bruno, what is happening? What is happening?!"

Bruno yanked his sunglasses off, revealing his glowing red eyes which was flashing continuously.

"Bruno! Your eyes! What's wrong?"

"Aki…" He said in pain. "Aki…"

Suddenly his eyes turned red firmly. He yelled at her. "No need from a pathetic and destructive Black Rose Witch! Everyone is afraid of you, and they will never want to connect with you just like what happened to me!" Bruno mentioned Aki's nickname and her dark past, which true to his plan, it made her began to get angry again. Beneath the helmet, the hairpin was slowly shaking, threatening to release itself…

" _No… no… I cannot let my anger control me… I cannot…"_ She tried her best to calm herself down, thinking about the good times before, the good times now, the people she got to cherish, the people who welcomed her with open arms, the people who she could go back to again…

The head of the orphanage…

The kids…

Rin…

Yugo…

Her parents… their smiles… their faces…

Yusei… his handsome face… his gentleness… the light to her darkness…

The reasons she wanted to live again…

…

…

…

And it worked! It worked! She could not believe it! It worked!

" _Thank you everyone…"_ Aki mentally thanked them before turning back to Bruno.

"Surprise Bruno?" Aki said. "You wanted to make me angry, but it would not work Bruno! I can now control my anger and my power, and this is all thanks to them! The people who rescued me and showed me the light! The people who made me see the goodness in people and want to live again! And now I want to do it to every other people who suffered the same fate as I did and you did! Finally, according to your eyes, someone is controlling you!"

"Controlling me…Bullshit!" Bruno spat. "So the only way to beat you is Dueling then?" Bruno let out a chuckle. "Still that same ridiculousness… but as you said, it would not work! I will still beat you and force you back to that hellish place again!"

"Boku no turn, draw! It seems that I must get really serious to beat you! And this card will let me do it!" Bruno showed a card. "Tech Genus Gear Zombie can be special summoned by decreasing Blade Gunner's ATK by 1000!" As he slapped the card, a mechanical zombie with a small handkerchief around its neck showed up.

 **Tech Genus Gear Zombie ZO-06** DARK Zombie/(Machine) Tuner Effect LV1 **600** /0

 **Tech Genus Blade Gunner MAXX-10000** ATK 3300 - 2300

"Then I summon Tech Genus Drill Fish!" A purple drill fish appeared.

 **Tech Genus Drill Fish FS-05** WATER Fish/(Machine) Effect LV1 **100** /800

"Level 1 Drill Fish and Level 1 Gear Zombie, Tuning! Limiter Removal Level Two! Regulator Open! Navigation All Clear! Go! Synchro Shōkan!"

"Come on Level 2! Tech Genus Recipro Dragonfly!"

 **Tech Genus Recipro Dragonfly IX-00** WIND Insect/(Machine) Synchro Effect LV2 **300** /300

" _Another Synchro Tuner!"_ Aki knew what Bruno would do if he dared to summon that monster.

"You know its effects don't you?" Bruno said as Blade Gunner disappeared and Hyper Librarian along with Wonder Magician showed up again.

"Now this fearsome monster, my favorite monster, will ensure your painful defeat! I, using the Level 5 Hyper Librarian, Level 5 Wonder Magician and Level 2 Recipro Dragonfly, Tuning!" Bruno began to run faster, glowing purple again, streams of energy flew besides him. The latter two monsters turned into five Synchro rings, sweeping through Hyper Librarian, turning it into five stars.

"Limiter Removal Level MAX! Regulator Open! All Clear! Infinite power! Pierce through Space and Time an open the door to the unexplored world! GO! Delta Accel!" Energy focused into a single sphere, seeming imploding before exploding, creating an extremely large explosion that scared the birds in the sky away, blinding and shocking everyone nearby, including Aki and even knocking several of them to the walls behind to straight to the Stardust River. When Aki opened her eyes again, the scenery around could not be believed: a huge dent in the ground, trees burning, building visibly cracked from the impact. A normal Riding Duel was dangerous enough, mixing Physic Dueling and the result was very catastrophic. Combing Real Solid Vision to it and the entire Neo Domino City would be gone. As a Physic Duelist, Aki tried her best not to cause too much damage during Dueling, but Bruno obviously ignored that potential danger.

" _He clearly did not care about the casualties! He has been pretty much too far gone… no! I could not believe it! I still believe in the normal Bruno!"_

"Come on! Level 12! Tech Genus Halberd Cannon!" A tall and large mechanical monster appeared from the light. Its armor was grey and yellow, there appeared to be cannons behind its back. It carried a long and large orange and white blade.

 **Tech Genus Halberd Cannon MAXXX-∞** EARTH Machine Delta Accel Synchro Effect LV12 **4000** /4000

"Synchro Summon using three Synchro Monsters…" Aki commented.

"Yes! This is Delta Accel Synchro! The Synchro surpassing Accel Synchro, and this monster will ensure your defeat! Halberd Cannon, attack Rose Sorceress!" The monster pulled its cannon so that it rested above its head, then it inserted the blade to the right barrel. The eye sensor between the barrels aimed at Aki's green monster, ready for attack. The blade then got shot out, generating energy as it went to Rose Sorceress.

" _I bet everything on this card…"_ Aki looked at her face-down card and thought about it before activating it. "Quick-Play Magic, Cloak of Thorns! I send Hippeastrum from my Deck to the grave and make Rose Sorceress gains its 1000 ATK in this turn!"

 **Rose Sorceress** ATK 2200 - 3200

"What?! Why did you only increases its ATK by only 1000?!" The energy attack connected, destroying the rose in immense pain.

" _Sorry… Rose Sorceress…"_

 **Aki** : 1500 - 700 [1]

"What are you planning Aki?"

"You will know."

"Turn end!" Bruno said.

"At this moment!" Aki acted. "I pay 600 LP to bring back Rose Sorceress!"

 **Aki** : 700 - 100 [1]

"I know you would do it Aki!" Bruno also said. "Halberd Cannon will negate the summon and destroy it! Close Summon!" The monster fired a stream of energy at Aki's monster, destroying it.

"Remember I use 3 Synchro Monsters to summon Halberd Cannon, which means I still have 2 more times to use the Close Summon effect! You cannot win this duel Aki!"

"No! I believe I can win this duel! I will win to free you from the mind control!"

"I'm not being controlled-AHHH!"

"Bruno!"

"Aki…" He pleaded. "Please… beat me… AHHHHHH!" Bruno was lost once again, the sinister smile on his face returned, even though he was still in pain.

" _Bruno has briefly returned… he's asking help from me. I need to win this duel right now!"_ Aki swore before touching her Deck.

"Watashi no turn…"

"DRAWWWWW!"

" _Yoss! The card is good, I will win!"_ Aki smiled. She then began her turn.

"I banish Cloak of Thorns and Night Rose Knight to summon Rose Sorceress back!" The Level 6 Synchro Monster returned once again. "Then it gains 1000 ATK from Night Rose Knight!"

"Not happening!" Bruno yelled. "Halberd Cannon's effect activates! Close Summon!" Once again, Rose Sorceress said goodbye painfully.

"I'm not done yet!" Aki told him. "I send Revival Seed from my hand from my hand to the graveyard to bring back Rose Sorceress!"

Bruno loudly said again, slowly losing himself in the mind control. "That is the card you added earlier with the effect of Botanity Girl, but still too persistent punny girl! Halberd Cannon's effect activates again! CLOSE SUMMON!" The monster angrily fired its cannon, destroying the annoying sorceress for the fourth time. "Now you have no way to summon it back anymore!"

"There is still another way!" Aki hurriedly said as she took the top card of her Deck out and send it to the grave, taking out another card from it. "I send the top card from my Deck to the grave to revive Glow-Up Bulb!" A small bulb with an eye in the center and a flower sprouting from it appeared.

"Glow-Up Bulb?!" Bruno yelled in shock. "Don't tell me…"

"Yes!" Aki confirmed. "That's the monster I sent to the graveyard during my first turn! I have been waiting for this moment to bring it back!"

 **Glow-Up Bulb** EARTH Plant Tuner Effect LV1 **100** /100

"You have used up the effect of Halberd Cannon, so you cannot activate it anymore! And finally from my hand, I activate the Equip Magic, Blossom Spring! Rose Sorceress can now be returned safely!" That monster finally returned without any worry.

"Behold Bruno! This monster will free you from your darkness! Level 6 Rose Sorceress and Level 1 Glow-Up Bulb, Tuning!"

"The cold flame envelops the entire word, be born in the cloak of black flower and bloom brightly on the Earth! Synchro Shōkan!" The bright light erupted, creating a grand entrance for Aki's signature monster.

"Appear now! Level 7! Black Rose Bloomer Dragon!" The dragon with floral wings has got the chance to show up to the field, ready to use its radiance to free the fallen Bruno.

 **Black Rose Bloomer Dragon** DARK Dragon Synchro Effect LV7 **2400** /1800

"Since Black Rose Bloomer Dragon was Synchro Summoned, Hippeastrum is special summoned into the field!" The female monster wearing a red floral dress burst out from the bubble.

 **Hippeastrum** LIGHT Plant Effect LV3 **1700** /1000

"Now the effect of Black Rose Bloomer Dragon will activate!" The whirlwind that carried the rose petals crashed down to the field, wiping everything out.

"And since two monsters besides Black Rose are destroyed, it returns to the field and gains half of Halberd Cannon's ATK!" The rose-wing dragon erupted from the ground.

 **Black Rose Bloomer Dragon** ATK 2400 - 4400

"GRAAAHHHHHHH!" Bruno yelled painfully to the sky. "When Halberd Cannon leaves the field, Blade Gunner from the Extra Deck is special summoned!" The green mechanical monster got summoned back in Defense Position. "Now even though you destroy Blade Gunner, I will still not lose any LP!"

"No!" Aki replied. "This duel is gone right now! At the start of the Battle Phase, I can banish Revival Seed to call out Rose Princess from the grave with its effects negated!"

"WHAT?" Bruno could only cry out as Rose Princess returned. "No…"

"Battle! Black Rose Bloomer Dragon, attack Tech Genus Blade Gunner! Rose Blooming Flare!" The dragon gathered energy represented as rose petals flying to its mouth on its wings before blasting a wind burst, sending petals in a spiral shape at Blade Gunner, destroying it. Bruno screamed in pain.

"Bruno!" Aki looked at him, whose eyes briefly returned to the normal color. He had a pleading look on his eyes. "Please do it Aki! Please!"

Aki closed her eyes before opening it fiercely. "This is the final attack! Rose Princess, Bruno direct attack!" The monster flew at Bruno and sent a strong kick to his back, making him yell in pain and forcing him to slow down as his D-Wheel released smoke, signifying his defeat.

 **Bruno** : 1800 - 0 [1]

Aki quickly turned around, approaching Bruno, who was lying on his D-Wheel.

"Bruno! Bruno! Are you okay?"

She looked at his eyes, which were no longer red.

"Bruno! You're back!"

"Yeah…" Bruno weakly smiled back. "Nice to see you again Aki-ah!" He held his stomach in pain.

"Don't move Bruno, you're hurt!" She got off her D-Wheel. "Let me help you." As she walked to Bruno, he suddenly paled.

"Bruno…?"

"It's sad that you failed me Bruno." A voice from Bruno's Duel Disk.

"What? Roget?"

"Roget?" Aki wondered.

"You will be punished for this!" The connection got cut off. The back of his D-Wheel suddenly opened then from the hole, something flew out and restrained him, making him scream.

"What the?" Aki asked. "Bomb! It's a bomb!"

The display suddenly turned on.

A timer appeared…

00:15

"A timer bomb!" Aki realized.

00:14

As Aki attempted to take it off, Bruno kicked her very far away.

00:13

"Don't do it Bruno! We can still take it off!"

00:12

"It's a restrained bomb!"

00:11

"We cannot defuse it in any way Aki!"

00:10

"NO! Listen to me Bruno!"

00:09

"We can still stop this!" Aki refused to believe. She could not get up though since Bruno kicked her very hard.

00:08

"NOOO!" Bruno yelled.

00:07

"Listen Aki!"

00:06

"Roget is having a plan with Physic Duelists!"

00:05

"He's capturing Physic Duelists for some reason!"

00:04

"Maybe to cause something bad!"

00:03

"Please stop him Aki…"

00:02

"No… Bruno…"

00:01

"Good luck Aki…"

00:00

Bruno yelled probably the loudest he could do. "GRAHHHHHHHHHH!"

BOOOOOOOMMMMMMM!

Aki covered her eyes from it. She hesitantly opened them, looking at the burning spot where Bruno just stood there ten seconds ago…

She cried, slowly crawling to that place…

Her hand grabbing something, maybe dust…

"Bruno…"

"I'm sorry…" She hiccupped… "I couldn't save you…"

Sirens roared from afar, signaling Security nearby.

" _Roget… I will make you PAY for Bruno!"_ Aki swore in her mind, she wiped her tears and quickly yet hesitantly got on her D-Wheel and rode off, eyes still not refusing to leave that spot…

Where her friend used to stay…

"Bruno…"

* * *

After that, Aki could not hold back her tears and began crying. Yusei hugged her to confront her while Yugo sadly look away.

"That damn Director Roget…" Yugo mumbled angrily. "I will make you pay for this later!"

Suddenly, Yugo's Duel Disk shone up. He went over to inspect it, and true to what he had thought, Clear Wing Synchro Dragon was shining up.

"What happened Yugo?" Yusei asked.

"Is that… Clear Wing?" Aki wondered, wiping her eyes.

"Uh… which means... Rin!" Yugo said.

"Rin?"

"Yep. Whatever this card shines up, I got teleported to another dimension to find a lead for Rin. I don't exactly know how, but that is how it happened."

"Well if that leads you to Rin, I guess we should go with you to help you." Aki proposed.

"Well… okay!" Yugo had no time to argue with them even though he wanted to find Rin alone. "Get in your D-Wheels!" All of them got into their D-Wheels and began to ride together. They drove faster and faster, the lighting became brighter and brighter until it completely illuminated the entire area, sending the squad to another dimension…

* * *

Yuzu gasped at the sight of Selena, another girl who shared the same face as hers.

"Ru… Ruri?" Yuzu managed to ask Selena. _"No way! Another girl who looks like me and Ruri! What the hell…"_

"Ruri?!" Dennis suddenly let out in shock. _"Can't be! This girl is not Ruri! It's Selena! Ruri is probably somewhere in here!"_

"What Dennis? You know Ruri? But she doesn't seem to look like Ruri!"

Dennis flinched. He raced in his mind, trying to find an appropriate answer, and somehow he managed to find one. "N…No! You just said Ruri… Wait!" Dennis faked his shock. "So you said there is another girl who looks like you two? Triplets?!"

"No we are not! But yeah, I know another girl who looks like me as well!"

" _Three girls who looks like you Yuzu… and…"_ Dennis decided to confirm his suspicion. "Is that girl Ruri you mentioned in here?"

"Yes!" Yuzu answered, Dennis felt like he was celebrating his largest victory inside, but of course, he concealed it behind his shocked face.

"Enough talking?" Selena interrupted. "Come!" Selena pointed her finger at Dennis. "I know you are an Xyz remnant!"

"Xyz remnant?" Yuzu wondered.

" _Ah shit… That bratty girl…"_ Dennis panicked. He starched his head, trying to keep his composure like normal. "Ah~ It's not true."

"Don't pretend not to know!" Selena said louder. "If you don't duel now, I will!" She crossed her left arm, activating her Duel Disk.

"W… wait up!" Yuzu tried to negotiate. "We are still in the Battle Royale! You…"

"It's okay Yuzu!" Dennis stopped her. "Even though this girl seems to have a misunderstanding, just accept this situation as Entame-Duel! Is that right?" Dennis winked at Yuzu, who facepalmed.

"Have you… heard what I said?" She said in defeat at that boy's exaggerated display of politeness.

"Eh?" Dennis realized what she meant. "Okay, we'll talk about the same faces thing later." And he turned to Selena. "Sa, shall we start? Yuzu, stays back, but please keep an eye close on this duel! It will be more fun if there is audience, right?"

 **DUEL!**

 **Selena** : 4000 [5]

 **Dennis Macfield** : 4000 [5]

* * *

"Watashi no turn!" Selena declared. "From my hand, I activate the Magic Card Fusion!"

"Fusion?" Yuzu wondered to herself.

"The monsters I will use are Moonlight Blue Cat and Moonlight Purple Butterfly! Blue cat that prowls through the darkness! Butterfly with violet poison! Spiral into the moon's gravity and become a new power! Yūgō Shōkan! Come to me! Beautiful beast that dances in the moonlight! Moonlight Cat Dancer!" Selena opened her first turn like normal, summoning her ace monster.

 **Moonlight Cat Dancer** DARK Beast Warrior Fusion Effect LV7 **2400** /2000

" _That's it…"_ Dennis thought. _"A too familiar opening…"_

" _Ruri is from the Xyz Dimension… Yuto said she would never use Fusion, the summoning method of the enemy… so this girl cannot be Ruri… is she… from the Fusion Dimension…?"_

Selena set down a card and provoked. "Sa! Come!"

Dennis let out a chuckle before starting his turn. "Now the Show Time you are waiting for is here! Boku no turn, draw!"

"I normal summon Entermate Flame Eater from my hand!"

 **Entermate Flame Eater** FIRE Magician Effect LV4 **1200** /1600

"Since there are two monsters on the field, I can special summon Entermate Hat Tricker-AH!" Dennis realized too late that he had made a mistake. He panicked as a hat came out from the smoke, the underside of it flew out, revealing a monster whose face and hands in gloves were the only things visible, along with a green cape around its face.

 **Entermate Hat Tricker** EARTH Magician Effect LV4 **1100** /1100

Selena readied at the sight of Dennis' two monsters. "2 monsters sharing the same level…"

"Xyz right away?" Yuzu said in interest.

" _Ah…"_ Dennis made a troubled face. _"If I do an Xyz Summon, this misunderstanding will only escalate… Uh… Have to do this…"_ Dennis held a card and activated it. "Uh sorry for the inconvenience. Bath Time!"

"One, two, three!" He snapped his fingers, bubbles appeared from behind Dennis and enveloped Hat Tricker and Flame Eater. "I activate Bubble Barrier, allowing each "Entermate" monster with 1500 or less ATK to negate one attack per turn. I end my turn here."

Yuzu became surprised of course. "What?"

"Why didn't you use Xyz?!" Selena inquired.

"Uh…" Dennis said the "lie" to Yuzu and Selena, which was really the… "truth" to everyone else… "I am not that Xyz remnant!"

Selena clenched her fist in anger, never before had she duel with a person who disrespected her this much. "You still pretend not to know?! Watashi no turn!"

"Moonlight Blue Cat summon!" A humanoid cat in blue and light blue spandex did a backflip as its entrance.

"Then I will release it…" That monster disintegrated. "…to make Cat Dancer attack all of your monsters twice per each one!" The dress Cat Dancer wore glowed brightly in blue.

"Uh huh…" Dennis let out a small comment to himself.

"Battle! Cat Dancer, attack Flame Eater!" Cat Dancer flew multiple boomerangs at Flame Eater.

"Barrier Bubble will negate this attack!" The bubble pooped in place for the flame master.

"Once again, attack Flame Eater!" The dancer did a kick on the face of Flame Eater, finally destroying the weak monster.

 **Dennis** : 4000 - 2800 [3]

"Continue now! Attack Hat Tricker!" This time, Cat Dancer used a crescent-shaped ornament on its chest place of the dress as a boomerang.

Predictably, Dennis negated it. "Barrier Bubble!"

"But there is still one more! Attack Hat Tricker!" Cat Dancer crossed its arms, the dress glowed again. It extended its arms and spun them in a circle, generating an energy sphere.

"Full Moon Cresta!" The sphere broke, releasing the energy at Hat Tricker, making in explode and knocking Dennis back, also forcing Yuzu to cover her very short dress to avoid panty shots.

 **Dennis** : 2800 - 1500 [3]

"I end my turn here!" Selena finished her turn.

Yuzu looked at Dennis worryingly, who sat up and smiled. "Such no mercy…"

" _That girl really is from the Fusion Dimension… that amazing power from her…"_ Yuzu concluded.

Selena gritted her teeth, barely concealing her anger. "There has never been a boring Duel like this. Do this quickly! I have to find more opponents!"

Both Yuzu and Dennis made shocked faces at her persistent determination and angry demeanor. Dennis chuckled though as he always knew how hot-headed Selena was.

"So… scary. So just for a moment… I gotta be more serious right…" He made a pretty sinister smile unknown to Yuzu. He decided to get serious since he was now in a huge trouble that he knew he could not get out peacefully.

"Boku no turn… DRAW!" The over complicated card drawing combined with sparkles had rewarded him with a card named…

…

…

…

Fusion!

"EH…! THIS CARD…" Dennis lost all of his colors as he had drawn an "extremely unlucky" card, especially in this situation. He realized he would lose really soon. "I'm done…" He hesitantly set a monster face down and a set card… "I… set a monster face-down in Defense Position… then set down one card to end my turn~~~…"

At this point, Selena could not take this - her assumed - disrespect anymore. She had put her pride and determination to be considered as a Duel Warrior into every Duels she had ever been since she got here. The duel with Hokuto was short even though he did put up a good fight with those powerful bouncing effects, but here? The opponent had been so pathetic that he desperately played futile defense like that. She could not hold her temper any longer.

"Desperately set a monster and a card… Are you…"

"MOCKING THE HELL OUT OF ME?"

Dennis tried to explain. "No no no it's just…"

"Useless pleading! Watashi no turn!"

"I normal summon Moonlight White Rabbit!" A female monster with long hair whose top was shaped like rabbit's ears showed up, wielding a hammer like folklore rabbits who resided in the Moon.

 **Moonlight White Rabbit** DARK Beast Warrior Effect LV2 **800** /800

"This card will force your Bubble Barrier to go back to your hand!" The rabbit lunged its hammer, making the Continuous Magic Card to disappear.

"And then I release White Rabbit to use Cat Dancer's effect!"

"Battle! Cat Dancer, attack that face-down Defense Position monster!" That monster was forced to reveal itself. A clown in upside-down position using its left hand which was using a ball to center it to hold its body.

 **Entermate Trick Clown** LIGHT Magician Effect LV4 1600/ **1200**

"The effect of Cat Dancer allows that monster to survive its first attack! But then Trap Card, Moonlight Dance! Your Trick Clown's position is changed!" Multiple ropes tied Dennis' monster's legs and arms and forced it up.

"What the hell…"

"And halve its ATK and DEF this turn!"

 **Entermate Trick Clown** 1600/ **1200** \- **800** /600

"Moonlight Cat Dancer, attack Trick Clown!" The dancer generated two blades and spun towards the restrained clown.

Dennis remained calm and held up his hand. "No! Now is the Miracle Illusion!"

Suddenly, multiple strange people flew to the field behind Selena. Dennis froze to the point that he could not do his tricks. The attack connected and he was knocked back.

 **Dennis** : 1500 - 0 [3]

Selena deactivated her Duel Disk and looked at the pathetic form of the downed "Xyz remnant". "Such a dumb opponent." She began walking towards Dennis to card him when suddenly those same people jumped down behind her.

Those masked faces… she knew very well…

Too familiar…

"Obelisk Force!"

* * *

"A strange group appeared at the Volcano area!" Nakajima informed.

Reiji ordered. "Bring the Lancers!"

The Obelisk Force approached the girls while smiling creepily, scaring Yuzu while Selena prepared herself for another duel again. A fireball suddenly got launch at their feet, creating smoke. Then from it, Hikage and Tsukikage appeared, holding Selena and Yuzu respectively while flying out of the area.

Recovering from the smoke, the Obelisk Force sees a group of 8 people facing them, ready to duel them.

Those were the first generation of the Lancers.

The center of which, Yuu, declared. "You people cannot pass this area!"

* * *

"I will not forgive…" Yuto growled in anger.

"For the Fusion Dimension…" Yuya's voice somehow spoke in place for Yuto's. Yuto's eyes were flashing red and blue continuously.

"And Academia!" Both Yuya and Yuto's voice could be heard.

"Who the hell are you?" Red asked.

Yuto stopped walking, the dark aura surrounding him disappeared. "What the hell are you assholes here for?"

"It's none of your business!" Red answered arrogantly.

"I will not leave you assholes do whatever you want in here!" Yuto said.

"Duel…" Yuya's voice was now heard. Yuto took out Yuya's Deck, taking out Odd-Eyes Pendulum then inserted his own Deck with Yuya's ace monster to it. "WITH ME!" The yellow blade shot out from the Duel Disk.

The Obelisk Force smiled at what they thought to be a futile attempt to stop them.

"You don't know how to protect yourselves?" Green mocked Yuto.

"Then let us teach you a lesson!" Yellow concluded. All of the three Obelisk Force members activated their Duel Disks.

 **DUEL!**

 **Red** : 4000 [5]

 **Yellow** : 4000 [5]

 **Green** : 4000 [5]

 **Yuto/Sakaki Yuya** : 4000 [5]

* * *

"Ore no turn!" Red drew his card. He then took another and slapped it down to the blade. "I normal summon Antique Gear Hound Dog!" The green and brown mechanical dog jumped out of the card, growling.

 **Antique Gear Hound Dog** EARTH Machine Effect LV3 **1000** /1000

"Turn end! Finish him quickly!"

"Oh! Let's do it!" Green agreed before summoning another Hound Dog and declared a direct attack on Yuto. His glowing blue eyes suddenly turned red for a moment as he ran to a pillar and grabbed an Action Card. He was about to activate it when Green suddenly revealed.

"That is an Action Card right? But it's useless! When Hound Dog attacks, until it finishes attacking, you cannot activate any Magic or Trap cards." The dog jumped to the pillar and pounded on Yuto, making him scream painfully and slam hard to the ground. He continued to be slid on the ground for a while, the wig began to fall down a bit but in his aggressive state, Yuto did not care about it a single bit.

 **Yuto** : 4000 - 3000 [6] (He has an Action Card in his hand)

"Ore no turn!" Yellow drew his card. "I activate Antique Gear Hound Dog as well!"

"Direct attack!" Yuto was knocked back pretty far and once again slammed his body on the ground.

 **Yuto** : 3000 - 2000 [6]

Yellow concluded his turn. "Turn end." Yuto painfully looked at the Obelisk Force. "Just taking a little bit and you fell down that badly? Stupid asshole." Yuto gritted his teeth in anger.

Red then said as he showed Yuto the carded Knight of Duels. "You will then suffer the same fate as those idiots!"

Little did he know, this action would make his and his teammates' day extremely miserable. Yuto got even angrier as he remembered the screams, the scared looks on those Knight of Duels' faces. He slowly got up as he grunted in a primal rage, remembering the fleeing citizens in Heartland and their carded forms, even children were included, as well as the destroyed city. Yuya's silhouette appeared on the goggles, flashing for a bit.

Yuto phased into his mind where a pendulum swung back and forth, one end was where Yuya walked, the other end was where Yuto walked. They both closed their eyes, face clearly angry. They then walked close to each other without looking before they shone up brightly, their bodies had joined into one…

…

…

"GRAHHHHHH!" Yuto roared. He touched his Deck. "Ore no… TURNNNNN!" Yuto drew his card with a lot of force, sparkles appeared in the arc of the draw motion, also one card in his hand was shining brightly as well. He took it and along with his drawn card then showed them to the Obelisk Force.

"I, using the Scale 2 Phantom Knights Tainted Vest and the Scale 8 Phantom Knights Used Magazine, Pendulum Scale setting!" The two never-before-seen cards in Yuto's Deck got placed in the Pendulum Zone, causing the word "Pendulum" to appear letter by letter on the Duel Disk. On the left tube behind Yuto, a ghost-like creature donning an old black Kevlar armor flew up and on the right one, multiple ghostly eyes poking out from the holes of a used ammo belt also flew up.

Yuto smiled evilly. "With this I can summon multiples monsters whose levels are between 3 and 4!"

"Appear now, Pendulum of the Soul! Draw an arc across the nether!" Yuto chanted Yuya's Pendulum chant. "Pendulum Shōkan! Appear now!" Two monsters appeared.

"Level 4! Phantom Knights Crack Helm! And Level 4! Phantom Knights Fragile Armor!" The only two Level 4 Phantom Knights monsters in Yuto's Deck got the honor of being Pendulum Summoned for the first time.

 **Phantom Knights Crack Helm** DARK Warrior Effect LV4 **1500** /1500

 **Phantom Knights Fragile Armor** DARK Warrior Effect LV4 **1000** /2000

* * *

"Phantom Knights?" Nakajima said. "Yuya did not have those monster with names like that in his Deck!"

 _"But Yuto did… so… that boy over there…"_ Reiji thought. _"Is he…?"_

* * *

"This is… Pendulum Summon…!" Green noted.

"And then…" Yuto continued. "Level 4 Crack Helm and Fragile Armor, Overlay!" The two broken warfare equipment turned into purple swirls of energy and they flew down to the Overlay Network.

"From the pitch-black darkness. Rise up against the foolish oppression, Fang of Rebellion! Descend now! Xyz Shōkan! Come forth! Rank 4! Dark Rebellion Xyz Dragon!" Yuto's dragon flew out, roaring extremely loudly, fueled with rage and anger.

 **Dark Rebellion Xyz Dragon** DARK Dragon Xyz Effect R4 **2500** /2000

"Pendulum… and… Xyz?" Yellow said in shock.

"Battle! I order Dark Rebellion Xyz Dragon to attack Antique Gear Hound Dog!" The dragon charged its wings and fang as it flew at one of the small dog.

"Hangyaku no… Lightning Disobey!" The attack successfully obliterated the dog, causing an explosion. Red was knocked back as his monster was destroyed, his two teammates looked on in horror.

 **Red** : 4000 - 2500 [4]

"I end my turn." Dark Rebellion flew back to Yuto as he concluded his turn.

Green looked at Yuto in slight fear for the wrath he had displayed along with his dragon. "W-Who the hell is this asshole?!" That question was completely understandable, as Yuto suddenly smiled evilly at them.

"Finish him now!" Green said the obvious thing.

"Ore no turn!" Red summoned another Hound Dog to the field. "Once per turn, when the opponent controls a monster, Hound Dog inflicts 600 damage! Hound Flame!" The dog opened its mouth, firing flame at Yuto who absorbed the full impact. Instead of lying down again, Yuto got up nonchalantly as if the flame did not do anything to him.

 **Yuto** : 2000 - 1400 [3]

Fearful for what was happened, Red urged Green to continue his turn. He then activated Hound Dog's effect once again, blasting Yuto, but he got up like normal, brushing the dirt on his left shoulder like nothing had happened. This scared the Obelisk Force even further as Yellow frantically activated Hound Flame one more time. At this time Gongenzaka and Mieru got into the bridge. They were standing behind Yuto pretty far away.

"Ore no turn!" Yellow started his second turn. "I activate Hound Dog's effect to inflict 600 damage!" Yuto flew backwards from the impact. It was at this time that the wig on his head fell down completely along with the goggles, revealing his true spiked two-tone hair.

 **Yuto** : 800 - 200 [3]

"Darling!" Mieru yelled.

"Wait up!" Gongenzaka stopped her.

"But if this goes on, Darling will…"

"Is that…" The man muttered. "Is that…" He looked at Yuto, who he thought was Yuya, but now he became suspicious at the sight of Yuto's spiked hair and the fact that there was a wig that clearly looked like Yuya's hair on the ground near where he got up. "The real Yuya?"

Yuto widened his eyes, flashing continuously in red and blue, the dark aura around him got brighter and brighter as he roared.

"What is happening?" Nakajima wondered in the control room. Reiji only looked on in interest despite his otherwise unreadable expression.

Yuto stretched his hand and began his turn. "Ore no… TURN!" Darkness flew up from him like a fire.

Odd-Eyes Pendulum Dragon.

"Swing again, Pendulum of the Soul! Draw an arc across the nether! Pendulum Shōkan! Appear, my monsters servant!" Yuya's dragon showed up, its eyes glowed up in anger.

 **Odd-Eyes Pendulum Dragon** DARK Dragon Pendulum Effect LV7 Scale 4 **2500** /2000

"Yuya's field has two dragons!" Gongenzaka noted.

"And then from my hand, I activate the Magic Card, Phantom Knights Possession!"

"What?! Phantom Knights?!" Both Gongenzaka and Mieru exclaimed in surprise. "It's just like before in his duel with Isao!"

"This card allows me to target an Xyz monster on the field and treat it as having a Level that is equal to the Level of another monster on my field!"

"What? Treating Rank as… Level?" Red mumbled.

"Right. Which means Rank 4 Dark Rebellion Xyz Dragon is now treated as Level 7 like to Odd-Eyes Pendulum Dragon!" Odd-Eyes glowed a red aura before transferring energy to Dark Rebellion, making it glow blue.

 **Dark Rebellion Xyz Dragon** R4 - LV7

"Now he has…" Nakajima said.

"2 Level 7 monsters…" Reiji finished.

Yuto's eyes flashed brightly, both the colors red and blue were clearly visible, resonating urgently in anger. "I, using the level 7 Odd-Eyes Pendulum Dragon and Dark Rebellion Xyz Dragon, overlay!" The two dragons roared very loudly, resonating the entire area before slowly becoming purple swirls of energy and flew up extremely high before crashing down very hard to the Overlay Network appeared on the ground. A huge pillar of light erupted from the Network, along with a huge explosion that nearly knocked the entire Obelisk Force, Gongenzaka and Mieru away. For some reason, Yuto was unaffected, he instead remained still.

"Dragon with dual-colored eyes! Unleash the black imperial wrath, and eradicate all opposing enemies!" Everyone could hear the roar of the dragon as it sharpened its claws and prepared to fly out, shaking the very Earth with its raging power.

"Xyz Shōkan! Appear now, Rank 7! Dragon with eyes glowing in anger!" The dragon finally flew out of the Overlay Network, and as it showed, it is a manifestation of evil itself. This dragon, just like Dark Rebellion Xyz Dragon, had a black body and scissors-like wings, but the number was now eight and with four on each side, joined by a black orb with glowing red energy, the same energy found on its knees. It now had two sets of claws on its face with the inner two being longer and sharper than the outer two. Purple orbs could be found on its back horns and its wings. Its left eyes was green and its right eye was blue, just like Odd-Eyes Pendulum Dragon, but that was the only thing that resembled the Pendulum Dragon. In short, this was the hybrid of Yuya and Yuto's dragons, taking aspects from each, more on the Dark Rebellion side, and it was way bigger, stronger and more dangerous than any of the two.

"Supreme King Black Dragon - Odd-Eyes Rebellion Dragon!"

 **Supreme King Black Dragon - Odd-Eyes Rebellion Dragon** DARK Dragon Xyz Pendulum Effect R7 Scale 4 **3000** /2500

The appearance of this monster alone caused a huge whirlwind that forced the Obelisk Force to try their best to stand still, while Gongenzaka was struggling the same thing, Mieru tried to use his face as a pedal to fly to Yuto but she failed and was knocked back, bringing the large teenager with her.

"With the use of Dark Rebellion Xyz Dragon, an Xyz Monster, as Xyz Material, Odd-Eyes Rebellion Dragon can reduce the Levels or Ranks of all of my opponent's monsters by 4, then destroy all of my opponent's Level or Rank 7 or lower monsters, then inflict their ATKs as damage!" The black dragon roared, sending circular purple waves of energy at the hunting dogs. They futilely tried to run away as they were struck by the lightning and disintegrated.

 **Red** : 2500 - 1500 [4]

 **Yellow** : 4000 - 3000 [6]

 **Green** : 4000 - 3000 [6]

"And then, this turn it can attack a number of times equal to monsters destroyed by this effect!" Yuto revealed an effect that would ensure his win.

"The number of monsters destroyed?" Gongenzaka wondered.

"This turn, it destroyed three monsters, so… all of you three son of the bitches, will each receive a DIRECT ATTACK!" Yuto raised his voice while saying the last part of the sentence.

The left eyes of Odd-Eyes Rebellion Dragon glowed up. It then opened its wings, generating eight energy wings shaped like two blades joining together.

"Go now! Odd-Eyes Rebellion Dragon!" The dragon roared before doing a backflip. It then carved its fang to the ground as it charged at the scared Obelisk Force.

"Hanki no Gekirin… Strike Disobey!" The black dragon slashed with the Obelisk Force, sending all of them flying backwards. They lost consciousness from the powerful attack. Gongenzaka and Mieru looked on in complete shock, they did not know what to say at this "murderous" scene just happened right in front of them.

 **Red** : 1500 - 0 [4]

 **Yellow** : 3000 - 0 [6]

 **Green** : 3000 - 0 [6]

Suddenly from the control room, a summoning signal was found.

"Synchro…" Reiji muttered.

* * *

"Where are we?" Aki asked to no one in particular. After riding out of the portal, they stopped their D-Wheels. The icy scenery in the Ice area really questioned their sanity a lot.

"Have any ideas?" Yusei said.

"No…" Yugo muttered. He took out Clear Wing and inspected it. "Ever since this thing shone up, I have been transported to locations I have no idea of. Now we are in some kind of the… Ice Age?"

"Stupid Yugo!" Aki berated. "You surely think that we can time-travel thanks to your Clear Wing Synchro Dragon?"

"Maybe…" Yugo sheepishly said as he took off his helmet. He turned to his right to see two people there.

Ken and Takeda from Ryouzanpaku.

"Oh! There are people! Oi! Please wait up!"

Both of them turned around to see… "Yuya" as they thought to…

"You are…"

"Sakaki Yuya!"

"UH!" Yugo grunted. "Don't say my name wrong! My name is Yugo!"

"Wanna lie to us?" Takeda said. "Stop doing that dirty trick! This time we will pay back what you did to us!" They both activated their Duel Disks and jumped down, approaching Yugo.

"Yugo." Aki suddenly said. "Let me handle this."

"Fine." Yugo agreed.

"Hey guys!" Aki caught the running boys' attention. They were taken back by her beauty. Never before had they seen an attractive girl like that, not counting her large "assets" slightly arched upwards as she said as well. Aki internally laughed inside, she knew how her extraordinary beauty would make normal man rise up their own "assets" as well.

Regaining their composure, Ken asked Aki. "What do you want? We want to duel Sakaki Yuya!"

"This boy right here is Yugo!" Aki corrected. "I'm his friend, and it seemed you hated him for some reason. I will take place for him in this duel."

"Ha!" Takeda said. "You are afraid to duel us again to the point that you captured a whore and force her to duel us Yuya? Hahahaha!"

"SHUT UP!" Both Yugo, Yusei and Aki yelled, managing to scare those violent and now jerkass duelists. Aki then continued in anger. "Stop saying me like that! Now… initially I want to take things easy with you two, but now you violated me like that… you two will DIE TODAY!" Aki jumped down and took her Duel Disk to her left arm, activating it.

"Sa, duel with me morons!"

"Calm down girl, we were just joking…" Takeda said although he was quite nervous inside.

 **DUEL!**

 **Umesugi Ken** : 4000 [5]

 **Takeda Makoto** : 4000 [5]

 **Izayoi Aki** : 4000 [5]

"They clearly crossed the line…" Yugo mumbled. He nearly got the same result as those two idiots would be having soon once before.

"Hope she doesn't cross the line…" Yusei tried to reassure himself and Yugo. Even though he knew how destructive Aki was if she was pushed, he hoped his girlfriend would try her best to control her mood.

The two boys continued to stare at the three duelists, occasionally bickering, commenting, joking at each other. They had not had a usual conversation between friends like this for quite a while, and both were happy to do this, although in this situation where another friend were dueling with two annoying rats it would come off as funny. They continued talking even though huge explosions and large whirlwinds were happening, they did not bother to look at because it would be pretty nasty to do so. When they finally stopped for not having anything else to talk about at the moment, Aki had already finished her duel. And AS they had predicted, Aki had scored an OTK and Takeda and Ken were downed, for some reason their eyes and their mouths were opened pretty widely and their hands grabbing their sensitive spots like some stupid virgins, and Yugo swore for his life that the buttons on their pants were open. This would be a perfect scene for anyone, especially nice girls like Ruri or Yuzu who was lucky enough to cross this place.

"Really Aki?" Yusei said sarcastically.

"Was it… over the top?" Yugo commented without looking at her, taking huge interest at what Aki made those Ryouzanpaku students do.

"Sorry, I was angry. I tried my best to control it and this is the result." Aki breathed in relief.

"You really should try to control more, but to be honest, they did deserve this." Yugo smirked.

"But." Yusei brought out an important question. "What are we going to do now…? In this place?"

Yugo quickly came up with an idea. "This dimension is different from other ones I have been to (obviously not true) so we should spilt up and try to explore this place as much as we can, of course remember to keep in radio contact. Maybe Rin is somewhere else in this city that is not as icy as this."

"Okay. Tell us what you see after you go there as soon as possible." Aki told to the group and all of them went separate ways.

* * *

After finishing the violent duel, Yuto walked away. Still in his rage, he walked slowly, attempting to go to other areas to find other people to satisfy his rage, the rage that he did not even know he was having right now. Suddenly a pillar was dropping down due to being broken from the impact of the duel earlier.

"Yuya!" Gongenzaka lunged at Yuto, who he still thought to be Yuya even though he was having second doubt, and shielded him from the pillar. He managed to use his back to block it and hold down Yuto, who was roaring in rage and desperation to get out of this hold.

"Mieru! Call help!"

"Okay!" Mieru immediately went, leaving Gongenzaka behind with the restrained Yuto.

Gongenzaka finally got a good look on Yuto. _"This boy looks like Yuya but… his voice tone and his hair are clearly not! And…"_ He looked at the wig. _"That's the wig! And it looks like Yuya's hair! Is this guy Yuto who Yuzu said to me? And if so, what had happened to the real Yuya?"_

* * *

"We cannot confirm the existence of the Duelist in the Ice area." An assistant said in the control room.

Reiji speculated. "That the Synchro energy is that high means that Duelist is definitely from the Synchro Dimension. If that person is the Pawn of Fusion as Kurosaki said then…"

"Find him! Until we get a lead!" He ordered.

"Hai!"

"How is Sakaki Yuya?" He turned to Nakajima.

"Some people has taken him to the Forest area."

* * *

Later, in the Forest area, Gongenzaka had brought Yuto along with the wig tucked behind his back. He along with Michio, Teppei, Mieru had to restrain him and after biting Teppei's hand, Yuto finally passed out. Using her occult skills, Mieru found out there were two souls inside "Darling" as she called Yuya, which shocked the boys, and another darkness inside that wanted to take over both of them.

"And Gongenzaka! What's that wig behind you for?" Michio wondered.

"Uh… this is…" He hesitated before pulling it out, shocking all of them.

"What? It looks like Darling's hair!" Mieru pointed out.

"Uh!"

"So who is this guy? And why is he look like Yuya?"

"I don't know. He does look like Yuya for some reason, just like Yuzu."

"Yuzu as well?" Teppei said.

"Uh. You may not know, but Michio and Mieru may know. She looks like Ruri."

"Ruri?" Michio mumbled. "Is that… the girl who accompanied with Yuya and Yuyu and the kids?"

"Yes."

"Now I remember, she does look like Yuzu. She wore a hat back there to hide her face but I still see the similarity but I did not dare to ask her why!"

"And this guy here, if I say correctly, is Yuto."

"Yuto…" Mieru mumbled.

"There is one thing I still don't understand though." Teppei spoke up. "If this guy is not Yuya, where is the real Yuya?"

"That's the question I am still wondering. But as far as I know, Yuya is not here!"

"Darling is not here?" Mieru said with concern. "So where is he Gon-chan? Where is Darling? Where is he?" She pulled Gongenzaka's white shirt frantically, beginning to sob.

Gongenzaka closed his eyes sadly. "I don't know…"

All of the boys stopped saying anything, they could only look away in sadness while Mieru continued sobbing…

* * *

"President. In the Ice area, the Fuuma Ninja has taken Selena there." Nakajima informed Reiji.

* * *

The carry-over-the-shoulder thing definitely did not work for the hot-headed and independent girl as Hikage had predicted, she was constantly ordering him to put her down and after being fed up with enough, he reluctantly complied.

"What is your intention?! There is no reason to involve with them."

Hikage did not answer her but turned to Tsukikage. "Tsukikage, leave these two to you. Maybe their comrades are still here. I will go investigating."

"Roger, brother!" Hikage then flashed away.

"Who are "they"?" Yuzu asked the blue ninja.

"We have heard that they are Academia of the Fusion Dimension."

"Academia?!" Yuzu gasped. "Just like what… uh…"

"That girl Ruri said?"

The pink hair girl widened her eyes more. "You know her?"

"Uh. Master Akaba Reiji knows about that girl Kurosaki Ruri and Kamishiro Ryoga as well. They are, along with Kurosaki Shun, Xyz survivors."

"Xyz survivors?!" Selena yelled, catching Yuzu and Tsukikage's attention. "Where are they? Lead me to them!"

"Wait!" Yuzu stopped her. "First off, please tell us what your name is."

"I do not need to tell you!" She refused. "Where are those Xyz remnants?!"

"Even if I do know them, I will not lead to you them!" Yuzu could not hold herself back anymore. This girl had proved to be a huge liability to her and Tsukikage, even more, she was from Academia as she could tell and if she let things go buys, she would cause a huge mess, so she needed to make things clear first. "And if you dare to run away, I and this ninja over there will stop you!" Tsukikage simply gave a nod at Selena to confirm what Yuzu said.

Selena sighed. Even though she was rude, she did know that she could not do anything now. "All right… My name is Selena, not the girl Ruri as you say. And true to what you said, those people back there are the hunting dogs that Academia deployed to capture me. But I will not be captured!" She pointed at Tsukikage. "Even if this ninja did not rescue, I could beat them off easily." In response, the ninja simply looked away.

"Hunting dogs… why are they chasing you?" Yuzu asked.

"It's simple, because I disobeyed Professor's orders!"

"Professor?" Yuzu mumbled. _"Yuto, Ruri and Ryoga did not tell me about this…"_

"In Academia, the order of Professor is supreme. No one could oppose him, or some did and suffered an awful fate. But because I want my power to be recognized by him, I had the gut to do it! If I could exterminate the Xyz remnants in this Standard Dimension, Professor will…" She clenched her fist. "…be regretted for not sending me to the front lines! So…"

"So you duel with Dennis."

"He's clearly not the target."

Unknown to all of them, Dennis was behind an ice pillar. "That's why I told you."

"That front lines… is Xyz right?" Yuzu speculated.

"Damn right. My comrades have all been in Xyz and were able to display their skills honorably! But I alone was to stay behind by the Professor's orders."

"But do you know what they did to the Xyz dimension?" Yuzu brought up a question. "Their homeland was a wonderful place, then one day Academia came and their Duelists have both been smiling and attacking their people repeatedly, like a Hunting Game."

* * *

At this point, Hikage was looking at the Duel between the three Obelisk Force and the Lancers.

" _There are 6 Academia assassins… where are the other three?"_

Meanwhile Sora was still chasing Shun across the large Action Field. He had to admit this guy is really fast, he had been giving chase for several hours but he always managed to dodge away at the last second, forcing him to stop for a while before looking for him again. The chase even got out of the Action Field but later Sora noticed Shun was attempting to run back to the Action Field.

"Wanna trick me asshole?!" Sora yelled before resuming running.

* * *

" _Smiling… Hunting Game…"_ Selena registered what Yuzu said. The sunlight began to settle down. "Hm. Ridiculous. Like playing game? Academia's Duelists could not do those stupid things in the war zone."

"They may be lying!" Yuzu suggested.

"Academia has a honor goal. It is to unite the four words."

"Four words? Are they Xyz, Standard, Synchro and Fusion?"

"What? You know them?"

"Eh. From the people that you call "Xyz remnants". In reality they are just normal people, living a normal life and wishing for a bright future ahead! And where is the noble when you spread horror and misery to many people?!"

"What is misery?" Selena smirked. She could not believe what Yuzu said. "Xyz Duelists must have their own pride and honor. Even though they lose the duel and lose their lives, they can die in peace that they know they have fought so honorably…"

Yuzu nearly froze at what Selena innocently said. _"What the hell is she thinking? War is prideful? Those people are just normal people, they do not wish for war for one bit! War is FREAKING hell!"_ She approached Selena and held her right shoulder. "It means that you have to quietly accept that your family is gone?"

" _Family…"_ Selena thought. _"Family… Never heard of this in a while…"_

"Academia did not only destroy Heartland, but they also caused unbearable sadness to their families and friends!"

"Aren't they Duelists as well?!"

"What the hell are you thinking?!" Yuzu nearly yelled. "Not everyone is a Duelist. Most of them are just normal people, and even if they pick their Duel Disks and became a Duelist, they are still just normal people! Since Kurosaki Ruri was lost, Kurosaki Shun, Yuto and Ryoga had to fight to rescue their dear friend!"

"To… rescue?"

"Kurosaki Shun is the Xyz remnant you wanna find." Yuzu did not say Yuto because she wanted to protect him for Ruri's sake and from what Shun had displayed, she knew he could be capable of protecting himself were Selena get a stupid idea of fighting him. "If you don't believe what I say, then just directly meet him to confirm. This is the picture of him if you don't know." She showed an image of Kurosaki Shun on her Duel Disk to Selena.

* * *

At night, Michio was spoon-feeding the unconscious Yuto when he finally woke up. The Xyz survivor was met with concerned looks mixed with suspicion.

"Michio… Gongenzaka… Teppei… and… Mieru…"

He slowly got back up, leaning himself against the tree. "Thank you everyone… the food is delicious."

"Don't thank us." Michio said. "Teppei caught the fish, and I cooked it. We are friends, and when friends are in need of help, we give a hand, that's all."

"Thanks…"

"Yuya…" Gongenzaka said. "Or… Yuto."

"What? Yuto? Who is he?"

"Don't lie to us Yuto!" Mieru said he she pulled out the wig that had been fallen off his head. Yuto gasped, quickly starching his hair to find out that his wig was indeed gone. "I know you have just been waken up, but please tell me who you really are, and what happened to Darling?"

"Darling… you mean… Yuya?" Yuto sighed. "Fine… I cannot hide you any longer…"

"My name is Yuto." Yuto finally revealed himself, using his real voice.

"First suspicion confirmed." Teppei remarked. "Next, tell us where you form."

"I am from a different dimension called the Xyz Dimension."

"What?! Xyz Dimension?" Teppei buzz "Huh! Forget it. I don't believe in that bullshit."

"It's your choice to believe it or not, but that is true. I am not from here. And the people who attacked me were not from this place either. They are Academia from the Fusion Dimension."

"Xyz Dimension… Fusion Dimension… Academia…" Gongenzaka mumbled.

"Saying more will be too much. I will explain everything later. About Yuya, I don't know what happened to him."

"I think I do…" Mieru said, catching Yuto's attention.

"What do you mean?"

"Earlier when I use this apple to see through you, I saw another soul inside you."

"Another soul?!" Yuto gasped in surprise. Thinking back, it was not strange at all. He had seen Yuya back when he duel Isao before. Even though he was not sure about this, he had a feeling that Yuya was residing inside him, his body was gone but his spirit still lived within him. He guessed it was the reason why he began to think of "Dueling with smiles" again. Before knowing this motto from Yuya, Yuto got this mentality of Dueling from his girlfriend Ruri who was stubborn enough to still carry this belief in the warzone.

"Eh. And deep inside them was a source of darkness lurking."

"Darkness lurking… so that's why…"

"What do you mean Yuto?" Michio wondered.

"First off, those people from Academia are called Obelisk Force. They are an elite group of Duelists in Academia who follows Professor's orders without question. Whether they win a duel, they seal the losers in cards."

"Turning the losers into cards?!" Gongenzaka said in shock.

"No way…"

"Then I remember nothing…" Yuto muttered. "I won right?"

"Damn right. And you managed to summon an Xyz dragon that we have never seen before!"

"Never seen before?" Yuto quickly searched his Extra Deck slot where true to Gon's words, a new dragon was found.

Supreme King Black Dragon - Odd-Eyes Rebellion Dragon.

"What the?"

"It's an Xyz monster, but also a Pendulum monster!" Teppei thought out loud.

" _It looks like Dark Rebellion… but also has some traces off Odd-Eyes…"_ Yuto thought. _"Yuya… are you inside me?"_ He took out Odd-Eyes Pendulum Dragon and inspected. _"You told me to bring smiles to others… yet I fell to my own darkness and caused destruction, bringing out this strange monster… and I don't want to do it!"_

" _So why did you say it and give me Odd-Eyes?"_

* * *

"I got it. After finding that Xyz duelist Kurosaki Shun, I will know whether you said to be true or not." Yuzu nodded.

She suddenly got an idea. "Oh yeah, let's change uniforms!"

"Uniform?"

"Before seeing Kurosaki, it would be bad if Academia finds you right?"

"Oh… so you're switching roles with me and distracting them?" They did not know they failed because Dennis was hearing the whole thing.

"That's right."

"Yoss!" She attempted to take off her shirt, causing Yuzu to freak out.

"Wait! Wait up!"

"Why?" Yuzu turned to Tsukikage angrily, who did not bother to look back. Selena looked at the ninja too and realized what the pink hair girl meant. "Haizz… we have no time to waste… and I'm sure he is not that perverted!"

"But I don't feel that way!" Yuzu protested as she pulled Selena behind a large ice pillar. "Now, let's change clothes! And you!" She turned to the ninja. "Don't even think about it!"

"Absolutely…" Tsukikage looked away. Dennis also looked away too.

A short while, they were done. Yuzu admired the Academia clothes, they were fit and amazing while Selena seemed to be a little bothered by the short dress but nevertheless she did not protest.

"There is no sign of Kurosaki in the Ice area and the Forest area"

"Which means there is only the Ancient Ruins area." Selena confirmed. The girls nodded and went separate ways. Tsukikage went behind Selena to protect her.

After checking the situation, Dennis got a new surprise as a bright light erupted near him. He smiled.

"What the…? "You"?" He chuckled. Those were the Obelisk Force, "Darkness", Yuma and…

"I have been waiting for you…" The last person was a boy wearing a purple uniform with a red cape behind him. He opened his eyes, smiling at Dennis.

"Yuri…"

* * *

"These strange things happening… do you think it is… Obelisk Force?" Ruri whispered to Ryoga.

"Maybe… we need to investigate." Ryoga said back. They nodded and lied to Shuzo, Yoko and the kids that they go back to Yoko's house to sleep to get out of the stadium. They began to walk to the Action Field…

* * *

At night, in a large boat that was going to a place, a fortress in the middle of an island, there were three people staying in a room, looking at the island.

"This is an one-way trip, are you truly sure that you want to go there?" A young, male voice could be heard.

"For some reason I don't think it that way. Be optimistic!" Another voice, male, more mature and full of wisdom.

"Too much of it will backfire teacher!" A voice, female, young, in teenage years.

"I never forget it. I just wanna assure myself. This is an important mission, if we succeed, Academia's plan will be forced to put one step back."

"Maybe the fact that the radio jammer system on this boat is working properly make the teacher overconfident!" That young man spoke up.

"I never said that!" The now-known-as-teacher-of-the-other-two chuckled. "Don't lie to me!"

"Sorry teacher, he loves to do it!" The girl said.

"Screw you!" The young man pouted childishly as if the war had not affected him a bit.

"Anyway, I wanna say this!" The teacher touched his student's shoulders. "This mission is important. Once we get there, we go as planned and rescue the girl. Then we bring her back in one peace."

"All of us back!" The girl rephrased.

"Yeah… all of us back… safe and sound… but that only happens if we do our best today not to get caught. I put trust in the two of you."

"We trust you too teacher!"

"We will get out of Academia without any losses, teacher Yusho!"

The teacher who was revealed to be Yusho smiled. "We will… I trust all of you… and we will do it…"

"Tenjoin Asuka… and…" He turned to the young man.

"Marufuji Ryo…"

* * *

 **Fanfic OC Cards**

 **Stardust Dragon Starlight**

WIND Dragon Synchro Effect LV8 2500/2000

During either player's turn, when a card or effect is activated that would make a card(s) leaves the field: You can Tribute this card; negate the activation, and if you do, destroy it, also all of your monsters gain 800 ATK until the end of this turn, then if the destroyed card was a monster, gain LP equal to its ATK. During the End Phase, if this effect was activated this turn (and was not negated): You can Special Summon this card from your GY.

 **Rose Princess**

DARK/Plant/Tuner/Effect/LV5/2100/1200

If you control no monsters: You can Special Summon this card (from your hand). When this card is Normal or Special Summoned: You can add 1 Level 4 or lower Plant-Type monster from your Deck to the hand, then reduce this card's level by that monster's level.

 **Rose Warrior**

DARK/Plant/Synchro/Effect/LV5/2000/1800

1 Plant-Type Tuner + 1 or more non-Tuner Plant-Type monsters

(Quick Effect) Once per turn, you can send 1 Plant-Type monster from your hand to the GY, then apply the following effects depending on the level of the sent monster:

*3 or lower: This card gains 800 ATK until the end of this turn.

*4: Plant-Type monsters you control cannot be destroyed this turn.

*5 or higher: When your opponent activates a Spell/Trap or monster effect: negate the activation, and if you do, inflict 800 damage to your opponent.

If this card leaves the field: You can target 1 Level 4 or lower Plant-Type Monsters in your GY: return them to the hand.

 **Tech Genus Armored Wyvern DR-04**

EARTH Beast/(Machine) Effect LV4 0/0

This card can also be treated as a Machine-Type monster. If a Spell/Trap Card you control targets this card, you can halve this card's original ATK and DEF. If this card is used as a Synchro Material: you can banish this card; draw 1 card. If this card is destroyed, you can add 1 "T.G." monster from your Deck to your hand. You cannot Summon it this turn.

 **Rose Sorceress**

LIGHT/Plant/Synchro/Effect/LV6/2200/1600

1 Tuner + 1 or more non-Tuner monsters

If this card is Synchro Summoned, you can target 1 card in the Magic/Trap Zone: destroy it. Once per turn, you can target 1 monster your opponent controls: halve that monster's ATK, and if you do, this card gains ATK equal to the lost amount. These changes last until the End Phase. Once per turn, you can banish 1 Plant-Type Monster from your GY; this card can attack twice this turn. During the End Phase, if this card is in your GY: You can pay 600 LP; special summon this card from your GY, and if you do, special summon 1 Tuner Monster from your hand or GY.

 **Tech Genus Mechanical Reborn**

(Counter Trap Card)

When your opponent declares an attack on a "Tech Genus" monster you control: you can return that monster to the Deck; Special Summon 1 "Tech Genus" monster from your GY, then end the Battle Phase.

 **Hippeastrum**

LIGHT/Plant/Effect/LV3/1700/1000

If this card is used as a Synchro Material for a Plant-Type Synchro Monster: you can target 1 monster on the field; banish it. During your turn, if a Plant-Type Synchro Monster is Synchro Summoned: You can Special Summon this card from your GY. If this card leaves the field because of a card effect: Draw 1 card. You can only use each effect of "Hippeastrum" once per turn.

 **Blossom Spring**

(Equip Card)

Target 1 Plant-Type Monster in your GY: special summon it, but it has its effects negated, and if you do, equip it with this card. If this card leaves the field: destroy the equipped monster.

 **Cloak of Thorns**

(Quick-Play Magic Card)

Target 1 Plant-Type Synchro Monster you control: send 1 Plant-Type monster from your Deck to your GY; the target gains ATK equal to the sent monster's ATK. During your turn, expect the turn it was sent to the GY: you can banish this card and 1 Plant-Type monster in your GY; special summon 1 Plant-Type Synchro Monster from your GY, and if you do, it gains ATK equal to the ATK of the banished monster.

 **Revival Seed**

DARK/Plant/Effect/LV1/0/0

If this card is in your hand: you can discard this card, then target 1 Plant-Type monster in your GY; Special Summon it. During the Battle Phase, if this card is in your GY: you can banish this card from your GY, then target 1 Plant-Type monster in your GY; special summon it. The monsters summoned by this effect have its effects negated and are destroyed during the End Phase. You can only activate each effect of this card once per turn. You can only activate each effect of this card once per Duel.

 **Phantom Knights Tainted Vest**

DARK/Warrior/Pendulum/LV3/Scale 2/1300/300

 **Pendulum Effect:** (Condition) You can only Pendulum Summon "Phantom Knights" monsters and/or DARK Dragon monsters.

You can also Pendulum Summon "Phantom Knights" monsters from your graveyard and/or "Phantom Knights" Trap Cards as monsters and treat them as Normal or Effect Monsters depending on its effects along with other monsters, and if you do, you cannot Pendulum Summon form your Extra Deck.

 **Monster Effect:** You can banish this card from your Extra Deck face-up or from your GY, then target up to 3 banished "Phantom Knights" or "Phantom" cards; shuffle them back to your Deck.

 **Phantom Knights Used Magazine**

DARK/Warrior/Pendulum/LV3/Scale 8/300/1300

 **Pendulum Effect:** (Condition) You can only Pendulum Summon "Phantom Knights" monsters and/or DARK Dragon monsters.

If you Pendulum Summon 3 or more "Phantom Knights" monsters and/or DARK Dragon monsters: You can draw 2 cards.

 **Monster Effect:** You can banish this card from your Extra Deck face-up or from your GY, then target 1 DARK monster you control; it gains 1300 ATK until the End Phase.

* * *

 **Changed effects**

 **Supreme King Black Dragon - Odd-Eyes Rebellion Dragon**

DARK/Dragon/Xyz/Pendulum/Effect/R7/Scale 4/3000/2500

2 Level 7 Dragon-Type Monsters

 **Pendulum Effect:** Once per turn, if you have no cards in your other Pendulum Zone: You can place 1 Pendulum Monster from your Deck in your Pendulum Zone.

 **Monster Effect:** If you can Pendulum Summon Level 7, you can Pendulum Summon this face-up card from your Extra Deck. If this card is Xyz Summoned using an Xyz Monster as material: Reduce the Levels and/or Ranks of all of your opponent's monsters by the original Rank of that Xyz Monster (this effect cannot be negated), then destroy all Level/Rank 7 or lower monsters your opponent controls, and if you do, inflict damage to your opponent equal to the total ATK those destroyed monsters had on the field. If you do any of these, this card can attack a number of times each Battle Phase this turn, up to the current number of monsters that were destroyed while in your opponent's possession this turn. If this card leaves the field: You can destroy as many cards in your Pendulum Zones as possible, and if you do, place this card in your Pendulum Zone.

* * *

 **And that is the end of an action-filled chapter!**

 **And yes, I know this chapter is very hard for Aki, but I have warned you earlier. Poor Bruno who suffered the same fate again, I truly felt sorry for him but… there is no other choice since Roget is truly mad behind that stoic façade.**

 **I have a plan to do with Odd-Eyes Rebellion Dragon later, which is why I changed the effects of it to reduce Level/Rank, destroy Xyz Monsters as well and no need to detach Overlay Unit. Some of you will not like it but I have planned for that since the beginning.**

 **And guess who is back! Marufuji Ryo! Now earlier I established that Yuri had carded Ryo, I thought it was a good trick to all of you!**

 **One cool thing I noticed during writing this chapter: all of Bruno's card names in the anime have two letters of the type of that monster in TCG.**

* * *

 **Next Chapter Preview**

 **Unrest Night**

People begin to aware of the abnormalities and some of them charge in to save everyone else. Misunderstanding and hatred are needed to be solved as soon as possible to focus on the war. Meanwhile Reiji duels with someone unexpected.


	30. Scale 30

**Welcome back everyone, I hope you enjoyed the last chapter. I had numerous setbacks so I could not release this chapter quickly, but here it is finally!**

 **From this point on, things will get very quickly, nasty and gritty so be prepared (lol).**

 **Warning: slight OOC.**

* * *

 **Chapter 30: Unrest Night**

* * *

"This city is strange… a large part of it changed into four separate ones…" Yugo commented while riding on his D-Wheel. He was currently out of the city. "The rest is normal…"

"This city is surely large…" Aki said while stealing a map of Maiami City from a shop nearby. She was at the mountain to get a better view. Since D-Wheels did not exist in here, she had to hide it and sneakily take a map to know the city better. "I need to take a picture of it from my D-Wheel and send it to Yugo and Yusei…"

* * *

"So you have found her?" Yuri said as he slowly walked towards Dennis.

"Of course! I have-oh!" Dennis confirmed. He pointed at Yuzu who, to his surprise, was surrounded by three Obelisk Force members. "She's been surrounded this quick… It's gonna be pretty troublesome…"

"Um… Why the hell are they here?!" Yuma said as he stood his hands on the rail. Seeing those assholes creepily smiling really put him on edge. Had it not been for his terminal mother, he would readily smash those son of the bitches to oblivion.

"The Professor only ordered me to capture Hiragi Yuzu and bring her back to Academia." Yuri also had the same question on those three's behavior.

"Um. Good question." Dennis said. "But the answer is simple. Yuzu has changed clothes with Selena, the Obelisk Force probably aims for Selena but mistook for her instead since they share the same faces. Just like you and Yuya-kun."

"Same faces? Those girls?" Yuma wondered. He faced Yuri. "It's true that the girl Hiragi Yuzu over there, the girl Rin you captured, your old friend Selena and my friend Ruri share the same faces. That's the secret mission Professor gives to you right?" Yuma clenched his fist in shame and anger for the fact that Yuri wanted to kidnap his friend, or rather, his former friend. He had asked the Professor why he wanted to capture the four girls, but he did not say a word.

"I just follow orders. And don't mention the name of that bitch in front of me again!" Yuri raised his voice. He and Yuma then exchanged hard glares and came close to each other, playing the game of trying to intimidate one another.

"Enough bickering!" Darkness stepped between them, pulling them apart. "The mission is more important than the stupid competition between you two!"

"Oh!" Dennis gasped. "Tenjoin Fubuki-san! Or I should call you… Darkness!"

"Nice to meet you Dennis Macfield. I see you have played the role of the spy pretty well." Darkness turned to Dennis and offered a handshake, to which the spy returned. "Scouting, approaching or eavesdropping them and then calling Yuri to capture them. I don't know why Professor called me to assist you, have to leave Xyz to this place, but here I am."

"Yes. Although there is one thing that is not according to the plan."

"What is it?" Darkness asked him.

"One of the girls, Kurosaki Ruri, has escaped Yuri's grasp about two weeks ago and somehow teleported to Standard."

"Huh! So the reputation has actually been destroyed!" Yuma smirked, earning a harsh look from Yuri.

Dennis quickly cut the tension off. "Luckily I did not meet her or her families and friends directly so for now I don't have to worry about having my real identity exposed but it may change soon. And another thing, all of the remaining girls that you need to capture are in here."

"Yoss!" Yuri smiled. "Gonna be an extremely glorious Hunting Game show!"

" _You hurt them, you hurt Ruri, and I will hurt you back!"_ Yuma glared at Yuri secretly.

"Hey!" Darkness spoke up. "Dennis, you said earlier that there is a Yuya-kun. Who is he?"

"He's the boy who shares the same face as Yuri." Dennis answered.

" _And that boy too…"_ Yuri thought about Yugo who he saw back when he captured Rin. Suddenly, they heard a loud scream pretty far away. They turned to their left to see Halil and Olga sliding down a cliff on a sliding tub, eventually flying across them and hitting the rail, stopping the dangerous slide. The loud impact left smoke.

Olga climbed out of the tub, clearly in shock. "Uh! That was scary…"

"It's really dangerous!" Halil could only agree.

"If only you did not beg to slide!" Olga berated the boy.

"But in turn, we have found Duelists!" Halil excitedly said, pointing at the three individuals in front of them.

"Ah cha!" Dennis said. "We've been spotted!"

"What are you three doing up here?" Olga asked them.

"So so so annoying… I should have said that."

Yuri attempted to confront them to duel them and card them for interfering, but Darkness put a hand in front of him, stopping him.

"Let me handle these two annoying pricks. You focus on the mission."

"I want to duel them!" Yuri refused, but Darkness put on a black mask, showing that he was serious. Yuri decided to respect his wishes although he did not want to, they were on the same rank anyway, and if Yuma was included, it would be three of them.

"You two are surely annoying." The baritone voice Darkness gave and the intimidating mask he wore scared Halil and Olga, who activated their Duel Disks in response.

"Oh… so you two decided to play tough with me… Fine…" Darkness mumbled before swinging his left arm, activating his own Academia Duel Disk. A green blade shot out from the front.

 **DUEL!**

 **Darkness** : 4000 [5]

 **Halil** : 4000 [5]

 **Olga** : 4000 [5]

* * *

From below, Yuzu was cornered. She cautiously looked at the three Obelisk Force members.

" _If Selena wants to know what happened to the Xyz Dimension, she must meet Kurosaki! I need to distract them!"_

With that in mind, Yuzu bravely activated her Duel Disk, knowing the risk of the 1 vs 3 Duel. The words automatically appeared on the interface: Duel Mode, Standby. Her light pink Duel Disk then reassembled, opening the Extra Deck slot and the Main Deck slot, a pink blade shot out from the front. She then assumed her fighting stance, ready for the Obelisk Force. They quickly activated their own.

"That Duel Disk?!" Yuzu said. "They're definitely from the Fusion Dimension… If it goes like this then… I have to fight!"

"You guys are also annoying!" Yuri suddenly spoke up from above. Yuzu turned up to see a boy in a purple suit jumping down to the ground. One thing that made the girl yelped: Yuri had the same face as Yuya!

"Yuya!" She called out to her "friend". "Yuya! It's you right? Yuya right? Where have you-"

"What are you saying? Don't mistake me for that guy!" Yuri corrected. He then showed the four the backing of the cards containing the souls of Halil and Olga. "By the way, those three stay out of my way. Interfering and you will get the same result like this." He then threw the cards which got pinned to the ground.

"Heh? This is…?!" Yuzu wondered as the cards spun around, revealing the scared faces of Halil and Olga.

"Can't be… humans being sealed in cards?!" Yuzu crouched down, looking at them while the Obelisk Force ran out of the area. "Why…"

"Don't tell me you know them?" Yuri asked politely as he went to her. "Sorry. They were just staying in the way. I give them back to you."

Yuzu could not believe what he said. He nonchalantly talked the carded people down like nothing had happened. She remembered the people who shared his faces. Yuya, Yuto, and they obviously did not do this. Yuto had told her about another person named Yugo and from what he said, that boy Yugo could not possibly do that to find her friend Rin.

" _Who the hell is he? And why can he be so heartless?"_ Yuzu wondered in her mind, she looked down, not facing Yuri. "You did this to them?"

"No, I did not. Another comrade of mine did."

"Another comrade? You're not alone here?!"

"Yeah, but it doesn't matter now."

"Why?" Yuzu said, closing her eyes. "Why did you people do this?!"

"Why? Because they were simply in my way."

Yuzu lashed out. "Turning people into cards-"

"Keep dragging on, and you will become a card as well." Yuri warned her, sadistically looking at her to make his threat clear and precise. As expected, Yuzu gasped in fear. "But… I cannot do that. If I do, Professor will criticize me."

"Professor?!" Yuzu wondered. She remembered what Selena said about that person.

 _In Academia, the order of Professor is supreme._

"Which means you are Academia?!"

"Uh. That's right. To be honest, you look like them. Ruri and Rin."

"Ruri and Rin?!" Yuzu gasped. _"I cannot let him know about Ruri!"_

"So the person who captured Ruri and Rin was…"

"Yep. It's me." Yuri confirmed.

"Why did you do it?!" Yuzu raised her voice.

"Why? Because it is the order from Professor. Right now I was just following them, to bring you back to her and Ruri."

"Me and Ruri?! Why?"

Yuri walked to her. "Don't know don't care, I just follow orders. Whatever." He gave her a hand, offering to bring her peacefully and without fighting. "Sa, Professor is waiting."

That chilling voice and that creepily smiling face did not make Yuzu succumb, it only encouraged the scared girl to disobey. She slapped his hand away and did several backflips, gaining a distance from Yuri.

"Heh~ You're good!" Yuri complimented at the girl's resistance, waving the slapped hand. "This is just like them… Ruri and Rin. So let's settle this out! I will Duel you, if you win, you walk free." Of course Yuzu did not believe in that. "If I win, you will come with me, just like those two girls."

"Wait up! Not only did you kidnap Ruri, but also Rin? Why?!"

"Told you it was order." He still kept his calm voice although he was getting a little bit annoyed. "Come on, do it! Earlier you were determined to fight the Obelisk Force right?"

"I…"

"Not doing it and I will take the lead!" Yuri activated his Duel Disk, the purple blade shot out from the front. Yuzu breathed to control herself before swinging her left arm, activating her Duel Disk.

"I will not lose that easy!"

 **DUEL!**

 **Yuri** : 4000 [5]

 **Hiragi Yuzu** : 4000 [5]

* * *

"It seems that the Real Solid Vision has transformed this city into different landscapes." Darkness said as he, Yuma and the Obelisk Force traveled on foot. They were on route to the LDS building, planning to attack it to avoid letting Reiji intercepting their campaign.

"Lucky that we have the map of the place installed on our Duel Disks." Yuma eyed at his Duel Disk, seeing the map of Maiami City. "And no matter how much Real Solid Vision changes the view, the basic structure of the buildings and the streets remains the same, they cannot be affected by it."

"But someone's mind can." Darkness reminded Yuma of his betrayal of the Resistance.

"I was forced to, remember that. Also, if you lose and are captured by the Resistance, I will not bat an eyelid. You people are nasty and murderous."

"Strange to find it come from a Resistance. Sounds too much like a hypocrite."

"I was never a Resistance."

"Yeah you do!" A male voice suddenly came from the rock in front of them. Yuma, Darkness and the Obelisk Force looked at it.

"Who are you? Come out!" The Obelisk Force with a red gem ordered. Without needing a second, that person came out, or rather, two people. Yuma knew them so well, for he was once their friend…

"Ryoga… Ruri…" Yuma said above a whisper. He sighed. "Good to see you back."

"Good to see us back?!" Ruri raised her voice. "You should say good to be beaten by us you asshole betrayer!"

"I don't care. But we are on a mission, and you two are standing in our way. Get out!" He calmly requested.

"Now you say "we", nice!" Ryoga sent hateful words at his former friend. "You are now officially Academia now, and we are not going to let you and your "scarily" masked friends go free!" Ryoga and Ruri threw Duel Anchors at Yuma and Darkness, who swiftly avoided. The Obelisk Force snapped them away by their right hands, forcing the Resistance to return them back.

"Dammit!" Ryoga hissed.

"As Yuma said, we are on a mission, and we cannot waste any second dueling with you two. Obelisk Force!"

"Roger!" Red complied and they surrounded Ryoga and Ruri. The girl kicked one of them and attempted to run but the second one punched her backwards. Ryoga held her and they tried to climb on the rock to escape but Green threw his own Duel Anchor at the rock, destroying the top part of the rock and shattering it. This forced Ruri and Ryoga to stand still.

"You cannot escape us!"

"Then… we will duel the three of you!" Ruri declared as she and Ryoga activated their own Duel Disks.

"Huh! Let's see if you two are going to win against the three of us."

"I highly doubt it. You two will lose and you will be carded like your comrades!"

"Enough! Just Duel now!" Ryoga roared. The Obelisk Force smiled before activating their Duel Disks.

 **DUEL!**

 **Red** : 4000 [5]

 **Green** : 4000 [5]

 **Yellow** : 4000 [5]

 **Kurosaki Ruri** : 4000 [5]

 **Kamishiro Ryoga** : 4000 [5]

"Getting past Security in the Stadium took a lot of time… now we have to fight these son of a bitches?" Ryoga angrily berated.

"See! You cannot stand in our way!" Yuma said to Ruri and Ryoga. "But don't worry. They are ordered not to card you Ruri. You will be brought back to Academia like you once nearly was."

"What do you mean?" Ryoga inquired.

"I don't know the full thing, but I can only say that." He finally gave a soft smile at them before going with Darkness. "Good luck."

"Oi! Stop right now! Yuma!" Ryoga yelled futilely as Yuma and Darkness walked off.

"Ryoga calm down! We must now beat these three first!" Ruri reminded the tentacle hair Duelist.

"Dammit."

* * *

"You sure they are going to win? I highly doubt it." Yuma said to Darkness about the Obelisk Force. He knew how weak they actually were as an individual, they were only trained to work as a team of three.

"By the time they lose which I know they will, we will have accomplished our mission long ago. Don't worry." Darkness calmly told the teenager. "They are weak, but they are pawns, and in a battle, pawns always go first."

"So sacrifice pawns to let bishop and knight go behind the enemies' back and intercept them." Yuma concluded. "I thought you know nothing about chess, you were trained only in war."

"I was like anybody else before the war, having a family, a sibling, some friends, having education and all before becoming an orphan." Darkness told him. "Then the Professor found me and gave me a new chance of life under his watch by becoming his loyal soldier. Some of our members actually got education before this war. Besides, about the chess thing, one member of Academia was pretty obsessed by it."

"Who?"

"You don't need to know betrayer."

"Fine…" Yuma complied. _"A betrayer of Academia? Who is he? And where is he now?"_

They continued in the streets until they reached the building. LDS.

"This is it. We go in, we cause chaos and Reiji will not dare to stop this invasion."

Suddenly, someone in front of them yelled. "Hey! Who are you?" It was Sawatari and his father. Yuma and Darkness looked at each other before activating their Duel Disks.

"Remember, do not card any of them here. We only want to scare him…" Yuma reminded.

* * *

"I have been waiting for this moment for quite a while, an entertaining hunt after some resting. So I give you the honor to go first." Yuri invited Yuzu to ride shotgun.

"Go first or not, I will make you regret for provoking me!" Yuzu boldly said as she activated a card in her hand. "Magic Card, Ostinato! I send Melodious Diva Aria and Elegy from my Deck to the graveyard to Fusion Summon!"

"Fusion Summon?!" Yuri spoke with interest. He narrowed his eyes excitedly at his prey, finding another girl who uses Fusion just like him. _"Interesting… way better than I expected…"_

"Echoing melodious voice, song of lament! Guided by the baton, gather your power! Yūgō Shōkan! Now, come to the stage! Melodious Maestra Meisterin Schubert!"

 **Melodious Maestra Meisterin Schubert** LIGHT/Angel/Fusion/Effect/LV6 **2400** /2000

Ignoring the smile on Yuri's face as he admired her Fusion monster, Yuzu continued. "Then I activate Treasure Cards of Heaven! By banishing Opera from my hand, I get to draw two cards!" Right after seeing the drawn cards, Yuzu activated another one. "Continuous Magic Melodious Fusion! With this card, I can Fusion Summon a "Melodious" monster, but I will not do it now. I set down two cards and end my turn. At this moment." Schubert disintegrated, in its place Aria and Elegy appeared. "Ostinato destroys Schubert and special summon its materials to the field."

 **Melodious Diva Aria** LIGHT/Angel/Effect/LV4/1600/ **1200**

 **Melodious Diva Elegy** LIGHT/Angel/Effect/LV5/2000/ **1200**

"Elegy's effect will increase my monsters' ATK by 300!"

 **Melodious Diva Aria** ATK 1600 - 1900

 **Melodious Diva Elegy** ATK 2000 - 2300

"You sacrifice a strong monster just to call two weak ones?" Yuri told her.

"Of course not! Now the effect of Melodious Fusion! I return Schubert to the Extra Deck to add back the banished Opera to my hand!" Yuzu did so with a small smile.

"I get it… you destroy your Fusion monster and use that Continous Magic Card to return it, just to Fusion Summon it out again, but what is the point of bringing out those sub-par monsters?"

"What? Scared now? If you are Academia, I expect you to charge right away!"

"We'll see about that. Boku no turn, draw!" Yuri started his first turn.

"Magic Card, Predator Card Seed! I discard Moray Nepenthes to draw two cards." After eyeing the cards, Yuri took out one and slapped it down to the blade. "And then I normal summon Predator Plants Squid Drosera!" A dark plant bearing some resemblances to the squid and the drosera appeared.

 **Predator Plants Squid Drosera** DARK/Plant/Effect/LV2/ **800** /400

"A monster with 800 ATK?!" Yuzu wondered. _"What effect it will have?"_

Seeing Yuzu's puzzled look, Yuri smirked. "And then I activate the Magic Card, Fusion! Squid Drosera and Fly Heel fusion!"

"It's here…" The pink hair girl said to herself.

Yuri chanted. "Two Beautiful flower with an insect-alluring fragrance. Now become one, and from the spiral of doom, give birth to the new terror!"

"Yūgō Shōkan! Appear now, Level 6! Predator Plants Centaur Bromeliads!" A dark grey minotaur showed up. Its head consisted of multiple leaves spreading around, joined at the end like the real bromeliads unlike the usual mythical description, also the lower body was completely covered in tree trunk, giving it a disturbing appearance.

 **Predator Plants Centaur Bromeliads** DARK/Plant/Fusion/Effect/LV6/ **2400** /1700

"It's… scary…" Yuzu mumbled.

"You get what I mean!" Yuri excitedly said. "But it is not over yet! When Squid Drosera leaves the field, your monsters will be infected with a Predator Counter!"

"Predator Counter?!" Two blue parasitic counters appeared and bit Aria and Elegy on their knees.

 **Melodious Diva Aria** LV4 - 1

 **Melodious Diva Elegy** LV5 - 1

"What the hell is this?!"

"Just a little something for the fun hunt tonight girl." Yuri 'calmed' her down before continuing. "Sadly, reducing levels to 1 does not hurt your Deck too much since it focuses on Fusion, but there are other ways for me to take advantage of! Equip Magic, Predator Graft activate!" As soon as the card materialized, his discarded card earlier, Moray Nepenthes showed up.

 **Predator Plants Moray Nepenthes** DARK/Plant/Effect/LV4/ **1600** /1000

"For each Predator Counters on the field, this card gains 200 ATK!"

 **Predator Plants Moray Nepenthes** ATK 1600 - 2000

"So you increased its ATK by using Predator Counters." Yuzu commented. "But so sad for you! Aria prevents 'Melodious' monsters' battle destruction, also you cannot target them for card effects!" Aria glowed an aura as she said so.

"But not with Centaur Bromeliads! Battle!" Yuri ordered, the Fusion monster suddenly released liquid from its head and spat it at Yuzu's monsters, causing them to lose the aura.

 **Melodious Diva Aria** ATK 1900 - 1600

 **Melodious Diva Elegy** ATK 2300 - 2000

"What happened?!" Yuzu wondered.

"At the start of the Battle Phase, it can negate the effects of your monsters with Predator Counters until the end of this turn!" Yuri revealed, shocking Yuzu. "Which means your monsters can be destroyed by battle now. Centaur Bromeliads, attack Melodious Diva Elegy!" The minotaur ran towards its target and used its leaves to bite it, then it slowly devoured, bone-cracking sound could be heard as it ate the diva, causing Yuzu to flinch and cover her eyes in fear.

 **Predator Plants Moray Nepenthes** ATK 2000 - 1800

"And now Moray Nepenthes, attack Aria!" It used its two mouth to bite off Aria's head, finishing it off. It then used its petals to grab the downed prey's body and attached its below its body.

 **Predator Plants Moray Nepenthes** ATK 1800 - 1600

"Moray Nepenthes can equip the monster it destroys to itself, and now the Battle Phase ends, the effect of Centaur Bromeliads allows me to draw two cards!" Yuri drew cards again. "Moray Nepenthes' effect activates!" Aria disintegrated. "It can destroy the monster it equipped to make me gain LP equal to its original ATK!"

 **Yuri** : 4000 - 5600 [4]

"I set down two cards and end my turn. This is just a small bit of my power, show me more of you darling!" Yuri mocked Yuzu, causing the girl to boil in anger.

Swallowing the rage, Yuzu proceeded with her turn. "Atashi no turn, draw!"

" _I need to find a way… He's forcing me to dance on his tune!"_

"First off, I use Melodious Fusion effect, banishing Aria and Elegy to Fusion Summon!" The two monsters appeared above Yuzu before joining in the Fusion spiral.

"Yūgō Shōkan! Appear again, Melodious Maestra Meisterin Schubert!" Yuzu's first Fusion monster showed up from the colorful spiral again.

"And then I equip Schubert with Fusion Armor! It gains 200 ATK for each Level it has!" A white body armor materialized on Schubert and charged it with power.

 **Melodious Maestra Meisterin Schubert** ATK 2400 - 3600

"Meisterin Schubert's effect activates! I banish three cards from your graveyard to boost its ATK by 200 for each!"

"Wh-what the hell?!" Yuri gasped as Fly Heel, Squid Drosera and Card Seed slid out from his Duel Disk. He reluctantly took them out and put it in his pocket.

 **Melodious Maestra Meisterin Schubert** ATK 3600 - 4200

"Now you lose that confidence?!" Yuzu shot back what he said to her earlier. "The song of Melodious will teach your monsters a lesson!" Schubert's hair glowed up in flame, it then spun its baton, releasing a pink wave of energy. "Wave of the Great!" The wave hit the minotaur repeatedly, destroying it. Yuri covered his body to avoid the blast, but his smile was still there.

 **Yuri** : 5600 - 3800 [2]

"Not over yet! Fusion Armor allows the equipped monster to attack twice! Go now Schubert!" Yuzu's monster charged at Moray Nepenthes, attempting to pierce it by its baton.

"It's useless." Yuri waved his hand at one of his set cards. "Trap Card, Predator Reinforcements! I special summon Predator Plants Spinodionaea!"

 **Predator Plants Spino Dionaea** DARK/Plant/Effect/LV4/ **1800** /0

"It can then place a Predator Counter on your Schubert as well!" The summoned plant fired a counter, biting the dress of the grand singer.

 **Predator Plants Moray Nepenthes** ATK 1600 - 1800

 **Melodious Maestra Meisterin Schubert** LV6 - 1

Yuzu did not let it discourage her. "But I can still attack!" Schubert stabbed Moray Nepenthes on one of its heads, destroying it.

"Now by banishing Reinforcements, I take no damage!" A barrier formed around Yuri, shielding the smiling Duelist from the wind.

"Tsk… I could not damage him further… Turn end."

Yuri clapped his hands. "That was actually pretty nice, now I only got one monster on the field now, let's see if I can do anything on my turn. Boku no turn, draw!"

"Trap card activate! Predator Planet! Now if your monster leaves the field while still having a Predator Counter, I can add a "Predator Plants" card. Then I normal summon Predator Plants Sundew Kingii!"

 **Predator Plants Sundew Kingii** DARK/Plant/Effect/LV2/ **600** /200

"This card allows me to Fusion Summon without a Fusion magic!" Yuri said.

"That card can do that?!" Yuzu let out her surprise. _"Just like Sorpano…"_

"But it can also use your monsters if they have a Predator Counter on them!"

"What?!"

"Right. I will use Sundew Kingii and your Melodious Maestra Meisterin Schubert to Fusion!" Schubert glowed a dark aura before disintegrating together with Sundew.

"Yūgō Shōkan! Level 7, Predator Plants Chimerafflesia!"

 **Predator Plants Chimerafflesia** DARK/Plant/Fusion/Effect/LV7/ **2500** /2000

"The effect of Predator Planet will allow me to add a 'Predator' card." Yuri took out a card that got pulled out automatically from his Deck.

Yuzu knew if she did not have monsters now, she would lose. "Quick-Play Magic, Fusion Defuse! I banish Schubert to summon Aria and Elegy back to the field!" Yuzu summoned those two monsters in Defense Position.

 **Melodious Diva Aria** ATK 1600 - 1900

 **Melodious Diva Elegy** ATK 2000 - 2300

"If I remember correctly, Aria prevents me from targeting your monsters for card effects, which means Chimerafflesia will not do anything good. If so… I banish Moray Nepenthes and Sundew Kingii from my graveyard to special summon Predator Plants Bladderworizard from my hand!" As Yuri slapped the card down, a blue lizard with numerous legs which also had smaller ones appeared. It was hard to imagine a demonic combination of an aquatic plant and a terrestrial animal and this was one that made Yuzu cringe.

 **Predator Plants Bladderworizard** DARK/Plant/Effect/LV6/2300/2300

"When this card is summoned this way, it can place two counters on your two monsters!" Two Predator Counters materialized and attacked Yuzu's divas again.

 **Melodious Diva Aria** LV4 - 1

 **Melodious Diva Elegy** LV5 - 1

"Furthermore, Bladderworizard drains 800 ATK of monsters which it has infected."

 **Melodious Diva Aria** ATK 1900 - 1100

 **Melodious Diva Elegy** ATK 2300 - 1500

"Even though you will not take damage since those monsters are in Defense Position, don't forget the Real Solid Vision!"

"Real Solid Vision…?" Yuzu muttered. She suddenly realized. "Don't you tell me..!"

"You catch on fast! Battle!" Yuri entered his Battle Phase. "Predator Plants Spino Dionaea, attack Aria!" The dinosaur-plant hybrid charged at Aria, attempting to bite it but Elegy's effects prevented it from being devoured. The ensuring blast caused Yuzu to nearly trip, but she did not.

"After battling, Spino Dionaea calls out another comrade. Come out, Predator Plants Cephalotusnail!" A bubble of light appeared and erupted, revealing a monster with a white body, shaped like a cephalotus, its head consisted of only a mouth with sharp teeth, readying to trap its prey.

 **Predator Plants Cephalotusnail** DARK Plant Effect LV3 **1300** /1200

"And now Chimerafflesia!" Its two hungry mouth bit Aria, making it scream in pain but Elegy kicked them away.

"Aria!" Yuzu yelled in dismay at the sight of the poor singer.

"Hihihihihihi!" Yuri smiled madly before declaring another attack. "This time the honor goes to Cephalotusnail, bite it hard buddy!" The monster complied, it lunged at Aria and bit its head. Aria screamed in pain once again but this time it managed to force the mouth to open and threw it back to Yuri's field. The blast when the two monsters impacted knocked Yuzu backwards.

Yuri touched his chin, happy at the sight of the downed Yuzu before ordering another attack. "Predator Plants Bladderworizard, attack Melodious Diva Aria!" The lizard-plant monster crawled to Yuzu's field, it then suddenly jumped to Yuzu's face, scaring her hard before biting Aria's neck. The female monster had got enough, it squeezed Yuri's monster before kicking it back to its original field.

Yuri smiled hard, covering his face, angering Yuzu further as she got up. "You freaking asshole! You make people angry to entertain yourself?! What the hell is wrong with you Academia?!" Yuzu yelled uncontrollably.

The mad teenager continued smiling.

"SHUT UP! ANSWER ME!" Yuzu yelled louder, her face weakened but full of hatred.

"Calm down calm down… it's good to see you like this!" Yuri said in hysterical laughter. "That face, that scared, weak, pleading face, I have been waiting to see that for a long time. Even though you are not really that."

"Not really that?" Yuzu's angered got replaced by bewilderment. _"What the… how twisted this is guy…? And he said he has been waiting to see…? What does he mean by that..?"_

Yuri suddenly got serious. "Enough talking. You don't need to know why. I end my turn here."

" _I could not let him control me like this…!"_ Yuzu thought. _"He's trying to control me like his puppet, and whatever the reason is, I cannot allow him to do it to me anymore. I need to win this duel, for my father, the kids, Masumi, her friends, Yuto, Ruri, Ryoga, Yoko-san, and… Yuya."_

" _Where are you Yuya? Where are you now? Please help me win this duel!"_ Yuzu preyed. She closed her eyes before drawing her next card.

"Atashi no turn! DRAW!"

* * *

"The Duel will follow the Battle Royale rule, got it?" Red proposed.

"Crystal clear asshole. But we also have another rule as well, and you three must follow it since we only have two!" Ryoga said.

"Whatever." Yellow quickly accepted. "What is it?"

Ruri eyed at Ryoga. They both nodded. "You three and us two each shares the same field, same graveyard, same LP! It will become a Tag Duel!"

"Oh… So you two want to protect each other… interesting…" Green said. "Fine. It's settled."

"Ore no turn!" Red announced. "Magic Card, Fusion activate! I fuse two Antique Gear Hound Dogs!"

"Yūgō Shōkan! Appear now! Level 5! Antique Gear Double Bite Hound Dog!" Obelisk Force's main disruptor appeared.

 **Antique Gear Double Bite Hound Dog** EARTH Machine Effect LV5 **1400** /1000

"And then Antique Gear Hound Dog summon!" The mechanical dog materialized.

 **Antique Gear Hound Dog** EARTH Machine Effect LV3 **1000** /1000

"And then its effect activates! Hound Flame!" The dog released a trail of flame from its mouth, nearly burning the Resistance Duelists.

 **Ruri** : 4000 - 3400 [5]

 **Ryoga** : 4000 - 3400 [5]

"I set down a card and end my turn."

"Ruri, you take the turn!" Ryoga told Ruri.

"Uh!" Ruri agreed. "Watashi no turn, draw!" The moment she drew the card though, she stopped in shock. The card she drew was a Lyrical Luscinia monster, the normal orange frame was still there…

But only the upper half…

The lower half was green!

Like a Pendulum Card!

" _What the hell…? A Pendulum Card?"_ Ruri panicked. She realized she forgot to check her hand earlier due to focusing on the Obelisk Force. She nearly dropped her cards.

"Another one?! How?"

"What's wrong Ruri?" Ryoga wondered.

"I… I do not have these cards! I don't remember having them!"

Ryoga looked at Ruri's hand and he also widened his eyes. "What? Pendulum Cards?! Lyrical Luscinia ones?! How did you get them?!"

"I don't know! I did not include anything in my Deck today, not even Pendulum Cards?!"

Ruri tried to remember what she did to make her Deck strange like this, and one that might stand out…

…

…

 _Earlier morning, Yuzu and Ruri were walking to Yuya's house, where Yuto was staying at the moment._

" _The 1 vs 16 Round is today, and Yuya is still nowhere to be found…" Yuzu lamented._

" _Where could he go? And how could he stay away from us for this long?" Ruri wondered. "I'm sorry Yuzu, it's my fault."_

" _I told you it's not your fault Ruri. And it's also not Yuto's or Ryoga's either."_

" _But not the lying part. I lied to all of you just to get some place to hide from the war, and it led to Yuya's disappearance. Now we all have to lie to your father and the kids."_

" _Blaming yourself for what you have caused will not do anything good. I know Yuya well, no matter how much life pushes him, he will always stand up and smile. And I know he will be back soon. His father has disappeared in a similar way but he always hopes his father will return. Now he was doing the same thing, and whatever the reason is, he will not let the same mistake happen again. He will be back soon."_

" _I'm sorry Yuzu… for everything." Ruri sadly looked down, shaking her head._

 _Yuzu patted her friend's back, reassuring her. "People will understand and forgive you. Whatever happens, I will be by your side okay?"_

" _Okay…" Ruri reluctantly answered._

 _Later, they stood outside Yuya's house, waiting for Yoko and Yuto to come out._

 _The door opened, revealing a Yuto in Yuya's disguide, Ryoga and Yoko._

" _Hello everyone." Yuzu welcomed._

" _Hi Yuto." Ruri gave a smile at her boyfriend, a small one since seeing the wig reminded her of Yuya. "Hi Ryoga."_

" _Hello Ruri, Yuzu." Yuto told the girls. "Yuzu, we are participating the 1 vs 16 round today, ready to play all your best?"_

" _Obviously!" Yuzu smiled. "Wish you the same thing Yuto!"_

" _Of course."_

 _They then got to the taxi that Yoko called, but Yuto and Ruri waited for a bit to share a moment._

 _Ruri looked at Yuto, trying her best not to think too much about the wig._

" _You know it right…" She whispered. "Good luck."_

 _She touched Yuya's pendant on Yuto's neck. "And maybe… we will bring Yuya back after the tournament."_

 _Yuto touched her hand. "We will. We need to say sorry to everyone for what we did."_

" _You don't need to. I must do it."_

" _You know I can't let you do it alone. You're my girlfriend, and I cannot let my girlfriend feel sad."_

 _Ruri chuckled. Yuto always cared about her like that, and although she might feel annoyed sometimes, she was glad._

 _Suddenly, Ruri felt her hand hot. She released the hand to find the pendant glowing brightly before disappearing._

" _What happened?" She asked._

" _I don't know…" Yuto answered._

" _Hey! We're waiting for a while. I will rent you two a room later! Get in!" Ryoga yelled from the taxi._

" _Shark! Stop!" Both Ruri and Yuto yelled in slight embarrassment. Yuzu, Yoko, Ryoga and the taxi driver chuckled._

…

…

" _Is it because of the pendant?"_ Ruri found this ridiculous, but there was no time to think about it anymore. She needed to win this duel and find others to prevent Yuma and Academia from hurting them.

"I'm not sure what happened Ryoga, but there is no time to explain. We need to focus on the fight first. And don't worry, I know how to use Pendulum Cards from watching the duels."

"Okay. Do it." Ryoga smiled.

Ruri took out the Pendulum Cards and set it. "I, using the Scale 0 Lyrical Luscinia - Amethyst Sparrow and Scale 2 Lyrical Luscinia - Amethyst Blackbird, Pendulum Scale setting!" The magical word 'Pendulum' appeared on Ruri's Duel Disk blade. The two Pendulum pillars appeared behind Ruri, two purple female humanoid birds flew up on each one.

"With this, multiple level 1 monsters can be summoned at the same time! Pendulum Shōkan!" Three monsters flew down from the portal.

"Two Cobalt Sparrows! And Sapphire Sparrow!"

2x **Lyrical Luscinina - Cobalt Sparrow** WIND/Bird Beast/Effect/LV1/ **0** /100

 **Lyrical Luscinina - Sapphire Sparrow** WIND/Bird Beast/Effect/LV1/ **100** /0

"This is…" The Obelisk Force was amazed.

"Pendulum Summon!" Ryoga could not hide his surprise. "You did it Ruri! You can now Pendulum Summon!"

"Thanks Ryoga!" Ruri smiled sweetly in return. "Cobalt Sparrow lets me add another Sapphire Sparrow, Amethyst Sparrow lets me draw two cards. Then I will special summon Sapphire Sparrow and Ruby Canary!"

 **Lyrical Luscinia - Ruby Canary** WIND/Bird Beast/Effect/LV1/ **0** /0

"Ruby Canary allows me to draw another two cards!" Ruri brought her hand size to four. "And now I will use the two Cobalt Sparrows, two Sapphire Sparrow and Ruby Canary, overlay!" The five monsters turned green and flew down to the Overlay Network, a pillar of light erupting.

"Birds with raidant wings! Show up behind the battlefield and bring victory by your bravery! Xyz Shōkan! Dance in the sky! Rank 1! Lyrical Luscinia - Ambushing Nightingale!" From the bright light, a monster came out. It was a humanoid bird, it wore a white bird suit shaped like a dress with green stripes and yellow tail. It had sharp purple eyes, long teal hair and as outer decoration, four green Overlay Units orbiting around.

 **Lyrical Luscinia - Ambushing Nightingale** WIND/Bird Beast/Xyz/Effect/R1/ **0** /0

"This card gains 600 original ATK and DEF for each Overlay Unit it has!" Ruri explained as the overlay units shone up brightly.

 **Lyrical Luscinia - Ambushing Nightingale** **0** /0 - **3000** /3000

"But now Double Bite's effect activates!" A rusty gear materialized and hovered above Ruri's monster.

"Doesn't matter! Battle! Ambushing Nightingale, attack Double Bite!" The female monster charged energy to her hands and released it.

"Such useless attacking! The counter will now finish your monster!" The Gear Acid Counter flew up high and crashed down.

"By detaching an Overlay Unit, my monster is safe from your attempted destruction!" Ruri revealed. An Overlay Unit flew up and made contact with the gear, destroying each other.

"Dammit!" Red cursed.

"And now the attack continues!"

"Trap Card, Fusion Trench!" Red activated one of his set cards. "Now only Fusion monsters can attack!"

"Tsk… I set down two cards and end my turn. Sorry Ryoga."

"It's fine."

"As long as Fusion Trench is activated, you cannot attack unless you control a Fusion monster. And according to your playstyle, I'm sure you two are the fleeing Resistance. You cannot escape our grasp this time Xyz scum!" Yellow provoked. "Ore no turn, draw!"

"First off, Hound Dog's effect!"

 **Ruri** : 3400 - 2800 [2]

 **Ryoga** : 3400 - 2800 [5]

"Here's a little something to change the usual routine!" Yellow revealed a card before activating it. "Magic Card, Power Bond!"

"Power Bond?"

"I use two Hound Dogs and Antique Gear Hunting Dog! Appear now! Level 7! Antique Gear Triple Bite Hound Dog!"

 **Antique Gear Triple Bite Hound Dog** EARTH Machine Fusion Effect LV7 **1800** /1000

"Now the effect of Power Bond will kick in! It doubles the monster's ATK!" The three-headed dog gained a purple aura.

 **Antique Gear Triple Bite Hound Dog** ATK 1800 - 3600

"3… 3600 ATK!" Ruri exclaimed. "Shit!"

"That monster's effect only works when it has Overlay Units, which means once they are gone, it will be vulnerable. Battle! Triple Bite, attack Ambushing Nightingale!"

"Ambushing's effect!" An Overlay Unit flew out of the orbit and attached itself into the dog's leg, stopping its attack. It resorted to roaring, creating a gust of wind that damaged Ruri and Ryoga.

 **Ruri** : 2800 - 2200 [2]

 **Ryoga** : 2800 - 2200 [5]

"Second attack!" The dog pounded at the female monster.

"I activate its effect again!" Another Overlay Unit separated into three smaller ones and flew into each mouth of Triple Bite, stopping it from releasing wind from its mouth. "When this effect is used for a second time, I take no damage for the rest of this turn."

"Tsk… but I could simply weaken that defense! Attack it for the third time!" The dog was more careful in this attack, it bit an Overlay Unit before returning to the field.

"Now that monster can only protect itself one more time, and don't forget the Gear Acid Counter above it." Yellow warned. "I set down two cards and end my turn. Normally, Power Bond would inflict damage to us equal to the original ATK of Triple Bite, but Antique Gear Hunting Dog prevents that."

"Listen!" Ryoga pointed his hand at the Obelisk Force. "No matter how much you throw at us, we Resistance will rise out of it and beat you assholes down, and I will prove it right now! Ore no turn, draw!"

"Soul Shark summon!" A transparent fish appeared.

 **Soul Shark** WATER/Fish/Effect/LV1/ **0** /1500

"A level 1 monster with 0 ATK…" Yellow said to himself. "Which means it must have some powerful effects. I will not allow you to use it! Trap card, Antique Gear Prevent!"

"What?"

"Pay paying 1000 LP, your Soul Shark is destroyed!" The shark exploded, but Ryoga smirked.

 **Red** : 4000 - 3000 [0]

 **Green** : 4000 - 3000 [5]

 **Yellow** : 4000 - 3000 [0]

"What? Is that funny?"

"It is, because I suspected that play from you!" Ryoga revealed. "Back in Heartland, you guys sometimes would use that card when you control two more Antique Gear monsters. That is why I summoned Soul Shark to bait out that trap, and turn out it was really that card!"

"Nice Ryoga!" Ruri congratulated.

"Dammit… that scum planned ahead?" Yellow angrily muttered.

"I told you, you cannot beat us!" Ryoga said. "When Soul Shark is sent to the graveyard, it will return!" A portal opened, releasing water, and from it Soul Shark showed up again.

"Now I special summon Sword Shark!" A blue shark with a long and sharp silver blade appeared.

 **Sword Shark** WATER/Fish/Effect/LV4/ **800** /1400

"Soul Shark can changes its level to 4!"

 **Soul Shark** LV1 - 4

"Two level 4 monsters…" Green said. "Heh!"

"Get ready!" Ryoga warned. "I, using the level 4 Soul Shark and Sword Shark, overlay!" The sharks turned into blue energy and flew down to the Overlay Network.

"Appear now, Numbers 101! "Unappeased Soul placed aboard the Ark. Arise from the abyss so deep not even light can reach it!"

"Rank 4! Silent Honors Ark Knight!"

 **No.101 S** **・** **H** **・** **Ark Knight** WATER/Water/Xyz/Effect/R4/ **2100** /1000

"Silent Honors Ark Knight's effect activates! By detaching an Overlay Unit, Triple Bite becomes an Overlay Unit for it! Eternal Soul Asylum!" The front two wings opened and from one of them, a chain fired out.

"Not gonna happen! By banishing Hunting Dog and tributing Antique Gear Hound Dog, the activation is negated and your monster is destroyed!" The chain erupted in flames and began to travel back to the wings.

"If so, I detach another Overlay Unit to negate its destruction!" The Overlay Unit rained down, extinguishing the fire.

"Humph! Now your monster cannot activate its effects anymore, and it only has 2100 ATK, what would you do?" Yellow mocked.

"Replacing it!" Ryoga answered before activating a card. "Rank-Up-Magic The Seventh One activate!"

"Rank-Up you say?!"

"I, using the Rank 4 Ark Knight, overlay!" As soon as the monster flew up to the Overlay Network, an explosion occurred. "With one monster, Overlay Network constructing! Chaos Xyz Change!"

"Appear now, Chaos Numbers 101! Silent Honors Dark Knight!" The pilot of the ark flew out from the ark, swinging its vengeful blade filled with the blood of the fallen.

 **CNo.101 S** **・** **H** **・** **Da** **rk Knight** WATER/Water/Xyz/Effect/R5/ **2800** /1500

"At this moment!" Red suddenly said. "A Gear Acid Counter will be placed on Dark Knight!" A rusty gear hovered above Ryoga's monster. "Still a weak monster compared to Double Bite and Triple Bite…"

"Really?" Ryoga smirked. "Dark Knight can do the same thing as Ark Knight but it doesn't need to detach any Overlay Units!"

"What?"

"Dark Soul Robber!" The black armor monster blasted energy from its blade at the two-headed dog, turning it into a red crystal with yellow armor hovering in front of Dark Knight.

"Shit! But even with all that, my Triple Bite's ATK is higher, and you cannot attack thanks to Fusion Trench!" Red reminded.

"Not gonna happen again!" Ruri said. "I could not destroy that trap earlier because this card right here is a trap!" The card flipped up. "Trap Card, Dust Tornado!" A tornado showed up and swept through Fusion Trench, destroying it.

"Battle! Dark Knight, attack Antique Gear Triple Bite Hound Dog!" The dog managed to dodge the blast and pounded at Dark Knight, destroying it.

 **Ruri** : 2200 - 1400 [2]

 **Ryoga** : 2200 - 1400 [3]

"What the hell are you doing? Committing suicide?!"

"If Dark Knight is destroyed while still having Chaos Overlay Units, it is summoned back!" In a moment, Dark Knight rose up from a portal. "Return from Limbo!"

"And then we gain LP equal to its ATK!"

 **Ruri** : 1400 - 4200 [2]

 **Ryoga** : 1400 - 4200 [3]

"Huh… So you intentionally destroyed it just to gain LP?"

"Not quite. Now the effect of Soul Shark! It can become an Overlay Unit to the newly summoned Xyz monster! Also Dark Knight gains 1500 ATK!"

 **CNo.101 S** **・** **H** **・** **Da** **rk Knight** ATK 2800 - 4300

"Go now, Dark Knight! Unleash the fury of the fallen comrades!" Dark Knight charged purple energy before shooting it at the mechanical dog, destroying it. The Obelisk Force covered themselves from the strong blast.

 **Red** : 3000 - 2300 [0]

 **Green** : 3000 - 2300 [5]

 **Yellow** : 3000 - 2300 [0]

"Nice Ryoga! You have recovered our LP and destroyed their monsters!" Ruri exclaimed.

"Thanks. But now we need to prepare for their attacks. I set down two cards and end my turn."

 **CNo.101 S** **・** **H** **・** **Da** **rk Knight** ATK 4300 - 2800

"Damn you Xyz scum…" Green said as he slowly got up. "That was a nice move back there, but now we will deliver it back to you! Prepare to squirm in horror! Ore no turn!"

"Magic Card, Pot of Desires! At the cost of banishing 10 cards from my Deck, I draw two cards."

Yuzu smiled at her drawn cards. "I normal summon Melodious Songstress Soprano!" A female monster with long blue and red hair, teal skin, a yellow piece of fabric covering her eyes, a white dress with skintight blue and orange upper part appeared.

 **Melodious Songstress Soprano** LIGHT Angel Effect LV4 **1400** /1400

"A blind singer?" Yuri took notice of the blindfold. "Is that a little... cruel?"

"She's blind, but she has a good effect, and your actions are way crueler!" Yuzu countered. "With the effect of Soprano, I can fuse it with Prodigy Mozart in my hand, Aria and Elegy on my field!" A Fusion spiral showed up, the four monster joined in.

"Fusion Summon without a Fusion magic… Interesting." Yuri said to himself.

"Echoing melodious voice, song of lament, voice of angel, the flutter of angel wings! By the guidance of the baton, assemble your power! Yūgō Shōkan! Now, on stage! The song of passion! Floral Melodious Saint Bloom Prima!" The beautiful young singer in yellow dress showed up, singing.

 **Floral Melodious Saint Bloom Prima** LIGHT Angel Fusion Effect LV7 **1900** /2000

"The monsters used to summon Bloom Prima powers it up!" Bloom Prima sang in a high note, gaining a blue aura.

 **Floral Melodious Saint Bloom Prima** ATK 1900 - 3100

"And now the effect of Melodious Fusion!" Yuzu continued. "By banishing Soprano and Aria, I can do another Fusion Summon! Angel's song, voice of angel, with the guidance of the baton, gather your power! Fusion Summon! Now come here to the stage! Sing the song of victory! Floral Melodius Saint Bloom Diva!"

 **Floral Melodious Saint Bloom Diva** LIGHT Angel Fusion Effect LV6 **1000** /2000

"Two Fusion monsters… first one… okay. But the second one… are you kidding me with that 1000 ATK?" Yuri inspected the field.

"Of course I am not! When it attacks a Special Summoned monster…" Bloom Diva began to sing, blasting a wave of energy at Chimerafflesia. "It can destroy that monster and inflict the ATK difference as damage to you!"

"What?!" Yuri exclaimed as he covered himself from the explosion.

 **Yuri** : 3800 - 2300 [2]

" _Dammit… if I activate Chimerafflesia's effect earlier, I would only have 300 LP left!"_ For once, Yuri actually felt fear at the thought of losing. Luckily, Yuzu did not give him spare time to announce the effect.

"Now Bloom Prima, attack Spino Dionaea!"

 **Yuri** : 2300 - 1000 [2]

"See that?" Yuzu said. "Now you only have the 2300 Bladderworizard and the 1300 ATK Cephalotusnail!"

"But your attacks are over!" Yuri told her.

"Is that really so?" Yuzu smirked.

"What?"

"Bloom Prima can attack twice per Battle Phase!"

"NO!" Yuri yelled.

"It's over now! Bloom Prima! Sing the song of victory!" The monster sang, releasing multiple energy waves at the white hybrid. Unable to resist further, Cephalotusnail exploded uncontrollably. Yuzu breathed in relief.

"I have won…"

"Not yet!" Yuri's voice echoed within the smoke, making Yuzu sweat. When the dust settled, Yuri was still standing well.

His sadistic smile returned…

…

 **Yuri** : 1000 - 100 [2]

"What? That monster is still alive? And how could you still have LP?"

"Cephalotusnail cannot be destroyed by battle while in Attack Position, and battle damage involving it is halved."

"Dammit!"

"And now Bladderworizard's effect! By releasing it, the battle damage I took this turn will be recovered back!"

"What?" Yuzu gasped at the dust from the lizard-plant hybrid rained down on him.

 **Yuri** : 100 - 3800 [2]

"And then it can place Predator Counters on up to two monsters on your field!" Bloom Prima and Bloom Diva were bitten in the head by the two Predator Counters.

 **Floral Melodious Saint Bloom Prima** LV7 - 1

 **Floral Melodious Saint Bloom Diva** LV6 - 1

"Tsk… turn end." Yuzu reluctantly ended her turn.

"Good job for bringing my LP down to 100, but you did not think ahead of my Bladderworizard. Now we are back to square one in terms of LP, even though not 100%. But it will not happen for anytime soon. Boku no turn, draw!"

"It's here!" Yuri smiled. "But first, Chimerafflesia allows me to add 'Fusion' to my hand."

"Hehe. And then Resurrection of the Dead! Return now, Chimerafflesia!"

"Of course the main show will come out now! Magic Card, Fusion, activate! I will use Cephalotusnail and Chimerafflesia! Two Beautiful flower with an insect-alluring fragrance. Now become one, and from a hell under your petals, give birth to another terror! Yūgō Shōkan! Appear, poisonous dragon with hungering fangs! Level 8! Starve Venom Fusion Dragon!" Yuri's dragon finally appeared. Its creepy appearance scared Yuzu as expected.

 **Starve Venom Fusion Dragon** DARK Dragon Fusion Effect LV8 **2800** /2000

"Starve Venom… Fusion Dragon…" Yuzu mumbled.

"Starve Venom gains ATK equal to the total of your Special Summoned monsters' ATK!"

"What…which means… 6900 ATK?!"

 **Starve Venom Fusion Dragon** ATK 2800 - 6900

"Not over yet!" Suddenly, Bloom Diva disappeared, and on Yuri's field, a three-headed serpent with some plant features appeared.

 **Predator Plants Drosophyllum Hydra** DARK Plant Effect LV5 **800** /2300

"What happened?"

"By tributing Bloom Diva which has a Predator Counter, I can special summon Drosophyllum Hydra from my hand or graveyard." Yuri revealed.

"What the… Such a strong effect!"

"Indeed. It tributes monsters, bypassing monster's effect prevention effects." Yuri said. "Since Diva leaves the field, I can add Predator Graft to my hand, which I will activate it now! Return again, Chimerafflesia!"

"And now its effect! By banishing Cephalotusnail, Bloom Prima loses 500 ATK."

 **Floral Melodious Saint Bloom Prima** ATK 3100 - 2600

Yuzu panicked. She only had Prima on her field while Yuri had three, two of which were strong Fusion monsters.

"I could have simply order Starve Venom to attack, but I want to show you all of my strength, the strength of a dominant predator." Yuri smiled madly before entering his Battle Phase. "Battle! Chimerafflesia, attack Bloom Prima!"

"What? It only has 2500 ATK?!"

"Until the end of this turn, your monster loses 1000 ATK while Chimerafflesia gains 1000 ATK!"

 **Predator Plants Chimerafflesia** ATK 2500 - 3500

 **Floral Melodious Saint Bloom Prima** ATK 2600 - 1600

" _Dammit… But…"_

"I will not lose like this!" Yuzu declared. "Trap Card, Soul Barrier! The attack is negated and Bloom Prima gets a boost!" A barrier formed in front of Bloom Prima, shielding it from the attack and charged it.

 **Floral Melodious Saint Bloom Prima** ATK 1600 - 3800

"Tsk… I should have thought about that trap card… but my attacks are not over yet! Starve Venom Fusion Dragon!" The dragon used its tail to slap Yuzu's monster, destroying it.

 **Yuzu** : 4000 - 900 [0]

"Finally, Drosophyllum Hydra!" The monster flung its two mouths at Yuzu, hitting her. Yuzu screamed in pain as she was knocked backwards, rolling down on the ground.

 **Yuzu** : 900 - 100 [0]

"It seems I have underestimated you, that trap card really proved a huge trouble. You clearly have strong fighting spirit in you, but now you only have 100 LP, no cards in your hand or field. You cannot win me Yuzu." Yuri told Yuzu.

The girl was tired from the continuous beating, she could not bring herself to get up.

" _He's really strong… and while he was stupid enough not to neutralize Soul Barrier, he did not immediately use Starve Venom, forcing me to nearly lose the duel…"_ Yuzu felt her hands shaking, in fear.

No, not just her hands.

Her entire body.

Her body, her soul were trembling. Yuri was the first Duelist to scare her this much. He was unfazed by her attacks, and even though he had taken damage, he had backup and restored his LP back. Now he managed to destroy her entire field, lowering his LP to 100.

" _He's just too intimidating… I cannot continue!"_ Yuzu looked at her hands which in her mind, it was bleeding madly. Yuzu looked at Yuri the cold smile one last time before getting up and running away.

"Too scared now?" Yuri said to himself. "Don't worry, I will make you happy, under my watch… Unlike Selena…"

* * *

"Continuous Trap Card open!" Red and Yellow announced at the same time. "Antique Gear Reborn!"

"With this, I can bring back Double Bite!" Red said as the dog returned.

"And I can special summon Triple Bite Hound Dog back!" The three-headed dog appeared again.

"The monsters special summoned by this effect gains 200 ATK!"

 **Antique Gear Double Bite Hound Dog** ATK 1400 - 1600

 **Antique Gear Triple Bite Hound Dog** ATK 1800 - 2000

Green continued. "Quick-Play Magic, Fusion Cancel! By returning Double Bite to the Extra Deck…" The monster disintegrated, two Hound Dogs showed up in its place. "…its materials return! Then I normal summon another Hound Dog!"

"They now have four monsters on the field, but they cannot destroy Dark Knight or Ambushing Nightingale, what are they planning?" Ruri wondered.

"What the hell are you going to do?"

"Then we will show you what! Remember this despair deeply to your heart!" Green said. "Antique Gear Hound Dog's effect activate! I can Fusion summon without a Fusion magic! I use one Hound Dog in my hand and three Hound Dogs on the field!"

"Mechanized hound dogs that inherit the ancient soul! Merge those ten heads…"

The chant shocked Ruri and Ryoga. "No! Don't tell me…!"

"...to unleash chaos and become tremendous strength! Yūgō Shōkan!"

"Appear now! Level 10! Antique Gear Chaos Giant!" The abomination returned, bringing back awful memories. Ruri and Ryoga clenched their fists angrily. They could hear the screaming of the Heartland citizens, the crying of babies losing their parents in the battlefield, the helpless sorry of their comrades being carded. All of this returned at the worst timing possible.

 **Antique Gear Chaos Giant** DARK/Machine/Fusion/Effect/LV10/ **4500** /3000

Overcoming the flashback, Ryoga asked them. "How could you assholes summon this monster easily? I remember needing Hound Dog, Double, Triple and Ultimate!"

"You cheating?!" Ruri said.

"We're just improving our arsenal. Bringing those monsters out can be a bit troublesome in practice, so we made the summoning condition easier." Green explained. "And now our ultimate weapon is out, we will crush you two on this turn! Equip Magic, Antique Gear Jammer! With this, when Chaos Giant battles, you cannot activate monster effects!"

"NO! Dark Knight and Ambushing Nightingale cannot use their effects anymore!" Ruri exclaimed in shock.

"Ready for death scums?" Green smiled evilly before declaring battle. "Chaos Giant, attack Lyrical Luscinia - Ambushing Nightingale! Crush of Darkness!" Its left hand crashed down on the female nightingale, destroying it in an explosion. Ruri and Ryoga painfully yelled as they suffered in the blast.

 **Ruri** : 4200 - 2700 [2]

 **Ryoga** : 4200 - 2700 [1]

"And then, I order Chaos Giant to attack Silent Honors Dark Knight!" Another slam from the large hand squashed Dark Knight before Chaos Giant flung it to Ryoga and Ruri, sending them flying.

 **Ruri** : 2700 - 1000 [2]

 **Ryoga** : 2700 - 1000 [1]

"The hunting game is now over…" Red said. "Antique Gear Triple Bite Hound Dog, direct attack!"

"Not gonna happen!" Ruri said. "At this direct attack, I special summon Lyrical Luscinia - Ruby Pigeon!" A pink female monster in a pigeon skintight suit materialized. "This monster forces the Battle Phase to end!" It generated energy, throwing Antique Gear Hound Dog back to its spot.

"Krgh! Such bullshit tricks!" Green grunted annoyingly as he set down two cards to end his turn.

"That weak monster managed to save your asses, but during my next turn I will destroy it and card you two!" Red told Ruri and Ryoga.

"We are not going to let you three card us!" Ruri defied. "I will settle this duel during this turn!" She touched the top card of her Deck, hoping for a good draw. _""_

"Watashi no turn, draw!" Ruri looked at her drawn card, her hand, the field. _"Dammit… I cannot use my cards to finish the duel…!"_ She then checked Ryoga's set cards and an idea formed in her mind.

"Ryoga, let me use your cards!"

"Uh!"

"Reverse Card open! Call of the Living Dead! Dark Knight is special summoned back!" A portal opened, allowing Dark Knight to rise up from the abyss.

"And then!" Ryoga activated his last remaining card. "Wonder Xyz! I can immediately perform an Xyz Summon!"

"What? Why are you activating that trap when you cannot Xyz Summon?!" Yellow wondered.

"Because the monster I am about to summon is in my Extra Deck. Ruri cannot summon it out!" He explained as he showed a card in his Extra Deck, a black card with 6 black stars, an image of a monster in white armor and red energy flowing in its body. He then stacked it above Dark Knght, causing the black warrior to shine up.

"By banishing Rank-Up-Magic The Seventh One and using Silent Honors Dark Knight as material, I can Xyz Summon this monster! Appear now, Chaos Numbers 101!"

"Surviving warrior on this planet!" Ryoga chanted.

"Let the blood of your fallen comrades flow through you!" Ruri chanted along.

"And avenge their meaningless death!" They said at the same time. The lighting slowly disappeared, revealing a more radiant Dark Knight, its black armor was now white with a hint of blue, it was taller than its cousin, red energy flowing through its body very brightly, sparkling every second. It wielded a large sword with a red handle on its right hand, the number "101" in blue visible on the blade.

"Silent Honors Spark Knight!"

 **CNo.101 S** **・** **H** **・** **Spa** **rk Knight** WATER/Water/Xyz/Effect/R6/ **3000** /1800

"Let's go! Silent Honors Spark Knight's effect activates! The target Antique Gear Chaos Giant becomes its Chaos Overlay Unit! Dark Soul Destroyer!" The monster raised its sword, the blade lit up in red before striking electricity at Chaos Giant, making it crumble, cracking slowly becoming visible before completely turning to ashes, a small ball of light from the inside flew over to the knight and turned into a Chaos Overlay Unit.

"No… our monster!" Red yelled.

"Then!" Ryoga continued. "It gains ATK equal to Chaos Giant's ATK and inflict that same amount as damage to you!" The Chaos Overlay Unit used to be the large abomination shot out energy, aiming at the masked mooks.

"I won't let you!" Green declared. "Continuous Trap, Fusion Front Base!" The effect damage was negated.

 **CNo.101 S** **・** **H** **・** **Spa** **rk Knight** ATK 3000 - 7500

"7… 7500 ATK!"

"Now be prepared to lose!" Ryoga declared.

"Foolish! Continuous Trap, Curse of Darkness!" Multiple black chains flew out and bind the white knight. "This Trap makes Spark Knight loses 700 ATK and made it unable to attack!"

 **CNo.101 S** **・** **H** **・** **Spa** **rk Knight** ATK 7500 - 6800

"Dammit!" Ryoga cursed.

"Now you cannot finish us on this turn girl!"

"It's not over yet!" Ruri denied. "Even though you have prevent Spark Knight from attacking, my moves are not over! Thanks to Spark Knight, Lyrical Luscinia - Amethyst Blackbird's Pendulum effect can now activate! By tributing it, I can bring back 2 Cobalt Sparrows and one Sapphire Sparrow!" The white knight disappear, in its place three of Ruri's female birds returned.

"And then I normal summon Lyrical Luscinia - Turquoise Warbler!"

 **Lyrical Luscinia - Turquoise Warbler** WIND/Bird Beast/Effect/LV1/ **100** /0

"Do it now Ruri!" Ryoga said once he realized what Ruri would do.

"I, using the two Cobalt Sparrows, one Sapphire Sparrow, one Ruby Pigeon and one Turqoise Warbler, overlay!"

"Birds with beautiful wings! Gather on the battlefield and take brilliant flight! Xyz Shōkan! Dance in the sky! Rank 1! Lyrical Luscinia - Assembly Nightingale!" Ruri's signature monster had flown back to the battlefield, the place it wholeheartedly fought even though it never wanted to.

 **Lyrical Luscinia - Assembly Nightingale** WIND/Bird Beast/Xyz/Effect/R1/ **0** /0

"It gains ATK and DEF according to its Overlay Units."

 **Lyrical Luscinia - Assembly Nightingale** **0** /0 - **500** /500

"But then it only has 500 ATK! How can it beat Triple Dog?"

"I told you the duel will end right on this turn!" Ruri said. "Assembly Nightingale can perform direct attacks!"

"What?!"

"Up to the number of Overlay Units it has!"

"It has 5 Overlay Units so…" Red mumbled in fear.

"That's right! It can attack five times! Finish them Assembly Nightingale!" The monster with white wings flew up high and shone up, illuminating the night before sending exactly five large circular energy waves, hitting the Obelisk Force very hard that they were knocked back painfully, unable to get up.

 **Red** : 2300 - 0 [0]

 **Green** : 2300 - 0 [0]

 **Yellow** : 2300 - 0 [0]

Ryoga approached the downed Obelisk Force, looking at each one of them in pure hatred before activating his Duel Disk. "This is the fate you assholes deserves." A blue light emitted from the front of his Duel Disk, sealing the masked bastards in cards.

"What have you done Ryoga?" Ruri asked him. She never wanted to card them although they destroyed her hometown. For her, this made them no different from those assholes and seeing her friends carding Academia was not right for her even though she got used to this sight.

"To prevent them from calling reinforcements." Ryoga calmly explained. "Besides, if you are still this humane, we cannot win this war."

"But we cannot lose what we are! If we continue carding them like this, we will be no different from them."

"Then you just let them hurt more innocent people?" Ruri could not find a response to this question. She knew deeply from her heart this was right. She could not forgive them for destroying Heartland, but she knew she had to retain her humanity. She had seen what burying oneself into darkness could do from her brother Shun and she could not let this happen to anyone else.

"Just don't… become like my brother…"

"I know…" Was Ryoga's half-hearted answer.

"Come on, we need to get moving. It's daytime now. We need to stop Academia and Yuma-huh?"

Suddenly, they heard a loud roaring sound, apparently from a motorbike. They turned and saw a white motorbike with two people. The driver was in a white tight suit and the passenger… was yelling and grabbing his hand for dear life!

"That cry… don't tell me it's Yuzu!" Ruri realized.

"Wait wait… WAIT!" Ryoga yelled as the biker went closer to them. He would have crashed at them had they not rolled away for safety. The biker quickly stopped.

Ruri and Ryoga took a look at the driver, and both yelled loudly.

"YUTO?"

* * *

Yusei was sitting on his D-Wheel on top of a tall rock in the Volcano area, wondering what was going on.

"Some kind of tournament is happening, Real Solid Vision turned a huge section of this city into an adult playground… Huh?"

Something caught Yusei's interest. On the walkway not too far, some people were Dueling. Three people, probably teenagers, were surrounded by three men in blue and white uniform, each wearing a mask with different gem on each. One of them activated Antique Armageddon Gear, then ordered a three-headed mechanical dog to attack one monster. Due to another monster's effect, that boy's monster was destroyed before damage calculation and Armageddon Gear inflicts its ATK as damage, costing him the duel. That masked man then carded him, shocking the other two.

Yusei could not believe what he was seeing. Yugo had told him about those masked people who can seal people in cards, he did not believe it at first but now he was seeing this by his own eyes, this shocked him greatly. He had to watch another one suffering the same fate, and then when the last teenager was about to lose the duel, Yusei decided to save him.

"Let's go!" Yusei yelled as he revved the engine and rode to the walkway, stopping in the middle of the field.

* * *

"Someone is intruding in the "Volcano" area!" An assistant in the control room reported.

"This guy… is not a Duelist from the Fusion Dimension!" Nakajima told Reiji. "Is he from… Synchro…?"

* * *

"Intrusion Penalty, 2000 Point!" Electricity crackled on Yusei and his D-Wheel but he did not even flinch.

 **Fudo Yusei** : 4000 - 2000 [5]

"With the effect of Junk Distributor, I send it and Junk Servant from my hand to the grave to Synchro Summon!" Yusei quickly send his two cards to the graveyard slot. A humanoid machine in a blue junk armor and a similar monster to Junk Distributor but with red and yellow paintjob materialized. The former turned into four Synchro rings, sweeping through Junk Servant, changing it into four stars. Then a stream of light burst out.

"Clustering wishes will become a new shining star! With the power dyed in the color of hope, become the path its light shines upon! Synchro Shōkan! Appear now, Level 8! Stardust Dragon Starlight!" In an instant, the beautiful and radiant wings of the shining dragon spread out, opening the door of victory.

 **Stardust Dragon Starlight** WIND Dragon Synchro Effect LV8 **2500** /2000

An Obelisk Force froze in amazement in sight of the powerful Synchro monster, but he regained composure. "But… Since you special summon it, Double Bite will place a Gear Acid Counter on it!" A wooden counter hovered above the head of Stardust.

"You appeared suddenly and stole the scene by Synchro Summoning this Level 8 dragon, but it will not stop you from preventing that guy from losing!" He said while pointing at the scared Yuu. "Battle! Antique Gear Triple Bite Hound Dog, attack Magical Hierophant Hieron! The effect of Double Bite will destroy it without damage calculation!"

"Is that really so?" Yusei smirked.

"What?!" The three Obelisk Force wondered.

"If a card effect is activated that would cause cards to leave the field, Stardust Dragon Starlight can negate the activation and destroy it! Victim Sanctuary!" The dragon punched the flying counter away before enveloping Double Bite by using its wings and disappeared in sparking dust along with the mechanical dog, leaving its owner terrified as the cannon of Antique Armageddon Gear showed up in the center of the field and blasted at him.

 **Yellow** : 3200 - 1800 [0]

"Then I gain LP equal to the destroyed monster's ATK."

 **Yusei** : 2000 - 3400 [3]

"Since you cannot play anything anymore because you have zero card in your hand, I will proceed with my turn." Yusei declared. "During the End Phase, Stardust Dragon Starlight returns."

"Ore no turn, draw!" He took one card in the card holder. "Hm… It seems that the cards in my hand does not want me to prolong my dramatic rescue anymore so… prepare to die! This is the end to all of you assholes! I activate the Magic Card Synchro Cracker!" Stardust Dragon shone up before shooting out five energy streams and disappearing.

"I return Stardust to the Extra Deck and destroy all monsters on the field with ATK less than or equal to it!"

"What?! All of our… monsters?!"

"Uh! And with the effect of Antique Armageddon Gear, take damage equal to the combined ATK of your destroyed monsters and lose!" The death cannon fired repeatedly at its owner since it had no concept of loyalty, in other words, it was like a grenade, when its pin was pulled, it disregarded friendship completely no matter who originally considered it to be one. The cannon coldly looked at the defeated forms of the Obelisk Force before disappearing.

 **Red** : 3100 - 0 [0]

 **Yellow** : 1800 - 0 [0]

 **Green** : 2800 - 0 [0]

* * *

"Just one attack is enough to finish three enemies…" Nakajima looked at the result of the duel through the screen in awe. This citizen of Synchro was very strong.

"Synchro… is not our enemy?" Reiji concluded.

Yusei talked to the scared Yuu. "Hey! Are you okay?"

Yuu panicked from the Lancer's loss and being the lucky victim of the Obelisk Force's crusade, he ran off in complete fear. "Forcing us to this war… it's pointless!"

"Oi!" Yusei tried to make Yuu stop but he kept running away. "What the hell? War..? Just like what Yugo said. He said about… Heartland, meeting Yuto, a person look like him and that place in war. From what he said, there are four dimensions… is a dimension which used Fusion caused war on other ones?"

The Obelisk Force turned to particles and disintegrated.

"What happened? They just… disappeared! What is going on?"

Suddenly, Yusei felt he was being watched. He quickly rode off the walkway and went to a dark corner.

"Aki, Yugo, report!"

"Aki's online!"

"Yugo's on!"

"Good. Where are you now?"

"I am outside the city."

"So am I." Yugo reported. "But it's strange. A large part of this city turned into four distinct sceneries but the rest is just like any cities! Is this Real Solid Vision?"

"Yes. It seems that this place is hosting a tournament for Duel Monsters and they used this city as a battlefield. Duelists fighting each other, but some people illegally intruded in this fight and turned participants into cards just like what you said to us Yugo."

"What? Are they in blue costume and wear masks?"

"Yes. For some reason if they lose they will disintegrate, and from what you said about dimensions, they probably uh… return to the… "Fusion" dimension!"

"Shit! I need to get back to save them!" Yugo decided.

"Don't get reckless Yugo!" Aki said. "Besides, we are here to save Rin remember? I know we need to stop those guys but Rin is still our priority."

"Okay. Let's go back to the icy place earlier and we will discuss. Try to avoid the people living in here and those masked guys as much as possible. Aki had sent the map of this place, this shouldn't be a problem." Yusei formed the plan.

"Roger!" Aki and Yugo both agreed and began to ride back.

* * *

"The elite Lancers has been…" Nakajima could not believe it. "President! We need to call…"

"No. Right now in LDS we do not have enough power to stop Duelists from Academia."

"We need to try to find out!" Nakajima refused.

"Do you forget why we decide to form a new batch of Lancers?" Reiji explained. "Ever since the appearance of Pendulum, Dueling has come to a new stage. Just with the previous experience is definitely not enough to fight against Duelists in the other dimensions. But when we use the world "the generation of Sakaki Yuya", right now we have him, other Duelists of Youth, Junior Youth, if they become the generation able to use Pendulum efficiently, they will have the potential to become stronger."

"Control room this is security! We are in danger!" A voice hurriedly said from the control panel.

"What happened?" Nakajima wondered.

Reiji turned on the screen. "What is going on?"

The panicked guard reported. "President Akaba Reiji we are in danger! Two people are attacking the LDS building!"

"WHAT?" Reiji widened his eyes in shock.

"They are Dueling our people here, we are continuously losing! The Mayor was hurt by them as well! With this, sooner or later, they are going to take complete control of this place!"

Reiji checked the screen. There were two attackers, the main hall was partially destroyed, monsters roaring loudly, continuing the destruction, debris scattered all over, LDS personnel were down from losing Duels, people running away in fear but the attackers had somehow locked the doors, preventing them from getting out and forcing them to Duel.

" _Academia! They are attacking LDS!"_ Reiji quickly concluded. "We will try to open the doors, try to hold them off before I get there!"

"Roger!"

He turned to his bodyguard. "Nakajima! Try to regain control of the doors, we need to get them to safety."

"Roger that President!"

"Reiji-san!" The screen changed to the room where Reiji's mother was staying. "I heard screaming down the hall, what is going on?"

"Academia."

"Academia?!" She gasped. "What the hell are they doing here?!"

"Akaba Leo is attacking LDS. Stay in your room, I will call bodyguard!"

"No! I need to protect this place as-"

"You are the only person close to me right now, I don't want to lose you mom! Please, stay in the room." His last sentence slightly weakened, as if he was trying to plead her. "I will be back."

"I will kill you if you do not make it out alive." Himika sighed. She had no other choice. She was not a great Duelist so she could not fight them. "Good luck my boy."

Reiji gave a smile. "I will." He then turned off the screen.

He took a deep breath before facing Nakajima. "I will go down there to handle them. They only send two of them to attack LDS which means they are trying to prevent us from interfering. With the loss of the first batch of Lancers we may not even be able to repel them off Standard." Reiji said as he opened the locker where his Duel Disk and his Deck were located. He put on the Duel Disk and slid in his Deck in one fluid motion.

"Good luck President!" Nakajima hoped.

"Don't you worry about me." Reiji then walked off, going to the main hall.

* * *

During the night, Gongenzaka, Michio, Teppei and Mieru were sleeping soundly besides the trees while Yuto could not sleep. There was too much to think about that he could not, also the war forced him to constantly aware of his surroundings. Academia could attack anytime so he need to be on guard. But then, the sleepiness began to creep in, some dark circles appeared and disappeared instantly around his eyes. Before he knew it, he had closed his eyes and leaned himself against the tree.

" _Oi."_ Yuto heard something whispering into his ears. _"Oi! Yuto! Yuto!"_

" _What the…?"_ Yuto wearily opened his eyes and looked around. "What's happening? Who's talking?"

" _It's me!"_ A voice told to him on his right.

" _Yuya's voice…?!"_ Yuto shook his head and wiped his eyes before looking at the source of the voice. He could not believe what he was seeing, he was too shocked that he knocked himself over, nearly waking Gongenzaka up. He waited until the man had gone back to sleep again to look at something in front of him, or rather, someone. That someone was hovering in front of him, transparent like a ghost. He did have a little bit of a religious person but he never trusted in ghost, thinking it was some scary bedtime story to scare people like Ruri which he never dared to tell to her although he clearly wanted to for fun. But today, with the Obelisk Force attacking, losing himself to that darkness again and confirming his own suspicion, the sight of that person did not scare him anymore.

"Yuya…" He whispered to the ghost form of his lookalike.

" _Hello Yuto…"_ He greeted him with a smile, although Yuto could see that the smile was slightly weaker than normal and had some sadness to it.

" _Sorry for scaring you."_

"It's fine Yuya…" Yuto muttered. He honestly did not know what to say to him. "Uh… so… I…"

" _Do not believe what I am seeing right now is real?"_ Yuya suggested. "Trust me. I could not believe what I had seen when I was inside you."

"What did you see?" Yuto asked but he had a feeling that Yuya knew what he meant already.

" _Your entire life… back then… before then… at that time… and now… I see all…"_ Yuya told him bitterly. _"And it horrified me… It felt like I went to Hell and surfaced back to Earth."_

"Yeah… I know that feeling very well…" Yuto said, getting up and walking far away from the group to have some privacy. "You saw everything?"

" _Of course… your city Heartland, your enemy, your betrayer, your families and friends and girlfriend, the war, the carded victims, the screams, your mission… everything."_ Yuya sadly detailed to Yuto, and although he tried his best to hide it, Yuto could still feel the slight hatred from Yuya when he mentioned his girlfriend Ruri. And he was smart enough not to mention about it, lest he would cause a huge argument.

"I know…" He paused, not knowing what to say when he recalled those moments, moments buried deep into his soul that he would never forget. "And also one more thing. That darkness."

" _Darkness… the thing that sometimes takes control of us and forces us to be violent beyond our will."_

"And when we got back our control, we don't know what happened and what we caused. That sucks. I don't know what happens to me, you and that guy Yugo."

" _Yugo… is that the guy who duel me that last night?"_

"Yep. He mistook you for the guy who kidnapped his friend Rin, please don't blame him for causing you to be like this, he surely did not know and he just wants to rescue his friend just like I did before. And from what had happened, I am sure that that person has the same face as well. We cannot trust him no matter what."

" _Don't worry, I know about him when I read through your memories. I know what you're talking about."_ Yuya reassured the Xyz survivor. _"But what happens to me, sadly, no one but you truly knows."_

"You know what happened after you gave Odd-Eyes Pendulum Dragon to me?" Yuto asked the Entertainment Duelist while taking out the card. "Like uh… how did you get inside my body?"

" _I don't really know why… but…"_ Yuya starched his head. _"After losing the duel, I felt my life force leaving me, like I was dying. Then something inside me urged me to give Odd-Eyes to you, it seems… Odd-Eyes wanted me to do it."_

"What?!" Yuto yelped. "Odd-Eyes urged you to give it to me?"

" _Uh. At that moment, I felt its cry. I don't know why, but I knew what it wanted me to do, so I gave it to you. After that, I felt my presence in this world began to fade away, so I entrusted my ideals to you, I entrusted the reason I am Sakaki Yuya to you."_

"Yuya…" Yuto said admiringly at the boy. The way he said it, the complete sincere he gave, Yuto knew what Yuya told him were real. "You're really honest and honorable. Ruri and Ryoga had told me a lot about you."

"They did?" He said with some disbelief, like he never thought those two would say that.

"You're feeling… Don't tell me that you still hate them?"

" _Yuto…"_ Yuya looked down, not daring to face Yuto before reluctantly nodding his head. _"Uh…"_

Yuto wanted to argue with him, he wanted to remove the bad image his friend left him, but he did not want to do it yet, that is not who he is. He is the kind of person who is rather reserved, he would patiently listen to others before saying something, especially about them. He understood why Yuya hated Ruri and Ryoga and he wanted Yuya to say what he meant to say before giving him some advice.

"Yuya, please tell me what you're thinking about them right now."

" _I don't want to Yuto."_ The Entertainment Duelist denied. " _We only have met during that night, then I got into you and saw all of your memories, your sorrow, your guilt, your grief. It's very bad to pour in negative opinions about your friends!"_

"It's better to say what you want to say. Don't be afraid to say it, I am ready to hear it. This will solves our problems and strengthen our friendship you know."

"Friendship… with… you…" Yuya mumbled. _"Fine… but remember this might me harsh to hear!"_

"I got it!" Yuto confirmed it by giving a serious look to Yuya.

" _It's true that I hate them and I still do. Ever since my dad disappeared, my life has been a misery. People looked down on me, I'm always being taken advantage of for cruel jokes, that's why I have very few friends, only Gongenzaka over there and Yuzu. But I know bitching about it would not do any good, so I tried to be as polite and gentle as possible. I use my dad's Entertainment Dueling to cope with the loss and to remember him. I hope that if I could keep doing that, I can forget the awful past and go on with my life, then I would have more friends, of course I never think anything bad of my father, he must have a reason to leave me and my mother, and I will find him."_

"Poor you… Such a bad past…" Yuto muttered, he realized Yuya's backstory was just as bad as his, if not more emotionally traumatized.

" _Thanks… then I actually succeed!"_ Yuya gave a bitter smile and chuckle, as if he wished this would never have happened to him. _"I managed to have Sawatari as a friend, and then Sora… Ryoga… and… Ruri…"_

" _But then, life taught me a painful lesson: faking emotions never works. I did not know Sawatari for long enough, Sora was in truth an Academia agent, Ruri and Ryoga were like you and Shun, Resistance duelists from Xyz. What hurt me the most is that I realized I have left myself too weak emotionally to be used by your friends!"_

"Yuya…" Yuto let his words sink in for a bit. The truth had hurt Yuya so badly that he become bitter and devoid of hope.

" _Now I don't know what to do, who to trust or whether to keep Entertainment Dueling anymore…"_

"Look…" Yuto let out a word that was slightly above a whisper. "Don't let it affect you for now. We have a common enemy to deal with. What we did was for our own safety. You saw my memories, you must know that our living condition was hellish right? We are ready to compromise everything to survive, even our morality. We become just like those invaders to survive. And that happened to Shun."

" _But I know you are not willing to do that. You don't want to become just like Kurosaki."_

"Because I still have something to keep myself together. My mother… my friends… my ideals… and Ruri. Especially Ruri. I managed not to sink deep in darkness because of her. Thanks to them, I managed to keep myself stable. I did not lose myself because I would then lose everything else that is much closer to me than the sweet but limited anger. You should do that Yuya. You still have friends. Yuzu, Gongenzaka, the kids and others. You still have friends to rely on, don't push them away because you are hurt and don't want them to worry about you. And you must not lose your own ideals Yuya."

" _Yuto…"_ Yuya whispered before looking away, thinking about things…

* * *

As Reiji walked to the locked door, the crying outside was still raging. The screaming, the roaring, the explosion, all of that. He tried his best to hold back his anger. He never expected Academia, or rather, Akaba Leo to make a direct attack to his company.

" _Akaba Leo…! You bastard! You leave us, you cause an invasion, and now you cause another in here and terrorize us?! I will never forgive you!"_

Standing at the door, Reiji touched his earpiece. "I am at the door now. Can you hack it and others Nakajima?"

"Just a second…"

Silence…

Beep!

The light was green!

"There!"

"Good work!" Reiji complimented. The door in front of him slowly opened.

"The other doors are opening."

Reiji got out of the dark corner and guided wounded people to the door.

"Get them to safety, I will handle them!"

"Roger!"

"You two stay with me to confront them!"

"We got it!"

"Reiji!" Sawatari called to him as soon as he saw him. "Where's the medical room?! My father needs medical attention right now!" He said frantically. The Mayor was hurt on his stomach, bleeding very fast.

"It's just inside. Get him there, I will fight them!"

"Thanks!"

Reiji glanced down, the two attackers doing the same before he vaulted over the rail and jumped down gracefully. He adjusted the glasses.

"Academia."

"Akaba Reiji. The son of the Professor. Allow me to introduce myself. I am Darkness, a high-ranking member of Academia." Darkness calmly introduced.

"And my name is Yuma." Darkness' companion did the same. "You know why we are here right?"

"Let me guess." Reiji said calmly. "One of your soldiers, Selena, has escaped your grasp to here. You send yourselves and your attack dog team to retrieve her back, and at the same time, you cause chaos in here right?"

"Pretty much." Darkness answered. "But we also know that that girl Selena is pretty… special."

"Special?"

"There are three other girls who shares the same faces has Selena in the four dimensions. We managed to kidnap one of them, and somehow the rest is conveniently in Standard. If we get Selena back, we can also capture the other two girls back as well."

" _Two other girls… Hiragi Yuzu and Kurosaki Ruri…"_ Reiji thought.

"Professor says that you are planning to stop him so we are sent to this building to attack it and prevent you from interfering any further."

Yuma spoke up. "Even though you have sent a team to stop the Obelisk Force, it is pointless. One of them reported to us that your team is wiped out, no one is stopping us now."

"I heard your "underdogs" has suffered the same fate as well."

"What do you mean?"

"One Duelist has eradicated them."

"Who?" Darkness inquired.

"Don't know don't care. All I know is he intruded in just like you lapdancers to Akaba Leo."

"What did you say?" Darkness raised his voice. "Lapdancer?! You kidding me?"

"Calm down Darkness." Yuma put a hand in front of the elite soldier, stopping him. "Let him mock us in defeat however he wants. His team is gone, his people in LDS has retreated, those two guards will be short work for us." He pointed at the guards who were standing on his left and right.

"They're here to send you to the basement…"

"Us?"

"…after losing to ME!" Reiji swung his hand, activating his Duel Disk.

"Very nice. I can see your fighting spirit…" Darkness gave a smile behind the mask. "But! I am not dueling you today. My teammate will."

Yuma stepped in. "I give you a choice to stop fighting. Surrender and give Selena to us, we will not hurt you and your people, but if you don't, you know what will happen…"

"Of course I know, and you know what choice I will choose!" Reiji said boldly. "You two, stay behind the door, don't let them get out of this place!"

"Roger President!" The guards positioned at the main door.

"Bad call…" Yuma whispered before activating his own Duel Disk as well. That particular Duel Disk however, intrigued Reiji.

" _A purple Duel Disk…? Looks like Ryoga, Ruri and Shun…Is he…?"_

 **DUEL!**

 **Akaba Reiji** : 4000 [5]

 **Tsukumo Yuma** : 4000 [5]

* * *

"Running from this crazy kid is surely one hell of a nightmare…" Shun muttered to himself as he took a rest besides a wall in the Ancient Ruins area. "I need to get to the temple to take some rest." The moment he got foot inside though, he was met with another surprise.

Shiun'in Sora was standing right there, flashing a mad grin at him!

"You!"

"You're not getting away this time scum!" Sora quickly fired a Duel Anchor to Shun's Duel Disk, preventing him from running away.

"A Duel Anchor? Shit!"

"It is indeed very hard to catch you, Kurosaki Shun." Sora yanked his Duel Disk, nearly causing Shun to trip. "It's time for a rematch!"

"You want to duel me again so badly?"

"Damn right it is! I have prepared myself, I will not make the same mistake again! And don't even think about aborting, this Duel Anchor will force you to stay with me as long as we do not finish the duel."

"Very well… I cannot run anyway…" Shun sighed before activating his Duel Disk. Sora grinned as he did the same.

"Hm… I will not lose this time."

 **DUEL!**

 **Kurosaki Shun** : 4000 [5]

 **Shiun'in Sora** : 4000 [5]

"I go first!" Sora declared. "I normal summon Edge Imp Tomahawk!"

 **Edge Imp Tomahawk** DARK/Demon/Effect/LV4/ **1800** /800

"Then I send DT Modoki to the graveyard to inflict 800 damage!" Multiple blades fired out at Shun, who rolled sideways to avoid the ensuring explosion. Sora attempted to pull the rope but Shun did it first, stopping Sora.

 **Shun** : 4000 - 3200 [5]

"One card set, turn end."

Shun resumed his standing position before starting his first turn. "Ore no turn! Vanishing Lanius summon!"

 **Raid Raptors - Vanishing Lanius** DARK/Bird Beast/Effect/LV4/ **1300** /1600

"Presence of a "Raid Raptors" monster allows me to call out Fuzzy Lanius!" A purple armor bird materialized.

 **Raid Raptors - Fuzzy Lanius** DARK/Bird Beast/Effect/LV4/ **500** /1600

"I, using the level 4 Vanishing Lanius and Fuzzy Lanius, Overlay Network constructing!" Two birds turned into energy and flew down to the Overlay Network.

"Avian hunter of the afterlife, seek the truth with your dark eyes, and grasp glory with your sharp talons! Xyz Shōkan! Take flight!" Purple stream of energy shot out.

"Rank 4! Raid Raptors - Force Strix!"

 **Raid Raptors - Force Strix** DARK/Bird Beast/Xyz/Effect/R4/ **100** /2000

" _Hm~ Another Xyz monster with low attack power…"_ Sora looked at Force Strix annoyingly.

"By detaching an Overlay Unit, I can add another Vanishing Lanius to my hand and using the effect of the first Vanishing Lanius, I special summon it!" Another Vanishing Lanius appeared.

"Since Fuzzy Lanius is sent to the graveyard, I add another one to my hand, then I will special summon it again!"

"For each "Bird Beast" monster I control besides itself, Force Strix gains 500 ATK and DEF!"

2x **Raid Raptors - Force Strix** **100** /2000 - **1100** /3000

"Only power-up that much?" Sora mocked Shun. "You surely are not kidding me aren't you?"

The Xyz survivor closed his eyes. "I'm always serious in Duel… even when I face unworthy opponents like you!"

* * *

"Since you are the only one standing, I allow you to draw on your first turn." Yuma proposed.

Reiji knew Yuma underestimated him but since he was the only person who could Duel Academia at LDS right now, he had no other choice. Besides, from a tactical viewpoint, his Deck focus on a beatdown-swarm strategy, he could lose hand advantage very quickly and potentially lose instantly if the pressure was not enough. "As you wish, and don't regret it. I will take the first turn! Draw!" Reiji said. "Continuous Magic, Covenant with the Hellgate activate! I add DD Swirl Slime to my hand."

"Then another one! Covenant with the Swamp King!"

"Then I send DD Swirl Slime and Baphomet to the graveyard…"

"…to perform a Fusion summon." The word "Fusion" showed up on his Duel Disk.

"Oh… Fusion summon without a Fusion magic…" Darkness commented.

" _Professor said LDS introduced Fusion, Synchro and Xyz to Standard, so his son must have…"_ Yuma thought.

"Arcane swirl that takes in all forms! Engulf the grotesque God, and now become one and give birth to a new king! Yūgō Shōkan! Be born! DDD Flame King Temujin!" The burning king bearing the name of the famous Mongolian conqueror appeared, powerful as always.

 **DDD Flame King Temujin** DARK/Demon/Fusion/Effect/LV6/ **2000** /1500

"Then I summon DD Night Howling!" The demonic mouth showed up.

 **DD Night Howling** DARK/Demon/Tuner/Effect/LV3/ **300** /600

"With its effect, I can special summon back Baphomet." A portal opened, allowing the deity to return.

 **DD Baphomet** **1400** /1800 - **0** /0

"Then it changes Night Howling's level to 4."

 **DD Night Howling** LV3 - 4

"2 level 4 monsters…" Yuma muttered.

"I, using the level 4 Baphomet and Night Howling, overlay!" The Overlay Unit fired out a pillar of energy.

"In order to subjugate all that resides in this world, now, descend onto the peak of the world! Xyz Shōkan! Be born! Rank 4! DDD Wave King Caesar!" Blue waves surrounding the large king with the big sword.

 **DDD Wave King Caesar** DARK/Demon/Xyz/Effect/R4/ **2400** /1200

"Fusion and Xyz…" Darkness said. "Interesting…"

"I set down a card and end my turn." Reiji finished his first turn.

Yuma inspected the field before touching his Deck. "Ore no turn, draw!"

"Magic Card, Onomatopea activate! I send a card to the graveyard to add two "Gagaga" monsters to my hand."

"Gagaga… syllables… surely you use a deck with idiotic card names." Reiji took the opportunity to mock the Academia soldier.

"Appearance can be deceiving." Yuma countered. "Then I summon Gagaga Magician!"

 **Gagaga Magician** DARK/Magician/Effect/LV4/ **1500** /1000

"Its effect allows me to add Gagagago…" Yuma added the card.

"And activate it! I can add Gagaga Kid to my hand, and special summon it with its effect!" A boy in a uniform with the jacket open appeared.

 **Gagaga Kid** DARK/Magician/Effect/LV2/ **800** /1200

"It can then gain Magician's level!"

 **Gagaga Kid** LV2 - 4

" _Two monsters with the same level… don't tell me!"_ Reiji slightly widened his eyes.

"Now I, using the level 4 Gagaga Magician and Gagaga Kid, overlay!"

"Xyz Shōkan! Appear now, Rank 4! Gagaga Galaxy!" A monster in a blue and white magician costume with a drawing of a galaxy appeared.

 **Gagaga Galaxy** DARK/Magician/Xyz/Effect/R4/ **2100** /2000

"Xyz monster… You are under Academia but you don't use Fusion?" Reiji tried to keep a calm façade.

"Because I never have a Fusion monster in first place!" Yuma explained. "Gagaga Galaxy's effect activates! By detaching an Overlay Unit, I can summon Gagaga Mancer from the Deck!"

 **Gagaga Mancer** DARK/Magician/Effect/LV4/ **100** /100

"But I cannot inflict damage to you this turn if I use this effect. Now Gagaga Mancer's effect will bring back Gagaga Magician that was detached!"

"I, using the level 4 Gagaga Mancer and Gagaga Magician, overlay!"

"Xyz Shōkan! Appear now, Numbers 39!"

"Numbers?!" Reiji was legitimately surprised this time. Rising out from the black portal was Yuma's new monster. It was similar to the normal Hope but the armor was much greyer, the yellow part of the armor was also dimmer, the wings behind it were down and closed, not arcing upward like usual. The sword it wielded was completely black as well. In short, much of hope had been diminished, only a faint light from its eyes kept it fighting.

"Rank 4! King of Wishes - Glimmer of Hope!"

 **No.39 King of Wishes - Glimmer of Hope** LIGHT/Warrior/Xyz/Effect/R4/ **2500** /2000

"Finally, Equip Magic, Xyz Unit to Glimmer of Hope." A yellow armor piece appeared on Glimmer's body.

 **No.39 King of Wishes - Glimmer of Hope** ATK 2500 - 3300

"Battle! Gagaga Galaxy, attack Flame King Temujin!" The magician raised its black sword, attempting to slice through the burning monster.

"Continuous Trap open! Covenant with the Valkyries!" In an instant, the trap engulfed Reiji's three monsters, powering them up.

 **DDD Flame King Temujin** ATK 2000 - 3000

 **DDD Wave King Caesar** ATK 2400 - 3400

"If so, Glimmer of Hope's effect activates!" An Overlay Unit from it disintegrated. "The attack is negated!" Gagaga Galaxy stopped and returned to Yuma's field.

"Attack negation effect…" Reiji said to himself. "Surely a strong ability."

"And this effect is not limited to my field." Yuma said further. "Now then, Glimmer of Hope attack Temujin!" The new 39 raised its sword, aiming at Temujin again.

"Hope Ken Gimmer of Slash!" The attack connected, creating an explosion. Gagaga Galaxy' effect prevented Reiji from taking damage this turn, but when the smoke cleared, Yuma was surprised to find Temujin still standing.

"How is that monster…?"

"Caesar's effect!" Reiji revealed. Yuma looked at that monster and realized one of its Overlay Units was missing. "Temujin got revived, but during my next Standby Phase I will take 1000 damage."

"A CEO like you surely has resources, aren't you?" Yuma said. "I set down 2 cards, turn end."

 **DDD Flame King Temujin** ATK 3000 - 2000

 **DDD Wave King Caesar** ATK 3400 - 2400

"Watashi no turn, draw! During the Standby Phase, the effects of the Covenants and Caesar will deal damage to me." A deep red aura appeared around Reiji, signaling his LP loss.

 **Reiji** : 4000 - 1000 [2]

"President!" The guards said in concern.

"But then…" Reiji slapped a card down to the blade. "I can special summon DDD Rebel King Leonidas and gain back the damage!" A proud warrior donning a yellow and blue armor, a circular shield in the same color configuration on its left hand, a sword on its right hand and a red cape appeared, dust raining down on Reiji.

 **DDD Rebel King Leonidas** DARK/Demon/Pendulum/Effect/LV7/Scale 3/ **2600** /1200

 **Reiji** : 1000 - 4000 [2]

"Also Leonidas protects me from effect damage as long as it is here, and now Covenant with the Hellgate's effect! I add DD Necro Slime!" Reiji showed the added card.

"Covenant with the Swamp King's effect activates! I can use Necro Slime and Caesar as fusion materials!" The magical spiral welcomed the dark slime and the king to it.

"Dark shape-shifting water, engulfs the conqueror and reborn into the new world! Yūgō Shōkan! Appear now, Level 7! DDD Oracle King d'Arc!"

 **DDD Oracle King d'Arc** DARK/Demon/Fusion/Effect/LV7/ **2800** /2000

"After leaving the field, Caesar allows me to add a "Covenant" card to my hand, and I will activate it now!" Reiji eyed at Yuma as he added the card slowly before activating it. The card materialized, the image though shocked Yuma to the core and Darkness to a lesser extent. It described an explosion from a red portal, the color of which was composed from many color, mainly black and dark green.

" _Rank-Up…?"_

"Get ready! Continuous Magic, Covenant with the Despair Dimension! I special summon DDD Wave King Caesar back!" The monster returned.

"Then…" Reiji adjusted his glasses, giving a glare.

"Special Summon a "DDD" Xyz monster with 1 Rank higher!" Caesar turned into a purple swirl of energy before flying up to the Overlay Network opened above.

A huge explosion occurred.

Yuma looked on in shock.

"Don't tell me…!"

"Hero of legends, with your profound justice, pierce through all things!"

"Rank-Up Xyz Change! Descend! Rank 5! DDD Marksman King Tell!"

 **DDD Marksman King Tell** DARK/Demon/Xyz/Effect/R5/ **2300** /2000

"Rank-Up…" Yuma muttered.

"Can't be!" Darkness grasped.

"Nice!" The guards cheered.

…

…

" _We have gathered a lot of data in the duel between Kamishiro Ryoga and Kurosaki Shun." Nakajima told Reiji._

" _Good. One thing I really like about them is Rank-Up. This can improve my Xyz monsters a lot." Reiji said with interest. Ever since Shun displayed Rank-Up during his duel at LDS, interest arose within him and he needed the strongest power possible to prepare for the war head-on._

"Maybe it's good to create one like those…"

…

…

"The power of your homeland… the power of Heartland… and you betrayed it for Academia…" Reiji did a small mind game before continuing. "Feel good to see the power you have oppose you? Dirty betrayer?!" He raised his voice. Yuma in response said nothing but was otherwise disgusted. Thinking back about Heartland and what he did were enough to send his temper through the roof.

"Since Caesar was summoned from the graveyard, I can attach Baphomet to Tell as an Overlay Unit." A ball of light flew out form Reiji's Duel Disk and orbited around the new monster.

"Let an outsider judge your fate! Tell's effect activates! Glimmer of Hope loses 1000 ATK and you take 1000 damage!" An Overlay Unit flew into the front of the bowgun, charging it. Tell then fired two shots, hurting both Hope and Yuma.

 **No.39 King of Wishes - Glimmer of Hope** ATK 3300 - 2300

 **Yuma** : 4000 - 3000 [2]

"Another judgement arrow!" Tell fired its bowgun again, draining Hope and Yuma.

 **No.39 King of Wishes - Glimmer of Hope** ATK 2300 - 1300

 **Yuma** : 3000 - 2000 [2]

"Battle! Marksman King Tell, attack Numbers 39 Glimmer of Hope! Forbidden Break Shot!" The lighting arrow sped through the air, ready to pierce through the warrior.

"Not gonna happen! I activate Hope's effect!" It detached its last Overlay Unit, stopping the arrow by its wings which folded into the front like a barrier. "Moon Barrier!"

"Since I negate your monster, I then gain LP equal to Tell's ATK!" Yuma said as he looked up, taking the warm light.

 **Yuma** : 2000 - 4300 [2]

"Such a powerful monster…" Darkness commented.

"Negating attacks and gain LP equal to its ATK. Surely it is strong." Reiji gave a compliment.

"Only works on your monsters though."

"Now it loses all of its Overlay Unit, it cannot stop Leonidas' attack on Gagaga Galaxy!" The big sword slashed down on Yuma's monster.

But then. "Trap activate! Half Unbreak!" A bubble surrounded the magician, protecting it.

 **Yuma** : 4300 - 4050 [2]

"This turn, it cannot be destroyed and all battle damage on it will be halved."

"The same thing cannot be said to Glimmer though." Reiji said as d'Arc proceeded its attack. "Oracle Charge!" In a quick slash, Hope was gone in an explosion.

 **Yuma** : 4050 - 3750 [2]

"I end my turn." Reiji concluded his field wipe.

Yuma touched his Deck. "Ore no turn, draw!"

* * *

A short while later, Shun now has three Force Strixes on the field. The repeated combo to summon them annoyed Sora.

"Already losing patience?" Shun mocked. "Why don't you look for Action Cards?"

"No. Not necessary." Sora took out a large lollipop and licked it. Shun could swear that this asshole would become a smoke addict in the future, if he had a future after this duel in first place.

"Since I control a "Raid Raptors" Xyz monster, I can special summon two Singing Laniuses from my hand!"

 **Raid Raptors - Singing Lanius** DARK/Bird Beast/Effect/LV4/100/ **1800**

3x **Raid Raptors - Force Strix 100** /2000 - **2100** /4000

" _Three monsters with 2100 ATK each… he's trying to beat me this turn?"_ Sora found this attempt ridiculous.

"The setup is completed…" Shun opened his eyes fiercely. "Battle!" One Force Strix set eyes on Sora's rack of axes as it attempted to scratch it.

"Trap Card, Death-Toy Backup!" Sora quickly acted. "Tomahawk is safe and it gains 800 ATK!" A sphere shielded Sora's monster from the bird.

 **Edge Imp Tomahawk** ATK 1800 - 2600

"Quick-Play Magic, Overlay Burst Armor!" Shun countered. The attacking Force Strix detached its remaining Overlay Unit to prevent itself from Tomahawk's counter attack.

"Hm… avoid dying in the last second?"

"I set down two cards and end my turn." Shun concluded.

"Hehe… Boku no turn!" Sora drew his next card with a smug smile. "Furnimal Dog summon!" A cute dog with a set of small angel wings on its back appeared.

 **Furimal Dog** EARTH/Angel/Effect/LV4/ **1700** /1000

"Its effect allows me to add Edge Imp Scissors to my hand." Sora added the card. "Then by discarding Furnimal Bear, I can set Toypot from my Deck. And I will now activate it!" A huge pot filled with cute teddies rose up behind Sora.

"Toypot's effect activates! By discarding a card, I can draw another one." Sora said, sliding a card from his hand to the graveyard and draw another one.

"Level 2 Furnimal Owl! I get to special summon it!" The kid quickly slapped it, calling out a owl with yellow body, yellow and grey wings, two angel wings acted as cutely long eyebrows and glasses.

 **Furnimal Owl** EARTH/Angel/Effect/LV2/ **1000** /1000

"After summoning, I can add "Fusion" to my hand… Huhhuh…" Sora smirked as he revealed his drawn card, although Shun showed no emotion, he knew his was raging from the inside. "And activate it!"

Edge Imp Scissors and Furnimal Owl joined in the Fusion spiral. "Claws of the demon! Eye of Purgatory! Become one and reveal a new form and power! Yūgō Shōkan! Appear, horrifying beast that brings terror to everything! Death-Toy Daredevil!" A demonic creature from comic books appeared. It had black skin, it wore a red shirt, a mask, white panties, it wore a long folk, it had razor sharp fangs, black vampire wings.

 **Death-Toy Daredevil** DARK/Demon/Fusion/Effect/LV8/ **3000** /2200

"Daredevil, attack the leftmost Force Strix!" The creature lunged at the bird and attempted to pierce it using its folk.

"Trap Card open!" Shun acted. "Raid Raptors - Readiness! My monsters cannot be destroyed by battle this turn!"

"But you will still take the damage!" Sora reminded.

"Not really! After activation, Readiness goes to the graveyard, where I will banish it from!" A barrier formed on Shun's field, completely protecting him from shockwaves. "With that, I take no damage this turn."

"Shit…" Sora bit his lollipop. "Turn end."

"Now your hand is empty, your backrow is empty. Using up too much resources and jumping straight to my defense without prior precaution, a big mistake for an elite like you." Shun calmly mocked Sora.

"Better think about how to beat me first before rambling. Dead draw or bad draw can happen to anyone. Besides, your field is full, unless you have a Rank-Up-Magic"

"Fair enough. Ore no turn, draw!" Shun continued. He slightly frowned.

" _Skip Force… But this asshole Sora is annoying as always…"_

"I activate the effect of the two Force Strixes!" They ate their respective Overlay Unit. "I add 2 monsters to my hand."

"And then, Rank-Up-Magic Skip Force activate! Using a Force Strix as material, overlay!" One Force Strix turned into purple energy and flew up to the Overlay Network opened above, causing an explosion.

"Prideful falcon, spread your wings dyed in the blood of heroes! Advance through the path of revolution! Rank-Up Xyz Change! Come forth! Rank 6! Raid Raptors - Revolution Falcon!"

 **Raid Raptors - Revolution Falcon** DARK/Bird Beast/Xyz/Effect/R6/2000/ **3000**

"This is it… the monster…" Sora mumbled. "Is there a reason you call this monster? To slap me at my face? My LP is still at full 4000, you cannot kill me with its effects, besides, only Daredevil is special summoned!"

"Right. But I know you have prepared. This monster will not decide this duel today, but it will pave the way of my revolution!" Shun said. "Monster effect activates!" The falcon flew up high and opened its pads, releasing bombs down on Sora's Fusion monster. Sora grabbed the axe rack to avoid being blasted away.

 **Sora** : 4000 - 2500 [0]

"Gotcha!" Sora suddenly smiled. "After being destroyed, Daredevil inflicts 500 damage for each "Furnimal" monster in my graveyard!" Lightning erupted from Sora's Duel Disk and hit Shun, who used his own to protect himself.

 **Shun** : 3200 - 2700 [3]

"Doesn't matter much. Battle! Force Strix, attack Furnimal Dog!" The bird slashed the face of the cute dog. It screamed in pain before exploding.

 **Sora** : 2500 - 2100 [0]

"Now I change the second Force Strix to Defense Position." The remaining strix gained a blue aura. "I set down one card and end my turn."

"As I said earlier, bad hand!" Sora smirked. "You could not do much damage to me, so now I will teach you a lesson! Boku no turn, draw!"

* * *

 **DDD Flame King Temujin** ATK 2000 - 3000

 **DDD Rebel King Leonidas** ATK 2600 - 3600

 **DDD Oracle King d'Arc** ATK 2800 - 3800

 **DDD Marksman King Tell** ATK 2300 - 3300

"Get ready Akaba Reiji! I activate Gagaga Galaxy's effect!" Its last Overlay Unit disintegrated. "I add Gagagadraw to my hand, and activate it!"

"By banishing three "Gagaga" monsters in my graveyard, I can draw 2 cards! And then, by using the Rank 4 Gagaga Galaxy as material…" Yuma raised his clenched hand up.

"Rank-Up Xyz Change!" The magician flew upward to the portal and from it an explosion occurred.

"What?! A Rank-Up immediately after the President?" The guards grasped while Darkness looked on passively.

"Appear now Rank 5! Gagaga Chevalier!" From the Overlay Network, a new magician appeared. It wore a purple wizard hat, an eyepatch on its right eye, a black trenchcoat and it wielded a long black sword with the "Gagaga" crest carved at the front of it.

 **Gagaga Chevalier** EARTH/Warrior/Xyz/Effect/R5/ **2700** /2000

"Gagaga Chevalier's effect activates!" One of its Overlay Units disappeared. "By detaching an Overlay Unit, I can add…" Yuma showed the card. "Rank-Up-Magic to my hand!"

"Another Rank-Up…" Reiji muttered.

"Since Galaxy has gone to the graveyard as an Overlay Unit, I can draw a card."

"And now, Quick-Play Magic, Rank-Up-Magic Hope Hell Force activate! I, using the Rank 4 Glimmer of Hope, Chaos Xyz Change!"

"Appear now, Chaos Numbers 39! Crimson conqueror who unifies chaos, release the eternal seal, and in one flash blow away the darkness! Descend, King of Wishes - Hope Ray V!" The most dangerous-looking 39 appeared, the red and grey armor signaled its serious altitude to the LDS' President.

 **CNo.39: King of Wishes - Hope Ray V** LIGHT/Warrior/Xyz/Effect/R5/ **2600** /2000

"So this is your Rank-Up monster." Reiji commented.

"And the effect is no ordinary one! By detaching an Overlay Unit…" Its only Chaos Overlay Unit disintegrated. "I can destroy d'Arc and inflict its ATK as damage to you!" The monster materialized two swords to use its effect. "V Blade Shoot!"

"Too amateur! Thanks to Covenant with the Despair Dimension, each of my monsters is safe from card effect destruction once per turn!" Reiji countered, the card shot out energy, shattering the blade. "Besides, my Demon-race monsters gains 1000 ATK during your turns."

"But Evolution only works once on monsters! Magic Card, Gagagabolt! This card can destroy your Covenant with the Valkyries!" The trap exploded, the attack boost it provided disappeared.

 **DDD Flame King Temujin** ATK 3000 - 2000

 **DDD Rebel King Leonidas** ATK 3600 - 2600

 **DDD Oracle King d'Arc** ATK 3800 - 2800

 **DDD Marksman King Tell** ATK 3300 - 2300

"Battle! Hope Ray V, attack DDD Marksman King Tell!" Yuma's Numbers flew upwards and charged down.

"Hope Ken V no Jigiri!" In two quick slashes, Tell was separated into four before exploding. Reiji struggled to keep his stance but he managed to.

 **Reiji** : 4000 - 3600 [0]

"And then Gagaga Chevalier, attack Flame King Temujin! Gagagagash!" The black sword did a slash to the side, destroying the Mongolian conqueror.

 **Reiji** : 3600 - 2900 [0]

"That betrayer asshole… no matter how horrible he is, that bastard is surely strong…" A guard muttered.

"I set down two cards and end my turn." Two cards materialized face-down, finishing Yuma's turn.

"Watashi no turn, draw!" Reiji drew his card. "During the Standby Phase, my Covenants will deal me 2000 damage, but…" The two Continuous Magic cards shot out electricity, but d'Arc gathered them on its hand, turning it into purple dust and threw towards Reiji. "DDD Oracle King d'Arc's effect negates it and transformed the damage to life point gain!"

 **Reiji** : 2900 - 4900 [1]

"Tsk…! That annoying monster…" Yuma grunted.

"Covenant with the Hellgate allows me to add DD Gorgon to my hand." Reiji added his desired card. "Then Covenant with the Swamp King's effect activates! I banish Caesar and Tell…" The two monsters appeared above Reiji, joining in the colorful spiral. "Yūgō Shōkan! Appear now Level 10! DDD Wave Oblivion King Caesar Ragnarok!"

 **DDD Wave Oblivion King Caesar Ragnarok** DARK/Demon/Fusion/Effect/LV10/ **3200** /3000

"Battle! Caesar Ragnarok, attack Hope Ray V!"

"Caesar Ragnarok's effect activates! I return Covenant with the Hellgate to my hand to equip Gagaga Chevalier to it!"

 **DDD Wave Oblivion King Caesar Ragnarok** ATK 3200 - 5900

"Trap Card open!" Yuma countered. "Xyz Revenge Shuffle! I return Hope Ray V to the Extra Deck and summon back Glimmer of Hope!" In an instant, the black monster lit up before changing into Glimmer. "Then Xyz Revenge Shuffle becomes its material!"

"What the hell?!" Reiji said to himself, keeping the surprise tone as low as possible.

"Glimmer of Hope's effect! Moon Barrier!" The wings behind the masked warrior folded in front of it, stopping the attack.

 **Yuma** : 3750 - 6950 [2]

"Such an annoying monster… but now Glimmer of Hope has lost all of its Overlay Units! I order d'Arc to attack Glimmer of Hope! Oracle Charge!" The feminine monster thrust towards Glimmer and pierced it, destroying the small ray of hope for Yuma.

" _Glimmer of Hope…"_

 **Yuma** : 6950 - 6650 [2]

"Then Leonidas direct attack!"

 **Yuma** : 6650 - 4050 [2]

"During this Main Phase 2, I activate Covenant with the Hellgate again. Then I banish DD Gorgon from my hand…" A card got pulled out from his Deck and he took it out. "To add a card to my hand."

"Then I will set down two cards and turn end." Reiji finished.

"As a son of the Professor, I give you a huge compliment. I should get serious now… Ore no turn, draw!" Yuma proceeded with his turn.

"I normal summon Gagaga Kaiser!" A proud warrior in white robes showed up.

 **Gagaga Kaiser** EARTH/Warrior/Effect/LV3/ **1800** /600

"Since I control a "Gagaga" monster, I can special summon Gagaga Clerk!" A female monster, probably an assistant, appeared.

 **Gagaga Clerk** EARTH/Warrior/Effect/LV2/400/ **800**

"Two monsters with different levels…" Darkness said to himself.

"Now I activate Gagaga Kaiser's effect! By banishing the Level 8 Interstellar Dragon Parsec from my graveyard, all of my "Gagaga" monsters' Levels become 8!"

 **Gagaga Kaiser** LV3 - 8

 **Gagaga Clerk** LV2 - 8

"I, using the level 8 Gagaga Kaiser and Gagaga Clerk, overlay! With these two monsters, Overlay Network constructing! Xyz Shōkan!"

"Appear now, Numbers 107! Galaxy-Eyes Tachyon Dragon!"

 **No.107: Galaxy-Eyes Tachyon Dragon** DARK/Dragon/Xyz/Effect/R8/ **3000** /2500

"Battle! Galaxy-Eyes Tachyon Dragon, attack Rebel King Leonidas!" The dragon charged energy and fired two hot crescent beams at Leonidas.

"And then Trap Card, Xyz Soul! I return Glimmer of Hope to the Extra Deck and Tachyon Dragon gets a power-up!"

 **No.107: Galaxy-Eyes Tachyon Dragon** ATK 3000 - 3800

Since Evolution only prevented his monsters rom card effects, Reiji could only watch his monster being destroyed. He took Leonidas to the Extra Deck, an action that did not escape the eyes of Yuma, but he did not care about it for now.

 **Reiji** : 4900 - 3700 [0]

"At the end of the Battle Phase, I activate Galaxy-Eyes Tachyon Dragon's effect! By detaching an Overlay Unit, all monsters besides it have their effects negated and their ATK and DEF return to the original values!" Yuma said as the dragon slowly reassembled back to the sealed form. Then it released light, negating Reiji's monsters' effects.

 **DDD Wave Oblivion King Caesar Ragnarok** ATK 5900 - 3200

""

"And for each effects that resolved during this Battle Phase, Tachyon Dragon gains 1000 ATK!"

"What?! Now it has…" A guard said.

"4800 ATK…" Darkness finished.

 **No.107: Galaxy-Eyes Tachyon Dragon** ATK 3800 - 4800

"Tachyon Dragon can attack again after using this effect! Go now!" The black dragon gathered energy on its mouth and blasted it. "Semmetsu no Tachyon Spiral!" d'Arc was unable to take the powerful attack and was destroyed. Reiji lost balance and felt down painfully.

 **Reiji** : 3700 - 1700 [0]

* * *

" _Yoss! It's the card I need right now!"_ Sora sighed in relief.

"I normal summon Furnimal Giraffe!" A cute giraffe with white wings on its back showed up.

 **Furnimal Giraffe** EARTH/Angel/Effect/LV4/ **1800** /1000

"Its effects bring back Furnimal Dog." A portal opened above the giraffe, allowing the destroyed dog earlier to reappear. "Then Furnimal Dog allows me to add Furnimal Wing to my hand."

"Now I activate Toypot's effect! By discarding Wing, I can draw a card." Sora drew his card and revealed it.

"The drawn card is Fusion Substitute! Since it is not a monster, I send it to the graveyard."

Even though the action seemed to put Sora at a disadvantage, Shun actually felt nervous because he knew what that card could do in the cemetery, and Sora caught on instantly.

"Nervous?" Sora smiled gleefully. "You should be hehe. I banish Fusion Substitute, which allows me to add uh… return Daredevil to the Extra Deck and draw a card!" Sora put the Fusion monster back and swiftly drew a card.

"And now I banish Furnimal Wing to draw a card, then I send Toypot to the grave to draw another one." Sora drew two cards quickly.

" _He drew three cards at once…!"_ Shun tried his best not to panic.

"Magic Card, Fusion Recovery activate! I add Fusion and Furnimal Owl from my graveyard back!"

"Then I place Furnimal Owl back to the top of the Deck to summon Edge Imp Scissors!" A malicious monster consisted of two red eyes between the handles of multiple scissors joined together appeared.

 **Edge Imp Scissors** DARK/Demon/Effect/LV3/1200/ **800**

"Finally, Magic Card Fusion activate! I, using Edge Imp Scissors, Furnimal Dog and Furnimal Giraffe, fusion!" The monsters joined into the Fusion spiral.

"Demonic claws, sharp fangs, fake innocence! Become one in the mystic vortex and show us a new form and power! Yūgō Shōkan! Show yourself! Mystical jungle beast that rips everything to shreds! Death-Toy Scissors Tiger!" From the magical spiral came out a mad teddy. It was a teal bear with the abdomen opened, a pair of scissors pierced through. There were many stiches on its head, arms, legs and tail. Its mouth opened, revealing two demonic eyes underneath.

 **Death-Toy Scissors Tiger** DARK/Demon/Fusion/Effect/LV6/ **1900** /2000

"I have been waiting for this moment!" Shun suddenly acted.

"What?!"

"Trap Card open!" Shun waved his hand at the trap…

…

…

Nothing happened!

"Huh?" Shun looked at his set card worryingly. "Why didn't it activate?"

"So sad for you~~" Sora madly smiled, licking his lollipop. "During the turn Furnimal Giraffe is used as a Fusion material, you cannot activate Magic or Trap cards on the field!"

"Dammit!" Shun hissed.

"Since I use two monsters to bring out Scissors Tiger, I can destroy two cards on the field!" In an instant, the monster used its hands to cut Revolution Falcon and the Defense Position Force Strix.

 **Raid Raptors - Force Strix** ATK 2100 - 1100

"Also, Scissors Tiger gains 300 ATK for each "Furnimal" monster I control."

 **Death-Toy Scissors Tiger** ATK 1900 - 2200

"Battle! Edge Imp Tomahawk, attack Raid Raptors - Force Strix!"

 **Shun** : 2700 - 1200 [2]

"Now Scissors Tiger, attack a Singing Lanius!"

"Get up!" Sora yanked his Duel Disk, pulling Shun. "You Xyz scum cannot go down this easy. Get up~"

"We're… we're not… Xyz scum!" Shun growled. "We're Resistance! And Resistance will bring you Academia asshole down!"

"Ore no turn…" Shun drew his card with a lot of force. "DRAW!"

"Now is my turn, which means the sealing effect of Furnimal Giraffe is gone. Trap Card open! Icarus Attack! By tributing Singing Lanius…" The monster disintegrated. "I can destroy your Scissors Tiger and Edge Imp Tomahawk!" Feathers flew out from the trap in a whirlwind and aimed at Sora's monsters.

"Not gonna happen! Counter Trap, Death-Toy Raid! It negates Icarus Attack's activation and destroys it!"

Shun smirked. "Huh! Another Counter Trap!"

"What?!"

"Raid Raptors - Desperate!" Sora's Trap instantly exploded, along with his monsters.

"No!"

"Then I can draw a card." Shun touched his Deck. _"I only have two monsters which will not work right now and Raid Raptors - Roar… this card will decide the duel…"_

"Draw!" Shun drew his card. He gasped in shock.

" _Double Exposure…? It's…!"_

…

…

" _Hey Shun!" Kaito called him back in the Resistance base. That was before he went to Standard along with Ryoga and Yuto to find Ruri._

" _What do you want? Huh…" Shun was met with the sight of a card._

" _Take it. It may help you during your mission."_

" _I don't need it Kaito. I work alone, I don't need help." Shun did not want to get help from anyone. All he wanted in his mind was to kidnap Akaba Leo's son and beat anyone in his quest._

" _At least take this card… as a friend… Think it as a good luck charm from me and others."_

 _Shun hesitated before eventually taking it…_

…

…

" _Kaito's card… Kaito, are you helping me, or haunting me…?"_ Even though Shun did not want to get help from anyone, especially this card, Shun had to admit that his situation was dire now. Rise Falcon will not win this duel in this turn as usual since Sora only special summoned Scissors Tiger; the only other Rank 4 he had is Blade Burner Falcon but the LP difference between his and Sora's was 900, not enough to increase its ATK; and with this card…

" _I guess there is no other way…"_ Shun glared at Sora.

"Hm?"

"From my hand, Continuous Magic, Double Exposure, activate!"

"Double Exposure?"

"And then I activate Raid Raptors - Roar! I special summon Raid Raptors - Avenge Vulture from my Deck!"

 **Raid Raptors - Avenge Vulture** DARK/Bird Beast/Effect/LV4/ **1700** /100

"Then I summon one more from my hand!" Another Avenge Vulture appeared.

"And now Double Exposure's effect activates! The Levels or my two Avenge Vultures will double!"

"What?! Doulbing level?!"

2x **Raid Raptors - Avenge Vulture** LV4 - 8

"Two Level 8 monsters…"

"Get ready Fusion scum!" Shun yelled. "I, using the two level 8 Avenge Vulture, overlay!" The Overlay Network welcomed another two monsters, shooting out light.

 **Raid Raptors - Satellite Cannon Falcon** DARK/Bird Beast/Xyz/Effect/R8/ **3000** /2000

"Rank 8 Raid Raptors monster…" Sora said in fear. "And it only needs two monsters?!"

"As I said, this monster will defeat you today!" Shun reminded.

"Satellite Cannon Falcon, direct attack!" The barrels coldly pointed at Sora and charged energy, behind it formed a large "Raid Raptors" crest, causing the already weak ceiling to collapse, nearly hurting Sora.

"The cries and hatred of the fallen Heartland comrades… take them all…"

"AND DISAPPEAR!"

"Eternal Avenge!" Its abdomen opened, releasing a blue stream, and then the barrels charged even more. They formed into a single large stream and traveled to Sora.

The stream hit the target, a huge explosion occurred.

The wall behind cracked and collapsed, allowing sunlight to blast in.

Shun took a deep breath, welcoming the sign of the new day.

"All the problem gone…"

The smoke cleared, and Shun expected to see the fallen form of Shiun'in Sora.

Weak, pleading, crying for mercy...

Which he would never give him…

"Huh?"

To his surprise, Sora was still standing, albeit slightly crouched down and still having brushes.

 **Sora** : 2100 - 600 [1]

"What…? How…? How did you son of a bitch survive?"

"When Satellite… Cannon Falcon attacked… I banished this card…" Sora revealed the card.

"Death-Toy Raid...!"

"Which halves that battle damage and allows me to draw a card, which is the Furnimal Owl I placed earlier."

"Tsk… such bullshit tricks…! Turn end!"

"Boku no…" Sora touched his Deck, taking breaths.

"TURNNNN!"

* * *

Reiji slowly got up, pain still evident on his face, but in a second, his mouth curved down, smiling confidently.

"What so funny?" Yuma wondered.

"Thanks for creating a big difference in our LP…" Reiji explained. He adjusted his glasses before clicking a button on his Duel Disk. His set card opened. "Trap Card, Hope of Escape! By paying 1000 LP…"

 **Reiji** : 1700 - 700 [0]

Reiji touched his Deck. "For each 1000 LP in our LP difference, I get to draw a card!" He pulled out three cards from his Deck, shocking Yuma and Darkness greatly.

"Shit! So he accepted Tachyon Dragon's attacks just to increase the gap between my LP and his and draw cards?! I was too careless…" Yuma shook his head before muttering a defeated. "I set down a card and turn end… But remember this! Both d'Arc and Leonidas are gone! During your next Standby Phase, you will take 2000 damage from your Covenants!"

"Is that really so?" Reiji eyed at the startled Yuma before activating his last set card. "Trap Card, Lease Laundering! All of my "Covenant" cards are destroyed!" In an instant, Reiji's contracts disintegrated. "For each cards destroyed, I get to draw a card!"

"Dammit! That was the card he set with the effect of DD Gorgon earlier!" This time, Yuma and Darkness could not hide their complete shock anymore. With just two cards, Reiji recovered his hand in an instant. "Now he has five cards in his hand!"

"Not over! I also gain 1000 LP from each!"

 **Reiji** : 700 - 2700 [5]

"Watashi no turn, draw!" Reiji took a quick glance at his cards, forming a strategy in his head. He looked at Yuma. "Congratulations for being the first person to actually push me this far Tsukumo Yuma. I can see why Academia recruited you. I will not hold back any longer! First off, I activate Advanced Draw! By tributing Caesar Ragnarok, I can draw two more cards!" The monster disappeared, Reiji pulled out two cards from his Deck.

I, using the Scale 1 D/D Magical Savant Copernicus and Scale 10 DD Magical Savant Newton, Pendulum Scale setting!"

"It's here! The President's Pendulum Summon!"

"Grand power that shakes my very soul, arise within me and become a new light that rends the darkness. Pendulum Shōkan! Come before me, my monsters!" Two monsters flew down.

"DDD Oblivion King Abyss Ragnarok!" A black demon sitting in a chair descended.

"DD Lilith!"

"And finally, return from the Extra Deck! DDD Rebel King Leonidas!"

 **DDD Oblivion King Abyss Ragnarok** DARK/Demon/Pendulum/Effect/LV8/Scale / **2200** /3000

 **DD Lilith** DARK/Demon/Effect/LV4/ **100** /1800

"Extra Deck?" Darkness questioned.

"It's not in the graveyard?!" Yuma was caught off guard.

"Rebel King Leonidas is a Pendulum monster. Pendulum monsters are sent to the Extra Deck face-up instead if they would be sent from the field to the graveyard. Then if I have the appropriate Pendulum Scales, I can summon them back again."

"So that's why you inserted Leonidas to the Extra Deck face-up earlier…" Yuma realized.

"Abyss Ragnarok's effect! I can special summon Temujin back."

"Lilith allows me to add the Tuner monster, DD Night Howling back."

"Tuner monster?!" Yuma was met with another surprise. "Synchro…"

"From the graveyard, I banish DD Necro Slime to fuse Abyss Ragnarok with DD Lilith!"

"Yūgō Shōkan! Appear now, Level 8! DDD Flame Great King Executive Temujin!"

 **DDD Flame Great King Executive Temujin** DARK/Demon/Fusion/Effect/LV8/ **2800** /2400

"Then I activate another Continuous Magic, Covenant with the Summon Surplus! With its effects, d'Arc's Level is reduced by 1!"

 **DDD Oracle King d'Arc** LV7 - 6

"Then I, using the Level 6 DDD Oracle King d'Arc and Flame King Temujin, overlay!"

"Xyz Shōkan! Appear now Rank 6! DDD Wave High King Executive Caesar!"

 **DDD Wave High King Executive Caesar** DARK/Demon/Xyz/Effect/R6/ **2800** /1800

"Then I normal summon DD Night Howling!" The creepy demon mouth appeared again. "Finally, I, using the Level 3 DD Night Howling and Level 7 Rebel King Leonidas, tuning!" Three Synchro rings swept through Leonidas, turning it into seven stars. From there, a stream of light shot out.

"Synchro Shōkan! Appear now, Level 10! DDD Gust High King Executive Alexander!"

 **DDD Gust High King Executive Alexander** WIND/Demon/Synchro/Effect/LV10/ **3000** /2500

Yuma froze at the sight happened in front of him. "Fusion… Synchro… Xyz… amazing…"

"Nothing to be amazed at. I am an expert in all summon methods in Standard." Reiji dismissed. "What matters now is the duel right now. Executive Alexander's effect! When I control two or more "DD" monsters, it doubles its own ATK!" The green aura glowed brightly.

 **DDD Gust High King Executive Alexander** ATK 3000 - 6000

"And now I activate The Shallow Grave! We can each special summon a monster from the graveyard in face-down Defense Position. Choose one!"

"What are you planning to do Reiji? If so…" Yuma took out a card and showed it. "I choose Gagaga Chevalier."

"I will choose Caesar Ragnarok. But now! The effect of Executive Caesar activates!" An Overlay Unit went to the sword and from it, electricity struck the ground. The two cards on Yuma and Reiji's hands glowed purple. "This special summon is negated and it gains ATK equal to Caesar Ragnarok's ATK!"

"What?!" Yuma grasped.

 **DDD Wave High King Executive Caesar** ATK 2800 - 6000

"Also, I can detach an Overlay Unit from it to allow Executive Temujin to gain the same amount!"

 **DDD Flame Great King Executive Temujin** ATK 2800 - 6000

"Not good! They all have 6000 ATK now! If the attacks connect, Yuma will lose!" Darkness said with concern. He eyed at the guard, trying to find a way to rescue Yuma should he lose.

"The conqueror from the different dimensions will finish you, a traitor to your homeland." Reiji declared. "An asshole not deserved to live!"

"So that's how the President thinks about me?" Yuma suddenly said. "Even though you do not want to understand why I have to do it?"

"No matter what reason it is, betraying your own friends is unforgiveable, even for me!" Although he knew he could be immoral in his actions, best shown when he played Ruri, Ryoga and Shun under his palms, he was not willing to compromise his last decent piece of moral: betraying the people who trusted him.

"It makes you a good leader, but it also kills your humanity slowly, time after time… and eventually you will sink down to your lowest point." Yuma said slowly, in a somewhat bitter voice. "Just like what happened to me. Tell me Reiji, why are you fighting the Professor? Why are you fighting against Akaba Leo?"

"Why? Simple. To stop that madman's plan. He caused the war in your hometown, he brought terror to your people, he caused misery to many people, women, children and who knows how many atrocities he indirectly caused like mass murder, rape, experiments? Yugoslav or World War II cannot be compared to what that son of a bitch did! And I am disgusted that a person like you is willing to join his freaking cause!"

"I never said I am loyal to him. I only work for him."

"Work?" Reiji wondered. Darkness eyed at Yuma.

"For some reason…" Yuma trailed off. "That's enough. Get back to the duel!"

"As you wish. DDD Wave High King Executive Caesar, attack Galaxy-Eyes Tachyon Dragon!" Its blade shone up, generating an energy sphere.

"I will not lose. I will not lose… since I still have a thing to protect!" Yuma muttered before clicking a button. "Counter Trap, Lone Survivor!"

"What?"

"When I control only one monster and you control at least three, I can draw a card. And if it is a monster, its ATK or DEF will be added to Tachyon Dragon, whichever higher. Also it cannot be destroyed by battle and it is unaffected by card effects this turn, but its effects are also negated."

"What happens if you don't?"

"But if I do not draw a monster… I will lose." Yuma finished.

"Lose…? So you are gambling. Such an unexpected move. Academia would never do that." Reiji commented.

"Now the fate of this duel will rely on this draw…" Darkness said.

" _Everything will be decided on this draw… If I cannot draw a monster, I will lose!"_

" _Mommy… mommy…"_ Yuma preyed. For a short while, he thought his mother had said to him. _"Please help me…"_

"DRAWWWW!"

…

…

…

…

Everyone became quiet, all looking at the drawn card.

"I have drawn…"

Yuma turned it around…

…

…

…

"Monster Card! Gogogo Golem! Its 1800 ATK is added to Galaxy-Eyes' ATK!"

 **No.107: Galaxy-Eyes Tachyon Dragon** ATK 3000 - 4800

The blade hit the head of the dragon, it roared in pain but it was not destroyed.

 **Yuma** : 4050 - 2850 [1]

"Tsk… Such a desperate and lucky play…" Reiji slightly grunted. "Executive Alexander, attack Galaxy-Eyes!" The dragon fired a purple stream to retaliate but Alexander went through it like nothing and slashed the dragon's neck. The wound quickly healed though.

 **Yuma** : 2850 - 1650 [1]

"Finally, Executive Temujin!" Fire gathered around the blade, making it longer and deadlier. It was a miracle that the dragon survived the attack.

 **Yuma** : 1650 - 450 [1]

"Turn end…" Reiji reluctantly ended his turn.

"Ore no turn." Yuma prepared to draw. "Draw!"

"I normal summon Gogogo Golem!" A mechanical golem with blue arms and legs and grey body appeared.

 **Gogogo Golem** EARTH/Rock/Effect/LV4/ **1800** /1500

"And since you control a monster with 2000 ATK or more, I can special summon Limit Dragon Schwarzschild!" A slim dragon with a grey body shaped like an infinity symbol appeared.

 **Limit Dragon Schwarzschild** DARK/Dragon/Effect/LV8/ **2000** /0

"Finally, by banishing Gagaga Chevalier from my graveyard, I can add a "Rank-Up-Magic" to my hand. And I activate it!"

"Rank-Up-Magic Numeron Force activate! This card Rank-Up my monster and special summon a Chaos Numbers!"

"I, using the Rank 8 Galaxy-Eyes Tachyon Dragon, Overlay Network reconstructing!" The dragon reverted to its sealed form and flew up to the portal above, causing an explosion.

"Pierce through the raging torrent of galaxies, and revive from the time before they ever existed! The draconic star from beyond eternity! Manifest before us, Chaos Numbers 107!" A large and long yellow seal descended. It then slowly opened, revealing a dragon with three heads, multiple red gems on its body, two set of bright wings behind, three long tails. Below it, two Chaos Overlay Units floated.

"Neo Galaxy-Eyes Tachyon Dragon!"

 **CNo.107: Neo Galaxy-Eyes Tachyon Dragon** LIGHT/Dragon/Xyz/Effect/R9/ **4500** /3000

"Neo Tachyon Dragon… so this is your evolved dragon…" Reiji looked on in awe, his voice slightly cracked although his face was as stoic as always.

"This dragon will decide the fate of this duel! After Rank-Up using Numeron Force, all other face-up cards on the field besides it have their effects negated!" The aura around every cards except the yellow dragon disappeared.

"What the hell?"

"Then! By-"

"Wait up!" Darkness suddenly yelled. "Obelisk Force have found the location of Selena!"

"What? Selena?" Both Reiji and Yuma said in bewilderment.

"Yes, and knowing this girl, we are going to need every help as we can to capture her."

Yuma thought for a moment. He did not want to capture her at all but since he was with Darkness and Selena did in fact disobeyed, he needed to do it to ensure he would not be blamed since he knew she wanted to go to Standard after all.

"Okay." He turned to Reiji. "We will stop the duel. Consider yourself lucky." The two guards attempted to stop Yuma and Darkness but they made short works with some punches and they quickly threw up several small crystal balls to the ceiling and some down to the ground before running out of the building.

"What are those?" A guard looked up. The balls suddenly beeped.

"They're… they're bombs! Get out get out!" They along with Reiji quickly ran away. The balls exploded, sending them to the wall and knocking them unconscious. The explosion caused the ceiling to collapse, debris from above fell down and blocked the door completely…

* * *

It was morning, and the chase had not stopped. Yuzu was running frantically under the ice blocks, hiding from Yuri.

" _Not good… he's too strong… and he's been chasing me the whole time…! Huh!"_

Yuzu suddenly saw a sillhoulette of Yuri and Starve Venom Fusion Dragon!

"Amazing! It's morning now!" Yuri's cheerful voice spoke up from above. "Managing to hide until now, that's amazing! Congratulations!" His dragon roared, adding the creepy feel to it. "But the hide and seek game is over. Come out. Come with the to the Professor."

Yuzu hid as Yuri stood above her hiding place. Yuri patted Starve Venom's belly, the dragon obeyed by roaring and used its tail to smash an ice block, causing her to scream. Although she immediately covered her mouth, the sound did not escape from Yuri and he looked down, right at her!

He smiled evilly, speaking in a calm and chilling voice. "Would you please come out now?"

Tear began to fill her eyes, fear began to creep her mind.

" _No… Cannot hide anymore…! Please help me! Yuya!"_ She tearfully preyed, one hand covering her mouth, the other grasping the pendant tightly.

And from an unknown place, purple light began to shine.

Her bracelet was shining.

"What the?" Yuri wondered before the light turned him into dust.

Feeling a strong and warm source, Yuzu opened her eyes to see her shining bracelet.

" _Uh? It's shining again?! Does it mean that Yuya is really…"_

Suddenly, a white motorbike flew over the ice pillar. The driver looked down.

"Uh? Rin!"

"Heh?"

The driver quickly turned his motorbike around and without a second of hesitation, he rode near Yuzu and grabbed her right hand. Then he continued riding, causing Yuzu to collide with the ice, or more specifically, the hand which she was grabbed and moved.

The ring broke in half…

…

…

…

"No! The bracelet!" Yuzu yelled.

"Leave it later! We need to get outta here Rin!" The driver yelled.

"Rin?! No, I am not Rin! You get the wrong person! Let me out!"

"You kidding me Rin? That face is clearly yours!" And without thinking about pulling her onto the passenger seat, he kept riding and grabbing her hand, leaving the poor Yuzu screaming.

"Would you please shut up?! We need to stay away from this place first!"

"AH! LOOK!"

"What?" He looked in front of him and yelled. Two people were standing right in his way.

"GET AWAY! GET AWAY!" He quickly drifted sideways and stopped his D-Wheel.

"Huh… huh… huh… Lucky me…" Yugo breathed.

"Get the hell away from me!" Yuzu yanked his hand. "Huh… Ryoga, Ruri?"

"Yuzu?!" They took a moment to register. "Who the hell is… YUTO?"

"Yuto?" Yugo became shocked. "I'm not Yuto, but you two know Yuto? Where is he?"

"You know him too?" Ruri became shocked as well. "Don't tell me you're... Yūgō?"

Ryoga looked at Yugo in shock. "Yūgō? Is he the spy Shun told us about?"

"Yūgō?!" Yugo yelled angrily. Someone got his name wrong again. "Yūgō ja ne! Yūgo da!"

"And I am not from that Fusion place or a spy!"

"Hold on you said you're uh… Yugo." Yuzu managed to speak his name correctly. "You're looking for your friend Rin right? A female right?"

"Rin? Aren't you Rin?"

"No! I am Yuzu! And I guess she looks like me and Ruri over there right?"

"Faces…" Yugo looked carefully at Yuzu and Ruri. "You two really look like her!"

"And… you are really… Yugo?" Yuzu said, her voice slightly broke.

"Yeah! I am! I came here to look for Rin! A guy who looks like me kidnapped her. I came to here and finally found him. I dueled him and won, but I haven't found Rin yet."

"WHO? Does he wear a white jacket?" Yuzu's voice raised higher.

"Uh… Yeah. That son of the bitch took my friend away so I dueled him to force him to find out where Rin-AH!"

Before saying anything else, Yuzu suddenly gave him an extremely strong punch to the face, knocking him several meters from his D-Wheel.

"That son of a bitch was MY FRIEND YOU ASSHOLE!" Yuzu yelled at the top of her lungs. Yugo, Ruri and Ryoga stood frozen. "He is kind, he does not want to harm anyone and you MISTOOK HIM FOR THAT KIDNAPPER?"

"Yuzu calm down!" Ruri tried to take her friend down.

"And now he's gone! For several days! He did not return yet! What did you do to him?" She grabbed his jacket. "Tell me!"

"He… he did not kidnap Rin?" Yugo muttered in disbelief.

"Yes!"

"I… I don't know. During the duel, I lost control of myself, I did not know what happened. When I managed to think for myself again, I saw a pillar of light on where he was. I wanted to find out what then I suddenly disappeared…"

"You lost control of yourself?" Ruri asked. Yugo nodded. _"Just like Yuto…"_

"Did you remember anything else?"

"No… But then I was brought back to my hometown."

"The Synchro dimension?"

"Synchro dimension? Wait, Yuto said like that to me!"

"Yep. We are Yuto's comrades. Did he tell you about the dimensions?"

"Yeah. And let me guess, you two are from Heartland right?"

"Uh… Right!" Both Ruri and Ryoga answered.

"Look Yuzu…" Yugo looked at her pleadingly. "I don't know what you have gone through, but I am sorry. I am sorry for making him disappear, even though I never wanted to."

"You caused us and others to worry and all you said is a single "Sorry"? He's my best friend! And you killed him!"

"I did not kill him-"

Another punch to the face.

"Shut up!"

"Yuzu calm down!" Ruri and Ryoga held Yuzu's hand as she attempted to punch Yugo again.

"Let me go Ruri! I need to punish him!" Yuzu yelled between breaths.

"Doing it would not do anything good! Unless you calm down and find a way else! Yugo did say sorry, he did not know Yuya was innocent!" Ruri tightly hugged Yuzu, forcing her to stop. The pink hair girl finally did, her breath returning to normal.

"Yuzu, leave this "thing" for a while. We need to focus on stopping Academia!" Ryoga said.

"Academia?" Yugo wondered. "Are they here too?"

"Uh. We managed to repel three of them, but the rest is still here. They are attacking this dimension!"

"I came here with two of my friends. One of them defeated another three." Yugo revealed.

"You brought friends to this dimension too?!"

"Uh. I'm calling them now." Yugo turned the communication system on his D-Wheel on. "Aki, Yusei, are you there?"

"Copy all Yugo, Aki here."

"Yusei here!"

"I am currently at the… ice area, and I need you two to be here ASAP. You can track me through the GPS."

"All right, I am near there too."

"So am I." Aki said. "We will get there soon."

"Copy that." Yugo nodded and turned it off.

He turned to Ruri, Yuzu and Ryoga. "They will be here soon."

"They use the thing like your motorbike as well?" Ryoga asked.

"Uh. In my hometown it is called D-Wheel."

"D-Wheel…"

A short while later, Aki and Yusei arrived. Ruri and Ryoga looked at them. One was a tall young man in a blue tight suit, riding a blue D-Wheel; the other was a tall girl, apparently the same age as the man, the red suit she wore showed off her large breasts and hot body perfectly. Ruri and Ryoga took a brief moment to admire their looks, especially the girl.

"Hello Aki, Yusei!" Yugo smiled.

"Hello Yugo… who are they?" Aki said.

"Hello you two. I am Ruri." The purple hair girl introduced formally.

"I am Ryoga, but you can call me Shark."

"I am Hiragi Yuzu." The pink hair girl said.

"Wait!" Yusei said. "You two girls… have the same faces! Just like Rin!"

"Yeah." Ruri confirmed. "We don't know how, but we have the same faces."

"Okay. Why are you calling us to regroup here Yugo?" Aki asked him.

Yugo explained. "Remember the masked men Yusei said earlier? They are Academia from the Fusion Dimension, who caused war on Ruri and Ryoga's hometown, Heartland."

"Really?" Aki gasped. She sadly looked at Xyz survivors. "I'm sorry…"

"It's fine." Ryoga said. "Whatever happened, it happened. They are attacking this Standard Dimension for some reason. We need to stop them."

"We get it, but how?" Yusei asked.

"Just duel them. We cannot allow them to cause terror in here. Two of them are on a separate mission."

"Separate mission…" Ruri mumbled. "Wait! They did say they are on a mission, and the way they went…"

"LDS!" Ryoga realized.

"LDS?" Yugo said.

"The largest gaming company of Japan. They popularize Duel Monsters and have a lot of Duelists. In an event of an attack like this, they must have sent their people to stop Academia, but we have not seen any of them."

"They did send some, but they were defeated." Yusei revealed. "I beat them."

"But they would then send some more, but now they are not! Which means…"

"That place is under attack!" Aki solved the puzzle.

Yugo formed a plan. "We need you and Yusei two to go to there to stop them. Aki had sent the map of this city earlier so finding the place wouldn't be a problem."

"Okay, but why we need to go to there?"

"Because the President of LDS is the Akaba Reiji, the son of Akaba Leo who caused the war!" Ruri said, shocking Aki, Yusei and Yugo.

"What? His son?"

"Uh. He's planning to stop him, and Leo apparently wants to stop him."

"Okay." Both Yusei and Aki roared the engine. "We will go! What are you going to do Yugo?"

"I will go with them to gather their friends to stop them! One of them Yuto is also from Heartland!" Yugo said.

"Good!" They quickly rode off.

Yugo turned to the teenagers.

"Do you know where Yuto is?"

"Not sure. But I have a feeling that he is in the forest." Ruri proposed. She was not really 100% sure about it but she had hunches.

"Okay! Get in the D-Wheel and we will go there!" Yugo finally said.

* * *

"I cannot believe it… Sora is actually from Academia! I trusted him!" Gongenzaka grunted.

"If Yuya was here, he would say the same thing." Yuto told him. After eating breakfast, the crew decided to separate to find others. Group one who departed first consisted of Teppei and Michie, group two consisted of… Mieru, and group three: Yuto and Gongenzaka.

" _That kid… I cannot believe that cheerful… and innocent kid… is actually one of those sick people!"_ Yuya also agreed with Gongenzaka within Yuto's mind. He was really hurt by this revelation. His voice was cracking, mixing with denial.

" _Appearance can be deceiving, remember that Yuya. I heard from one of my comrades that one member of Academia used to be a spy within Resistance. He also uses Xyz to avoid detection until he reveals himself."_ Yuto said in his mind to Yuya.

" _Spy? So not only a betrayer, but also a spy?"_ Yuya could not believe it.

" _There may be more…"_

Suddenly, Yuto and Gongenzaka heard motorbike sound nearby. It became louder and louder.

" _This sound… Is it…?"_ Yuto had a good feeling about it.

A motorbike stopped in front of them, revealing a teenager along with three more. Ryoga, Yuzu and…

Ruri!

"Ruri!" Yuto excitedly greeted.

"Yuto!" Ruri quickly got off the D-Wheel and ran to him. She beamed at him in happiness. "You're here!"

"Yuzu!" Gongenzaka greeted the pink hair girl, who said his name in return.

"Hello Yuto!" Yuzu turned to Yuto and said hello without realizing Gongenzaka was there.

"What? Yuzu! How do you know this is Yuto?"

"Eh…" Yuzu covered her mouth.

"You lied to me and others?"

"Leave it for later Gongenzaka. No one wanted to do this to you and everyone else." Yuto calmed the big man down. "Hello everyone. Ruri, Ryoga, Yuzu and…" Yuto turned to the driver. "Yugo!"

"Hi Yuto, good to see you." He took off his helmet. "So you travel between dimensions too?" Yugo greeted the Xyz counterpart.

"Just like you reckless jerk!" Yuto said back and shook hands with him. Everyone around could not hide their surprise.

"Uh… can you tell me…" Gongenzaka muttered. "Why are they look like Yuya?"

"We don't know. But this is just like Ruri and Yuzu." Yuto told him.

"And my friend Rin as well." Yugo said.

"People with the same faces… things are getting stranger… I thought it only happens to Yuzu and Ruri…"

"Uh Yuzu!" Ruri realized something strange from Yuzu. "Your bracelet is missing!" She held up Yuzu's hand which clearly showed that her bracelet was gone.

"Yugo broke it." Yuzu revealed. Everyone turned to the reckless teenager.

Yugo himself starched the back of his head. "Sorry everyone… I thought Yuzu was Rin so... I quickly grabbed her hand and we collided with the ice block, breaking it. But uh it's still fine! The gem is still intact!"

"You broke Yuzu's bracelet?" Gongenzaka raised his voice. He approached Yugo. "Do you know Yuzu had it since she was born?! That bracelet is very important to her!"

"Wait wait wait!" Yugo hastily said. He put his hands up in defense. "I didn't mean it, but as I said the gem is still fine. I can go back there to pick it up and use superglue! But Yuzu, you had it since you were born?"

"Yeah. Why?"

"Really?" Ruri joined in. "I also had it since I became aware that I exist as well!" She raised her right hand, revealing her own bracelet.

"What? Don't tell me this is coincidental… because… my friend Rin has it as well!" Yugo said in disbelief.

"All the girls who look like Yuzu each has a bracelet?! I should have realized it sooner!" Gongenzaka exclaimed.

" _She did too?"_ Yuzu thought. _"If I remember correctly, Selena also had one…"_

Ruri's bracelet suddenly lit up brightly, illuminating the area.

"What the?" Ruri wondered. Little did she realize, her eyes was flashing in blue.

Everyone covered their eyes. And as for Yuto, he felt something strange…

Something was leaving him…

…

…

…

…

All of them opened their eyes again and what they saw shocked them madly. It was a boy. He wore exactly like Yuto now: orange shirt, beige long pants, white jacket.

But his hair was down and all over unlike Yuto's spiked hair…

They knew only one person would have those features…

"YUYA?!"

* * *

"Eh? What the… I… Huh?" Yuya looked at everyone, completely surprised. He then looked at his body. "Yuto? Yuzu? Everyone…"

"YUYAAAAA!" Gongenzaka could not hold his happiness any longer. Whatever the reason was, he was glad to see his best friend again. He hugged Yuya very tightly. "I couldn't believe it! You're back!"

"Huhhuh… I came back but… you're choking me Gon-chan!" Yuya pleaded.

"Yuya!" Yuzu joined in the hug as well. The result? She knocked Gongenzaka and Yuya down!

"You're finally back! I thought I would lose you for forever!"

"Hehe… I am back yeah but… please release me you two! I am being crushed!"

"Eh?" Yuzu realized. She slightly blushed. "So-sorry!" She and Gongenzaka released Yuya, allowing him to stand up.

"What happened to you Yuya? Why did you disappear?" Yuzu bombed questions at him.

"It's true that I disappeared after losing to Yugo but then I realized I…" He looked at the shocked Yuto. "I uh… you're not gonna believe it."

"Just tell me!" She pleaded.

"Uh Yuto… can you?"

Yuto sighed. "Fine… take it or not is your choice. Yuya became a spirit and stayed inside my mind after that night."

"WHAT? BECOME A SPIRIT INSIDE YOUR MIND?! ARE YOU KIDDING?" They both yelled. They continuously looked at Yuto, then Yuya, and then Yuto over and over. The boys could simply sighed and look away to confirm that was the truth. Although they did not say, Ryoga, Yugo and Ruri also did not believe it to be true.

"I wish I was. But it's the truth. After losing to Yugo, he gave me Odd-Eyes Pendulum Dragon and disappeared. Then even though I was not sure, I thought he had been inside me. During a dream I saw him crying over being mocked at, you know what right?"

Yuzu and Gongenzaka nodded.

"I was supposed not to have that dream, but I did not think about it too much. Then during the duel with Issao, I saw him again in my mind before summoning Dark Rebellion. That was when I first suspected he was in my mind. When I dueled the Ryozanpaku trio and Dennis appeared, I smiled. But I felt I was not the only one smiling. There was another person in my mind, and that was Yuya."

"Yuya?" Yuzu asked.

"Yep." The Entertaiment Duelist confirmed. "I did not see Yuto sooner because during my time in his mind, I saw all of his memories. All good and bad, the war included. They traumatized me too much, and combing with the… betrayal…" He eyed hatefully at Ryoga and Ruri, who sadly looked at him. "…made me rethink of my ability to bring genuine smile and happiness to others through my Dueling. I nearly gave up until Yuto duel Dennis. When that guy did something along with Trapeze Magician, I remembered my times with my father again, that was when I could smile again." He smiled, although the smile was less cheerful but more grim. "Thanks for that Yuto."

"No problem." He patted Yuya's back.

"Hahh…" Yuya made a deep breath. "Yugo!"

"What?" Yugo slightly became fearful of what Yuya would say to him. After all he mistook him for the kidnapped and harshly dueled him, causing this mess.

"Don't think hard about that incident. I did not blame you, at least for now. Don't worry about it anymore."

"Thanks Yuya…" Yugo said weakly. "I did not mean to harm you, I swear."

"The man Gongenzaka here will not blame you although I am really angry at you for what you did to my friend Yuya!" Gongenzaka reluctantly said. Yuzu wanted to say that she still not forgave him yet but she did not because she knew she would cause further tension.

"All right, let's forget about this for a while." Yuya proposed. "Academia is still here, we need to stop them."

"And find others too!" Ruri said. "Does anyone know where Shun is?"

"Shun?"

"He's… he's my brother." She admitted.

"What? He's your brother all along?" Gongenzaka was met with another surprise today. "Is there another secret you and Ryoga hide?!"

"Typical for a bitch like you…" Yuya spitefully mocked, earning harsh looks from Yuzu, Yuto and Ryoga. No one could deny it though for what he had gone through.

"I don't want to say this, but don't be a hypocrite! You said you forgive me but not them?" Yugo said to the brooding Yuya.

"Hm! Fine… we need to stop them first, then we will argue later. Got it?"

Silence occurred.

"Okay. We will all go. Yuzu, Yuto, Gongenzaka, Yugo…"

"Kamishiro and Kurosaki…"

* * *

"Heh!" Sora smirked. "Hey! You think you have won? So foolish!"

"Magic Card, Death-Toy Fusion activate! I banish Edge Imp Scissors and Furnimal Dog from my graveyard…"

"Yūgō Shōkan! Appear now! Sea devil that steals freedom and pulls everything into the darknest depths of the sea! Death-Toy Piton Kraken!" A purple octopus with several blades on its legs appeared. Its two larger blades struck the ground.

 **Death-Toy Piton Kraken** WATER/Demon/Fusion/Effect/LV8/ **2200** /3000

"Sa… I will come…" Sora smiled, his expression… mad and creepy. "THE REAL FUN HAS JUST ONLY BEGUN!" Sakaki Yuya's infamous catchphrase in the darkest tone possible for a 13-year-old child.

"Death-Toy Piton Kraken's monster effect activates! Satellite Cannon Falcon goes to the graveyard!" It shot out blades, aiming at the cannon.

"What?!" Shun gasped. "But… Satellite Cannon Falcon's monster effect activates! By detaching an Overlay Unit…" The light ball exploded. "Piton Kraken loses 800 for each "Raid Raptors" monsters in my graveyard!" It managed to fire several shots at the kraken before its blade made it disappear.

 **Death-Toy Piton Kraken** ATK 2200 - 0

"Not yet!" Sora said. "I normal summon Furnimal Owl again!" The cute monster appeared.

"It only has 1000 ATK." Shun told Sora, who just continued smiling madly.

"Really… who said I would attack you with it?"

"What do you mean?"

"Furnimal Owl's monster effect… activates! By paying 500 LP…" Electricity crackled but Sora just shrugged it off, resuming his slasher face.

 **Sora** : 600 - 100 [0]

"I can perform a Fusion Summon!"

"Yūgō Shōkan! Appear now Level 8! Death-Toy Sabre Tiger!" A creepy teddy tiger flew out. It had dark blue skin, numerous claws on its head, mouth and legs, a set of red eyes in its mouth.

 **Death-Toy Sabre Tiger** DARK/Demon/Fusion/Effect/LV8/ **2400** /2000

"It gains 400 ATK due to its effects!"

 **Death-Toy Sabre Tiger** ATK 2400 - 2800

At this moment, Selena ran up to the destroyed temple, seeing the duel.

"Let me remind you… your LP is… 1200 right?" Shun froze completely, he knew he would lose soon. His only monster in his hand only worked when he had another one on the field, and now it was gone…

"This is over! Battle! Death-Toy Sabre Tiger, direct attack!" The monster obeyed.

"Dig a hole for Shun… the remnant of Xyz!"

"Shun? Kurosaki Shun?" Selena muttered.

Sabre Tiger delivered a very strong punch at Shun's face, knocking him backwards while he yelled in massive pain.

The Duel Anchor deactivated, nothing can hold Shun back from the stairs outside…

Shun continued to be thrown back, flying across the shocked Selena. He felt down the stairs and touched the ground face-down…

The Xyz survivor, the loner, the aloof brother…

Had lost…

 **Shun** : 1200 - 0 [1]

…

…

…

* * *

 **Fanfic OC Cards**

 **Soul Barrier**

(Trap Card)

When an opponent's monster declares an attack on a monster you control: negate the attack, and if you do, your monster's ATK becomes double of its original ATK.

 **Predator Plants Bladderworizard**

DARK/Plant/Effect/LV6/2300/1600

2 "Predator Plants" monsters

You can Special Summon this card by banishing 2 "Predator Plants" monsters in your GY. You can only Special Summon "Predator Plants Bladderworizard" once per turn this way. If this card is Special Summoned: Place 2 Predator Counters on monsters your opponent controls. Monsters with Predator Counter loses 800 ATK. If a "Predator Plants" monster(s) you control other than this card is destroyed by battle: (Quick Effect) You can Release this card; gain LP equal to the damage you took during this Battle Phase, then you can place 2 Predator Counters on monsters your opponent controls.

 **Predator Plants Centaur Bromeliads**

DARK/Plant/Fusion/Effect/LV6/2400/1700

2 "Predator Plants" monsters

At the start of the Battle Phase: You can activate this effect, monsters your opponent control with a Predator Counter have their effects negated until the end of that Battle Phase. At the end of the Battle Phase, if this card destroys an opponent's monster by battle: You can draw 1 card, if that monster had a Predator Counter before it is destroyed, you can draw 2 cards instead.

 **Lyrical Luscinia - Ruby Pigeon**

WIND/Bird Beast/Effect/LV1/100/100

When an opponent's monster declares a direct attack: You can Special Summon this card (from your hand), and if you do, end the Battle Phase. You can Release this card, then target up to 2 "Lyrical Luscinia" monsters in your GY; Special Summon them. They have their effects negated and cannot be used as materials for an Xyz Summon, except for the Xyz Summon of a WIND Bird Beast monster.

 **Lyrical Luscinia - Amethyst Sparrow**

WIND/Bird Beast/Pendulum/Effect/Scale 0/LV1/100/100

 **Pendulum Effect:** (Condition) You can only Pendulum Summon "Lyrical Luscinia" monsters.

If you Pendulum Summon 3 or more "Lyrical Luscinia" monsters: You can draw 2 cards. At the end of the Battle Phase: Inflict 100 damage to your opponent for each time a "Lyrical Luscinia" Xyz monster you control inflicts battle damage from a direct attack.

 **Monster Effect:** You can Release this card, then target 1 "Lyrical Luscinia" card in your GY; add it to your hand. You can only use this effect of "Lyrical Luscinia - Amethyst Sparrow" once per turn.

 **Lyrical Luscinia - Amethyst Blackbird**

WIND/Bird Beast/Pendulum/Effect/Scale 2/LV1/100/100

 **Pendulum Effect:** (Condition) You can only Pendulum Summon "Lyrical Luscinia" monsters.

Once per turn: You can Release 1 Xyz monster you control; Special Summon up to 3 "Lyrical Luscinia" monsters that have a level in your GY, and if the Released monster was a "Lyrical Luscinia" Xyz monster, you can destroy 1 card your opponent controls. They have their effects negated and cannot attack.

 **Monster Effect:** You can Release this card; add 1 "Lyrical Luscinia" Magic/Trap card from your Deck to your hand. You can only use this effect of "Lyrical Luscinia - Amethyst Blackbird" once per turn.

 **Soul Shark**

WATER/Fish/Effect/LV1/0/1500

If this card is sent to the GY: You can Special Summon it. You can target 1 "Shark" monster you control; the Level of this card become that monster's Level. If this card is in your GY when you Special Summon an Xyz monster: You can attach this card to it as an material, and if you do, that monster gains 1500 ATK until the end of this turn. You can only use each effect of "Soul Shark" once per turn.

 **Sword Shark**

WATER/Fish/Effect/LV4/800/1400

If you control a "Shark" monster: You can Special Summon this card (from your hand).

 **CNo.101: S** **・** **H** **・** **Spark Knight**

WATER/Warrior/Xyz/Effect/R6/3000/1800

4 Level 6 Monsters

Cannot be summoned by an effect of a "Rank-Up-Magic" card, except by banishing 1 "Rank-Up-Magic The Seventh One" from your GY and using a "CNo.101: S・H・Dark Knight" monster you control with no material as material (This summon is treated as an Xyz Summon. You can still Xyz Summon this card normally). Once per turn: You can target 1 card your opponent controls; attach it to this card as a face-up material, then if it was a monster, it gains ATK equal to its original ATK, also inflict the same amount as damage to your opponent. If this card is destroyed and sent to the GY while it has materials: You can Special Summon this card from your GY, then gain LP equal to its original ATK, and if you do, it cannot be destroyed this turn. Once per turn, you can detach all materials from this card: Special Summon a number of WATER monsters from your GY, up to the number of materials detached.

 **Covenant with the Despair Dimension**

(Continuous Spell Card)

The first time "DD" monsters or "Covenant" cards you control would be destroyed by your opponent's card effects each turn, it is not destroyed. Once per turn: You can target 1 "DDD" Xyz monster in your GY or on your side of the field; if that target is in your GY, Special Summon it. Its effects are negated. Then, regardless, Special Summon from your Extra Deck, 1 "DDD" Xyz Monster with 1 Rank higher than that target, by using this card as material, and if you do, you can attach 1 "DD" monster in your GY to the summoned monster as material (This Special Summon is treated as an Xyz Summon. Attached materials also become materials on the Summoned monster). Once per turn, during the Standby Phase: take 1000 damage.

 **Gagaga Galaxy**

EARTH/Warrior/Xyz/Effect/R4/2100/2000

2 Level 4 Monsters

"Gagaga" monsters you control can still attack even when they cannot because of their effects. You can detach 1 material from this card; apply one of the following effects.

*Special Summon 1 "Gagaga" monsters from your hand or Deck. If you Special Summon from your Deck, your opponent takes no damage this turn.

*Add 1 "Gagaga" Spell/Trap card or monster from your Deck to your hand.

You can only activate the effects of "Gagaga Galaxy" once per turn, and only once that turn. If this Xyz Summoned monster is sent to the GY: draw 1 card.

 **Gagaga Chevalier**

EARTH/Warrior/Xyz/Effect/R5/2700/2000

3 Level 5 Monsters

You can also Xyz Summon this card by using a Rank 4 "Gagaga" Xyz Monster you control with no materials as material. Once per turn, you can detach 1 material from this card: add 1 "Rank-Up-Magic" card from your Deck to your hand, also you cannot Special Summon during the turn you activate this effect, except by the effect of the "Rank-Up-Magic" card you added this turn. During either player's turn, except the turn this card was sent to the GY: You can banish this card from your GY; add 1 "Rank-Up-Magic" card from your GY or Deck to your hand, also you cannot Special Summon during the turn you activate this effect, except by the effect of the "Rank-Up-Magic" card you added this turn.

 **Lone Survivor**

(Counter Trap Card)

When an opponent's monster declares an attack while you control only 1 monster and your opponent controls 3 or more monsters: Target your monster; negate its effects, also draw 1 card, and if it is a monster, the target gains ATK equal to the original ATK or original DEF of the drawn monster, whichever higher (your choice, if tied), otherwise you lose the Duel. The target cannot be destroyed by battle this turn and it is unaffected by your opponent's card effects this turn.

 **Junk Distributor**

WIND/Machine/Effect/Tuner/LV4/0/0

When an opponent's monster declares an attack while this card is in your hand: You can, immediately after this effect resolves, Synchro Summon 1 WIND Synchro Monster, using monsters from your hand or field as Synchro Materials, including this card. That Synchro Monster cannot be destroyed by battle this turn.

 **Death-Toy Raid**

(Counter Trap Card)

When your opponent activates a Magic/Trap or monster effect while you control a "Death-Toy", "Furnimal" or "Edge Imp" monster: negate the activation, and if you do, destroy it. When your opponent declares an attack while this card is in your GY: You can banish this card from your GY; half the battle damage from that battle, and if you do, draw 1 card.

* * *

 **Finished! Now Yuzu's bracelet is broken! No more banishing!**

 **You guys may complain that Yuya is slightly OOC, but to be honest, his depression is pretty deep and sad. Realizing his friends have lied to him from the start, then seeing painful memories from a stranger that is close to those liars, he would not be even sure whatever to do, whatever to say and whoever to trust anymore. The only choice is to temporarily shun everyone.**

 **I bet you are surprised by Reiji's Rank-Up! DDD sucks with their Xyz monsters, at least Konami should have created a card that allows Rank-Up for them!**

 **One question: Do you guys want me to keep Yuya's relationship with the Xyz squad (mainly Yuto and Ruri) negative like Rick-Lori-Shane or not?**

* * *

 **Next Chapter Preview**

 **Rescue Mission - A Way In But Out**

Yusho, Asuka and Ryo infiltrate Academia to rescue Rin and derail Akaba Leo's plan. They encounter some guards on the way.

 **This is matrixnis, out!**


	31. Scale 31

**Hello everyone, today we are going to take a step back to teleport ourselves to the Fusion Dimension, where the rescue mission (Rin) is about to happen. And just to be sure, the mission will be pretty big with something I am sure that all of you will be completely unexpected (not right now though), feel free to guess which twist is and write it down on your reviews. I really wished this idea would have been used in the anime.**

 **Today, Marufuji Ryo, Tenjoin Asuka and Sakaki Yusho are the main stars in the darkness of Academia!**

 **Nothing else to say so… Enjoy the chapter!**

* * *

 **Chapter 31: Rescue Mission - A Way In But Out**

* * *

"We are close to Academia."

Yusho informed his students as their boat slowly approached the Duel School, or rather, the former Duel School for some people. The fortress disguided as a boarding school to train youngsters to become Pro Duelists, they were going to infiltrate it today. Two days ago, Yusho managed to find out that Academia was going to the Standard Dimension for a mission, they sent some of their best Duelists and Obelisk Force to do it, which means right now Academia's defense was weakened. Also Ryo had said that Darkness, or rather Tenjoin Fubuki - Asuka's older brother - was called back to Academia to do it, which means the mission was pretty big. These news saddened Asuka and worried Yusho deeply since Fubuki was so zealous to Academia's cause unlike Asuka and Yusho's family lived in Standard. Before deflecting Academia, Ryo had heard about a secret mission that the Professor gave to Yuri and apparently Fubuki knew it but they never told him the details; he later found out some of it on his own that the mission was to capture a number of girls. Even though he did not know why the Professor wanted to do it, they must be important for him and so far he had captured one of them which was in the western tower of Academia. If they could rescue her, they would derail Akaba Leo's plan.

"Alright, let's change to the diving suits." Asuka said.

The trio went into separate rooms and began changing into the diving suits. A black skintight suit covering their entire body expect their hands, feet and face. Their plan involved approaching an underwater exhaust shaft and destroy it to gain entry to Academia from the water. Yusho would disable the cameras and communication to allow Ryo and Asuka to go to the towers without hindrance, he would then try to find out more about Professor's plan, probably destroy his assets before regrouping with his students to go back to their entrance to get out.

After covering their Duel Disks by waterproof bags, the trio went to the boat's control room and stopped it near the bushes to avoid Academia finding out.

"Gotta say something." Ryo said.

"What?" Asuka wondered.

"Teacher, you're big, and Asuka, you're way sexier in this suit." He teased. "With this, you could cause a big boner to them Academia!"

"Stop this Ryo!" Asuka felt slightly embarrassed.

"I'm not supposed to say this as a teacher, but Ryo." Yusho eyed at his student. "Stop making Asuka arouse us!"

"Teacher…!" Asuka blushed for real, Yusho and Ryo chuckled freely. "All right stop it everyone. We got a mission to do." She quickly shut down the "interesting" conversation.

"Okay. Good luck everyone." Yusho wished his students luck.

"Got it teacher."

The three dove down under the water and approached the exhaust shaft.

"Asuka, you got the cutter." Yusho commanded.

"Roger that." Asuka pulled out an oxy-hidro cutter from her hips and cut each metal bars of the gate that formed into a rectangular hole. She kicked the gate, opening the hole to allow them to swim through.

"How long are we going to swim through this tunnel?" Ryo said, slightly annoyed.

"Easy Ryo. Only a minute. This is the plan remember. Don't let your emotions engulf you." Yusho confronted the student.

"I know you want to make Academia pay for what they did, I want it too, but you need to control yourself Ryo." Asuka said.

Ryo said nothing, opting to focus on the mission first. _"Academia… I will never forgive you… for what you made me do and for… doing that…"_

True to Yusho's word, they surfaced a minute later. Asuka cut another manhole cover and gained entrance. They were now in Academia's boat hanger, a long dome tunnel storing boats for travel between this place and the land. They climbed up to the steps and took off the bags.

"The control panel is this way, come on."

They opened the door near them and walked through a corridor which had several neon lights shining. They quietly went through another one, avoiding a Ra Yellow guard nearby. After a short while, they got to the control room at the end of the corridor.

"Get ready." Ryo said as he took out three cards and activated it. "Magic Card, Tear Gas." Three bomb materialized and Ryo threw it into the room at several places after slightly opened the door. He closed it and the trio put on the gas masks. They could hear multiple coughs from the students inside the room before they eventually stopped.

Yusho opened the door. The room was filled with gas and several students lying down unconscious. He went to the control panel and planted a bug in there.

"All right. Camera's handled. Leo will now only see the same frame every time for some time. This bug will not work for long." He then did something on the computers.

"COMMUNICATION SYSTEM DISABLED."

"Good. This will stop them, also for a while." Yusho informed.

Ryo and Asuka pulled the students to the locker outside and gagged them before planting several sticky bombs in several computers and screens.

"Bombs planted teacher." Ryo reported.

"Good, I will stay here trying to find out more stuffs in here. You two rescue the girl. Remember, if you have to duel, do it quickly. The explosions will make them aware, and then this place as well will be discovered quickly." The students nodded and they went outside, not forgetting to put on earpieces for communication.

As they approached the stairs, several footsteps could be heard.

"I'm tired buddy."

"Try to get over it. Gonna rest soon you know."

"Shit! Two guards!" Ryo hissed. He and Asuka took cover behind the doors. The guards went through and when they walked in a little bit further, they sneaked behind them and hit them in their necks, knocking out the two guards. Same as before, they tied the guards up and hid them.

"Come on let's go." They went upstairs and took position besides the wall. They remained silent as they heard footsteps nearby. After the sounds were gone, they quietly opened the door. Ryo pointed at the door and they went to it. The cameras there slightly shocked Asuka but she quickly calmed down, knowing they will not be busted for a moment.

They opened the big door, the outside view went to their eyes. They were now standing just below the tower.

"There is no guard down here." Asuka remarked.

"They must have one or two on top of the tower, and there would be no way we can avoid dueling them."

"I know. Let's go."

They began to climb the circular stairs quickly although still as quiet as ever. During the way they did not forget to look around for potential enemies. It took them several minutes and when they got there, a guard was standing. He was big, he wore

"Apollo…" Ryo whispered. There was a slight anger in his voice though.

"How can we go past through him?" Asuka muttered.

"Hey! Who's there?" Apollo suddenly noticed something wrong and went to their hiding place.

"Shit! He found us." Asuka gasped but still keeping the low voice.

"Not just him!" A female voice suddenly spoke up behind them and when they turned around, another guard was there smiling at them.

"Diana…" Asuka spoke. _"How did she find us and sneak up to here…?"_

"Two invaders. Long lost Honor Student Tenjoin Asuka and… huh?" The man accompanying with Asuka shocked her.

"What? You're…" Apollo froze.

"Kaiser!" Diana also said in shock as well.

"Not possible! Yuri had carded you!"

"Turned out I escaped from death, and now I will hunt you Academia!" Ryo declared.

Apollo quickly contacted his comrades. "Academia personnel, this is Apollo! We got two intruders! Send backup immediately!"

No response.

Nothing but static.

"Academia, do you copy? Do you copy?!"

"What did you do Kaiser?!" Diana wondered.

"We shut down your communication. No one will help you two arrogant thugs!"

Apollo shrugged off the fear of facing Ryo and Asuka and confronted them. "I don't know how you escaped Yuri's grasp, but fine. I will duel you, the traitorous asshole. Diana, handle that honor student bitch Asuka!" Apollo clicked a button on a device that locked the staircase by opening an energy wall from below the final step that surrounded the entire rear of the ground, leaving Asuka and Diana behind at the stairs.

"Asuka!" Ryo yelled in concern.

"I'm fine Ryo! Just take care of Apollo!"

"Okay!"

Asuka the faced Diana, who smiled. She showed a button identical to the one that Apollo used. "Apollo and I each have a button of this lock, you can only take it if you defeat me. The rebellious sister of Darkness, Academia is hunting you now, and now Kaiser is here, we will finish you two, two birds with one stone!"

 **DUEL!**

 **Marufuji Ryo** : 4000 [5]

 **Apollo** : 4000 [5]

"Let's see who will have an arrow pierced!" Asuka challenged. She and Diana stood at the stairs and started a dangerous Duel that could actually kill them if they fell of the ledge.

 **Tenjoin Asuka** : 4000 [5]

 **Diana** : 4000 [5]

"I take the first turn." Diana declared. "Magic Card, Fusion activate! I, using Guardian Baou and Warrior Lady of the Moon, Fusion!"

"When the shining moonlight hits the Flamberge, the two warriors become one! Fusion Summon! Moon Protector! Descend!"

 **Moon Protector** DARK/Warrior/Fusion/Effect/LV7/ **2100** /2400

"And now Moon Protector's effect activates! A Guardian Shield Token special summon!" The protector raised its spear, a light pillar of light appeared behind and from it, a tablet descended.

"As long as the token is here, you cannot attack Moon Protector. Now I set down a card and turn end." Diana completed her first turn.

* * *

"From my hand, I activate the Magic Card Fusion! I use Guardian Tryce and Warrior of the Sun, Fusion!"

"When the radiant sunlight hits the twin blades, the two warriors become one! Fusion Summon! Sun Protector! Descend!"

 **Sun Protector** LIGHT/Warrior/Fusion/Effect/LV7/ **2400** /2100

"Monster effect activates! A Guardian Shield Token special summon."

"As long as the token is here, you cannot attack Sun Protector. Now I set down a card and turn end." Apollo also finished his turn.

"Let's go. Ore no turn, draw!" Ryo drew his card. "Magic Card, Emergency Cyber activate! I add Cyber Dragon to my hand!" Ryo added his desired card.

" _Cyber Dragon… your signature monster…"_ Apollo thought excitedly.

"Then I normal summon Cyber Dragon Core." A snake-like machine creature made of multiple balls linked together appeared.

 **Cyber Dragon Core** LIGHT/Machine/Effect/LV2/ **400** /1500

"Its effects allow me to add a "Cyber" Magic or Trap card to my hand. And then Magic Card, Machine Duplication activate!"

"It's here…" Apollo smiled.

"From my Deck, two Cyber Dragons special summon!" Ryo slapped down two identical cards. Two mechanized Chinese dragons showed up.

2x **Cyber Dragon** LIGHT/Machine/Effect/LV5/ **2100** /1600

"And now I, using the 2 Cyber Dragons, overlay!" The two Chinese dragons turned into yellow swirls of energy before joining in the Overlay Network.

"Xyz Shōkan! Appear now Rank 5! Cyber Dragon Nova!" Rising out from the portal, a mechanized Chinese dragon with white wings that had red lines and black rear, several small yellow and red orbs on its body made its presence known.

 **Cyber Dragon Nova** LIGHT/Machine/Xyz/Effect/R5/ **2100** /1600

* * *

Asuka quickly slapped down a card to the blade. "From my hand, Cyber Petit Angel summon!"

 **Cyber Petit Angel** LIGHT/Angel/Effect/LV2/ **300** /200

"Monster effect activates! I add Machine Angel Ritual to my hand!" Asuka added a Ritual Magic to her hand. "And activate it!" As soon as she did, an altar flew down from the sky.

"Ritual deck…" Diana mumbled. "Such an outdated method…"

"Outdated or not, it's effective!" Asuka countered. "I, tributing the Level 2 Cyber Petit Angel and Level 4 Cyber Staker, Ritual Summon!" The tributes turned into flame and flew around the altar, heating it up. Fire then erupted from the center and shot up brightly to the sky.

"Gishiki Shōkan! Appear now Level 6! Cyber Angel Idaten!" Descending down from the fire pillar, a female cybernetic monster with taffy skin, black bra, sweetpants and a piece of fabric around its hips, a strange deep pink helmet that was long and spread around the back like a wing appeared.

 **Cyber Angel Idaten** LIGHT/Angel/Ritual/Effect/LV6/ **1600** /2000

* * *

"A Cyber Dragon Xyz monster… you started using it after leaving Academia?" Apollo said. "Or a long time ago? Back when you infiltrated Resistance?"

"Not a problem to you!" Ryo raised his voice. "I will continue the duel!"

"Do you want defeat so much that you dare to bring out a monster with only 1600 ATK?" Diana mocked the Honor Student.

"Shut up!" Asuka said. "Now I activate Idaten's-"

"Wait up!" Diana interrupted.

"What?"

Apollo and Diana both activated their card. "Continuous Trap, Protector Adoration activate!" Both Cyber Dragon Nova and Cyber Angel Idaten each got dust poured down and glowed red and blue respectively.

"It negates Nova's effect and create two more Protector's Shield Tokens on my field!" Apollo explained the effect as two more stone tablets slowly appeared.

"It negates Cyber Angel Idaten's effect and special summons two Protector's Shield Tokens!" On Diana's field, two more tokens showed up.

"Before that!" Ryo suddenly said. "I activate Nova's quick effect! By banishing Cyber Dragon Core…" The snake-like machine disintegrated in a vortex. "It gains 2100 ATK in this turn!"

 **Cyber Dragon Nova** ATK 2100 - 4200

"Dammit…" Asuka cursed. "I cannot use Idaten's effect…! But I can still activate Cyber Staker's effect! I can draw 2 cards and discard one!" Asuka quickly drew two cards and discarded one in her hand in just a few seconds.

"Your monster can attack all tokens." Apollo said.

"But if you do not, the target will be destroyed at the end of the Battle Phase." Diana warned.

"Sa! What are you going to do? Attack all of the tokens?" Apollo provoked.

"Or letting your monster being destroyed?" Diana said.

"As if I would think about those trivial stuffs!" Asuka quickly chose what to do. "Equip Magic, Ritual Weapon will increase Idaten's ATK by 1500!" Idaten got its new equipment: a golden armor on its left arm with a bow attached above it.

 **Cyber Angel Idaten** ATK 1600 - 3100

"Idaten, attack Protector's Shield Token!" In an instant, the cybernetic monster fired an energy arrow at a tablet, shattering it.

"Battle!" Ryo also declared. "Cyber Dragon Nova, attack a Protector's Shield Token!" The monster charged energy into a small sphere on its mouth before releasing it in a red stream.

"Evolution Nova Burst!" The hot stream instantly turned a tablet into ashes.

Apollo did not care much about the destruction of his monster, he instead chuckled. "At this moment, Sun Protector's effect activates!" The guardian rose up its staff, raining down dust on Cyber Dragon Nova and Ryo, making the former Academia elite hold his chest in pain and the machine dragon squirm.

"Reduce Nova's ATK by 800 and your LP by the same amount!"

 **Cyber Dragon Nova** : 4200 - 3400

 **Ryo** : 4000 - 3200 [5]

"Moon Protector's effect activates!" It raised its staff, making Diana, Asuka and her monster bath in dust. "It reduces Idaten's ATK by 800 and increases my LP by the same amount!"

 **Cyber Angel Idaten** : 3100 - 2300

 **Diana** : 4000 - 4800 [1]

"Reducing my monster's strength while increasing your own LP… Such a cheap strategy!" Asuka hissed under her breath.

* * *

"If you don't want to lose LP then end your turn now, but then you will lose Cyber Dragon Nova, but to be honest, that monster is so shameful to be created! The Professor would be proud of me!" Apollo ranted. "After what I did to him, it will be more interesting to do it to you Kaiser!"

"Wait until you die asshole!" Ryo pointed at another token. "Cyber Dragon Nova! Attack another token! Evolution Nova Burst!" Another token died because of the hot and destructive stream.

"Foolish! You don't know how to quit don't you?" Once again, Ryo and his Xyz monster suffered another punishment.

 **Cyber Dragon Nova** : 3400 - 2600

 **Ryo** : 3200 - 2400 [3]

"At… attack the third token now!" Ryo commanded his dragon to fire another blast, destroying the last tablet.

"Sun Protector's effect activates again!" Apollo quickly said.

 **Cyber Dragon Nova** : 2600 - 1800

 **Ryo** : 2400 - 1600 [3]

* * *

"You think a strategy like that would stop me? Battle!" Asuka declared. "Attack another token!" Idaten complied and pierced the tablet, destroying it.

"Once again, Moon Protector's effect activates!" Diana said. Asuka and Diana were bathed in dust once again.

 **Cyber Angel Idaten** : 2300 - 1500

 **Diana** : 4800 - 5600 [1]

"The third time!" Idaten fired another arrow, destroying the last token.

"Moon Protector's effect!" Diana quickly said.

 **Cyber Angel Idaten** : 1500 - 700

 **Diana** : 5600 - 6400 [1]

* * *

Apollo smirked at the sight of a downed Kaiser who was now looking down at the ground emotionlessly, probably regretting betraying Academia or something else.

"You sacrifice your LP to keep your ace monster? But now it only has 1600 ATK, what's the point of keeping it?"

Ryo suddenly looked at Apollo with piercing eyes, startling him. "There is!"

"Huh?"

"With this, all of your Protector's Shield Tokens are gone!" Ryo held a card using his index and middle fingers and flipped the card, revealing it. "Quick-Play Magic, Cyberload Fusion activate! I return the Fusion materials that are banished, in the graveyard or I control to the Deck to Fusion Summon! I, using the banished Cyber Dragon Core and Cyber Dragon Nova, Yūgō!"

"What?!" Apollo gasped in shock as a Fusion vortex fill with electricity appeared behind Ryo. Core materialized and flew in the vortex along with Nova.

"Dragon born from the other dimension, join together with the heart of your race and show your superiority to the word!"

"Yūgō Shōkan! Appear now! Level 9!" An orb appeared and two heads sped out from it. "Chimeratach Overdragon!"

 **Chimeratech Overdragon** DARK/Machine/Fusion/Effect/LV9/ **?** /?

"Since Nova has left the field, Protector Adoration is destroyed!" Ryo pointed at the trap, it quickly disintegrated.

"To bring out a Fusion monster… I never thought you would use it again…!"

"Who said I could not use it anymore?! I just don't want to use Fusion more often!" Ryo said while still looking hatefully at Apollo. "The moment you carded my brother Sho, this is personal now! I hate Fusion, but I am still willing to use it if that means I get a chance to kill all of you!"

"Chimeratech Overdragon gains 800 original ATK and DEF for each Fusion materials!"

 **Chimeratech Overdragon** **?** /? - **1600** /1600

"And now Quick-Play Magic, Limiter Removal activate! It doubles my monster's ATK!"

 **Chimeratech Overdragon** ATK 1600 - 3200

"ATK… 3200… but it is still not enough to defeat-huh?" Apollo stopped when he saw Ryo's smile…

A slasher one…

"Really? Chimeratech Overdragon can attack a number of times equal to the number of materials used for its summon!"

"What? Which means…"

"Right… Which means Chimeratech Overdragon can attack TWICE!"

"N…no!"

"Die for carding my brother son of a bitch!" Ryo yelled. "Chimeratech Overdragon, attack Sun Protector! Evolution Result Burst!" The two-headed dragon fired two streams that joined together in the middle of the way, sending the protector to a "better" place: the graveyard, in pain.

 **Apollo** : 4000 - 3200 [1]

"And now attack again!" Ryo yelled as loud as he could. "Die for killing my brother! Evolution Result Burst!" The machine dragon fired another stream directly at Apollo, who screamed in massive pain before flying backwards to the energy wall behind. The impact hurt him more and he collapsed to the ground, losing consciousness, smoke coming out of his body.

 **Apollo** : 3200 - 0 [1]

The multiple-headed machine dragon disappeared, Ryo took out his Deck before inserting it again and slowly approached him to get the button and card him.

"ARRGGHHHHHH!"

"What the…?" Ryo feared for the worst.

"Asuka…?!"

* * *

Diana chuckled. "You increased my LP just to keep that weak monster? Now it only has 700 ATK, what's the point of keeping it?"

The wind flew through the tower, moving the bangs of Asuka's hair. The beautiful blonde answered confidently. "Of course it is!"

"Huh?"

"With this, all of your Protector's Shield Tokens are gone! From my hand…"

"Quick-Play Ritual Magic, Machine Angel Supreme Ritual activate!"

"WHAT?! Quick-Play Ritual Magic you say?!" Diana gasped in complete surprise. Never before had she heard about a Ritual Magic that is also a Quick-Play Magic at the same time.

Another altar descended down from the sky. "This card lets me perform a Ritual Summon for a "Cyber Angel" Ritual Monster by Tributing monster I control, in the hand and/or banishing monsters in my graveyard. I, tributing the Level 6 Cyber Angel Idaten and banishing the Level 4 Cyber Staker, Ritual Summon!" The two monsters turned into ten blue flames, they then flew up and stayed at the rear of the altar, filling a perfect circle. The flame at the center burst up to the sky.

"Brilliant angel who hides infinite power! Reveal yourself to the whole world, and illuminate all creation! Descend!" From above, a new monster flew down using its four bright wings. It had four hands like the real Vishnu, a large yellow gear behind it. It wore a pink wine gourd hat, a skintight suit with light blue and pink stripes, two white shoulders pads with green stripes, several rings on its hands and knee-length boots.

"Level-10! Cyber Angel Vishnu!"

 **Cyber Angel Vishnu** LIGHT/Angel/Ritual/Effect/LV10/ **3000** /3000

"When this card is Ritual Summoned, it destroys all monsters special summoned from the Extra Deck you control and inflicts 1000 damage for each!"

"What? My… Moon Protector?!"

"Ascension Burst!" The ring shot out energy bullets at Diana's monster, destroying it,

 **Diana** : 6400 - 5400 [1]

"And now Cyber Angel Idaten's effect! It increases Vishnu's ATK by 1000!" The machine angel on Asuka's field gained a blue aura.

 **Cyber Angel Vishnu** ATK 3000 - 4000

"But it only has 4000 ATK! I will still have LP left-"

"No. This Duel is now over." Asuka said.

"What the hell?"

She revealed Vishnu's another effect. "After using its destruction effect, it can attack twice this turn!"

"No! I will lose!"

"Go now! Cyber Angel Vishnu!" The monster closed its eye protector and generated two energy balls on its hands. The wings gathered behind and created two more. They together joined into two large streams of energy and blasted at Diana. The guard screamed in pain before being sent flying down the stairs. Asuka quickly ran to help her but she was too late…

Diana fell off the stairs, Asuka could only watch as her legs finally tripped off and fell with her body

The guard of the tower screamed as she fell down…

The scared face she made remained until blood and distance faded it away from Asuka's view…

 **Diana** : 5400 - 2400 - 0 [1]

* * *

Asuka looked on in complete shock, her helping hand frozen in place. Ryo had to shake her shoulders to bring her back to her senses.

"Hey! Hey! Asuka! Asuka!"

"Ryo?!" Asuka realized.

"What happened?" Ryo asked. Asuka continued looking down the ground in denial. And without asking, Ryo knew what happened to Diana.

"Dammit…"

"I killed her…" Asuka's voice trembled. "I killed her… I…"

"Don't think about it right now. No one could have helped her. She sealed her own fate." Ryo tried to talk her out of her shock.

"But I still did it Ryo. We're not supposed to do it."

"Focus Asuka!" He shook her shoulders vigoruously. "We need to save the girl in that castle and get out here ASAP. Sooner or later they will find Diana and storm in here!"

Asuka calmed her breath down. "Yeah… thanks Ryo."

"Thank me later. Let's continue the mission."

Ryo and Asuka went inside the room in the tower and saw a locked door.

"The lock is pretty old, let me do it." Asuka activated a card. "Magic Card, Ritual Weapon!" She grabbed the materialized armor and slammed it down on the lock, breaking it in one hit. Ryo then kicked the door opened, startling a girl inside.

The girl quickly saw Ryo and Asuka but she mistook them for Academia agents so she crawled backwards in fear, repeatedly pleaded them to stop.

"No no no no! Get away from me! Get away!"

"Hey hey please calm down. We are here to break you out." Asuka sweetly told the scared girl.

"You two… break me out…?"

"Yeah. We are not Academia, or no longer. We are fighting against it. You see we are in diving suits, we infiltrate this place to rescue you and force the Professor's plan to stop."

The girl's breath returned to normal. She felt relieved. "Thank you… what's your name?"

"My name's Asuka." The blonde girl introduced herself.

"And… uh… my name's Ryo." Ryo said hesitantly.

"I am Rin. Uh… what's wrong Ryo-san?" She wondered.

"It's uh… you look like someone I know about…" Ryo said, unsure how she would respond.

"Selena?"

"What? Selena?" Asuka gasped. "You know her?"

"Uh. We once had a duel that Academia forced us to. She has the same face as I do, we don't know how but that's how it works."

"Whatever it is, we will leave it for later, now let's go! We cannot stay in here forever!"

"Right! Let me help you up." Asuka helped Rin up and together they both ran down the stairs.

Asuka contacted her teacher. "Teacher Yusho! We got the girl! What's the situation?"

Yusho answered. "Everything's quiet as of now. I am finding some interesting stuffs down here."

"Good! Try to find as much as you can and meet us at the tunnel!"

"Got it!"

"You have another comrade in here?" Rin asked.

"Yep. Our teacher." Ryo said.

"Your teacher?!" Of course anybody would find it impossible to have a teacher fighting with you.

"He's also fighting to stop Academia too. Think of it like Professor X if you know what I mean."

"Yeah I know that don't worry." Rin replied, slightly surprised at the pop culture reference.

They continued running as fast as they can. Along the way Rin suddenly stopped, holding her shoulders in pain.

"What's wrong Rin?" Asuka wondered.

"Don't worry, it's just… pain. From the times in here."

"Can you still run?"

"Yeah… I can hold my own." Rin got up and ran again with Ryo and Asuka. When they got down to the ground again, they came across Diana's corpse. Rin covered her mouth in shock.

"No way! She's… she's dead? I heard a scream out here earlier, was it…?"

"Yes…" Asuka reluctantly answered.

"Come on! We need to get to the rendezvous point now!" Ryo pressed the girls.

"You will not get outta here Kaiser!" A deep, male voice spoke up from their left. They were shocked to find out who, and this particular person angered Rin deeply.

"Sanders…!" Rin hissed.

* * *

 **Fanfic OC Cards**

 **Cyber Staker**

EARTH/Warrior/Effect/LV4/0/1800

Once per turn: You can target 1 "Cyber Angel" monster you control and declare a Level between 1 and 6; that card's Level becomes that Level until the end of this turn. If this card is Tributed or banished for a Ritual Summon of a "Cyber Angel" monster: You can draw 2 cards, then discard 1 card. You can only use each effect of "Cyber Staker" once per turn.

 **Machine Angel Supreme Ritual**

(Quick-Play Ritual Magic Card)

This card can be used to Ritual Summon any "Cyber Angel" Ritual Monster from your hand or GY. You must also Tribute monsters from your hand or field, and/or return monster from your GY to the Deck whose total Levels equal or exceed the Level of the Ritual Monster you Ritual Summon. If a LIGHT monster(s) you control would be destroyed by battle or card effect while this card is in your Graveyard, you can banish this card instead.

* * *

 **Well that was a nice change isn't it? Did you expect a Quick-Play Ritual Magic Card? Did you expect Sanders to intercept?**

 **Sorry for the short chapter, I was in a hurry to finish this to continue the Battle Royale arc.**

 **ARC-V missed a lot of opportunities and they could have used it to make it more memorable and for me this is one of them.**

 **The mission will not stop soon though, there is more to come, which is why I made this chapter short.**

 **Question: The infiltration section was inspired from a video game. Can you answer whose game it is?**

* * *

 **Next Chapter Preview**

 **(Warning: It's real!)**

 **War in Standard**

The battle rages on as multiple outside forces intercept in to stop it. Real losses are inevitable and for several people who have been together for a long time, this is the moment they will never forget, the moment they will change for forever…

 **This is matrixnis, out!**


	32. Scale 32

**Hello everyone I am back with a new chapter!**

 **First off, a really big thank you to maxtime. Your very long, detailed and comprehensive review about the characters helped me regain motivation to write again.**

 **Recently, I got struck with loss of motivation again, a thing in the summer that an introvert like me never likes, hence the slow update. Indulging myself in Elfen Lied helped somewhat but I wouldn't recommend it to anyone under 18.**

 **Let's go back to the Standard Dimension and see how the main cast is going to stop Academia!**

 **Hope you guys enjoy reading this chapter.**

* * *

 **Chapter 32: War in Standard**

* * *

Beep beep beep beep beep!

"A distress signal? From Yuri?!" Yuma said in bewilderment after checking the beeping sound from his Resistance Duel Disk. After running away from the LDS building, he and Darkness began to search for Selena according to the news from Obelisk Force. Suddenly they got that signal.

Darkness zoomed the map out to locate the location. "It's not that far from here! Let's go find him!"

They both ran to Yuri's location, passing several alley through the buildings. When they got to the place, there was no one there.

"What the? Where is he? The signal is supposed to come from here!"

Suddenly, a dumpster nearby shook and opened abruptly, and from the inside, someone burst out. That person was none other than Yuri!

"Yuri?! What the…" Yuma muttered.

"Why were you sleeping in that dumpster?" Darkness could not help but wonder.

"AHH! I DON'T KNOW!" Yuri growled uncharacteristically. "I dueled the girl Hiragi Yuzu and brought her down to 100 LP in a single Battle Phase, she then ran away in fear and I chased her."

"In the entire night?" Darkness said while covering his nose, Yuma did the same thing. Yuri's now got the new scent that they were sure only he liked.

"Yep. Then I finally located her, but suddenly her bracelet lit up and before I knew what was going on, I got inside this dumpster!"

"What nonsense are you talking about? You said that her bracelet has the power to banish you far away?!" Yuma said in disbelief.

"I don't believe in that shit." Darkness did not think it was true, just like anybody else.

"Think whatever you want, but believe me, it's the truth. We need to be careful of that girl Hiragi Yuzu."

"You said you brought her down to 100 LP earlier, and now you warn us to be careful of that petty girl?" Darkness chuckled. "I could not believe you said that."

"You wanna replace my place in that dumpster?" Yuri threatened.

"Stop this!" Yuma stepped between the Academia elites. "The battle is still going on, we have completed our mission, LDS will not interfere soon. Now yours. Better do it before the Professor punishes you."

"Huh! I could do this mission alone, but yeah, come if you want to." Yuri relented. "I also got words from the Obelisk Force, they are at the Volcano place. We better go there, I am sure all the girls are there as well."

"Hum… Hiragi Yuzu… interesting…" Darkness said in a joyful tone.

"What?" Yuri asked.

"I got a request…"

* * *

"Wait up Yuya!" Yuzu called the brooding Entertainment Duelist.

"What's wrong Yuzu?"

She took off the blue pendant and gave to Yuya. "Here! Yuto gave it to me yesterday."

Yuya looked at Yuto and Yuzu amazed before taking it. "Thanks Yuzu, and you too Yuto. Thanks for keeping it." Yuzu smiled sweetly in return.

He smiled at his pendant as he wore it over his neck again. "My father gave it to me since I was young."

"Well you got it back, let's go Yuya! Everyone!" Yuzu said.

* * *

Aki and Yusei arrived at the LDS building, they then took off their D-Wheels. It took them quite a while to take an acceptable grasp of the map to locate the location they wanted to go to.

"Is this LDS? It seems more like a defunct company…" Yusei said to himself. "Bad to the point some assholes from Academia accelerated the decay more by wrecking the door… This block is very high and dense, we cannot break in."

"They have attacked this place and destroyed the front door." Aki inspected the debris. "We don't know if they are alive in there or not."

"Hey!" Yusei yelled. "Is anyone there? We're here to help!"

"HEY!"

Silence occurred, until…

"Someone's out there?" A voice behind the debris spoke up. Male, young and slightly distressed.

"You're in there?" Aki asked.

"Yeah, we are here, still fine!" The voice confirmed. "But we don't know how to remove this blockade. I tried to use monsters to move the debris but it did not work, the people who attacked this place have threw bombs that prevented Duel Monsters from gaining enough matter to generate enough kinetic energy to break the debris. Do you have any plan?"

"I got an idea. Get outta there!" Aki said. She then took out a card and activated it. "Black Rose Bloomer Dragon summon!" In an instant, her dragon appeared. It roared loudly before ramming its head as strong as it could to the debris. The impact left a small dent on the blockade but it did not crack yet, only the trees were pushed back by the force of the impact.

"One more Black Rose!" The dragon complied and once again collided with the debris. The crack went more but it was still not enough.

"Gonna need several more of it girl, and I don't know if it's going to work!" The person inside said.

"I know. Just take cover until I finally do it!" Aki told him and Black Rose continued its job, ignoring the pain. The crack become more and more spread out until the debris was shattered completely and sent flying inside the building unceremoniously. The rose dragon returned to Aki's card.

"Good job Aki. You put your Physic powers into good use!" Yusei congratulated.

"Thanks Yusei." Aki smiled. "Real Solid Vision plus Physic power equal more force. Simple math."

The two waited until the smoke disappeared to run in. They saw a teenager standing at the end of the ruined hall, along with a young man in blue shirt, white pants and two security guards, the latter two had some blood on them.

"Thank you two a lot." He said.

"No problem. Can I know what your name is?" Yusei asked. "My name is Yusei and the girl here is Aki."

"My name is Sawatari. The man behind me is Akaba Reiji, the President of LDS."

"Akaba Reiji? We are here to look for you."

"Looking for me? Why?" Reiji got up and confronted the strangers, wiping the blood on his face.

"Some people told me that Academia attacked this place to stop you from standing in their path. We came here to rescue you."

"Who?"

"Several teenagers. If I remember correctly, they are… Yuzu, Ruri and Ryoga."

"What? Yuzu, Ruri and Ryoga?" Sawatari asked in surprise.

"Yeah. They think that you may be in trouble."

"Only to be in way worse trouble." Reiji said. "Thank you for helping us, Yusei, Aki."

"Don't mention it. So now we all have an enemy to handle, I suggest we work together to stop them."

"I can handle them." Sawatari said eagerly. "They attacked my father, I will avenge him. You two please stay here and help the workers, they were wounded when two people from Academia invaded. A lot of them. We currently do not have enough manpower to give them medical attention. The President Akaba Reiji here was also hurt, he could not go to this war at the moment."

"But we can help!" Aki argued.

"The moment they attacked my father, it had become personal to me." Sawatari sighed. "Look, I know we have just met and you want to help, but there are innocent people in here and out there. I must fight this battle for my father and my friends. Please stay here."

Yusei and Aki hesitated for a moment before agreeing. "Fine. We will stay here." Sawatari then nodded and ran off. Reiji gave a small smile.

* * *

The body was gone, but the will was not over yet, and as a Resistance, Kurosaki Shun knew this better than anyone. The fall would never stop a bird from finding its sibling and no matter how painful it was, Shun repeated to himself that he would stand up and continue his designated mission.

Only to be forced to grunt in pain again as his ribs was threatening to break itself. A slightest touch to the skin covering it would remind him of this.

Shun looked to his left where a hand of someone was nearby, the hand that touched the painful spot earlier.

"A severe injury…!" A deep, female voice, though still retained the lightness at the end. The face however nearly jotted him back if not for his wound.

" _Ruri…?"_ Shun could only wonder.

Sora sighed annoyingly from the temple. "Get out of the way Yuzu, Kusoraki is the prey I have hunted."

" _Yuzu…?"_

The girl instantly faced him, fiercely, full of determination, just like how his proud little sister would do. Shun could see Ruri in that split second.

She activated her Duel Disk.

"Eh? That Duel Disk…" An Academia one.

"Is that… Selena?"

" _Selena…? Just like the girl Yuzu..."_

Sora let himself wonder when Selena activated one card. "Magic Card, Lunar Eclipse! The entire field will be filled with darkness!" Dark could quickly gathered around Selena and Shun, blocking Sora's view.

"Come on! Let's get outta here!" Selena told the wounded Xyz fighter. She helped him up, carefully avoiding the spot.

"I can run on my own…" Shun weakly said. "But… who are you? Why do you look like someone I know?"

"Save it for later, just go before Sora runs down here!"

The hide and seek part of the Hunting Game laid down the path for Shun and Selena to run to the Volcano area. They continued running, trying to hide from that psychotic kid.

The pain ran through Shun's entire body, making him grunt and crouch down. Selena ran back and asked in concern. "Are you okay?" She looked in front and found Sora calmly walking towards her.

"Eh, can't you just let me finish him? You may be wounded if you stand in my way!"

Suddenly, something, or rather several things flashed in front of her, blocking Sora.

" _The ninjas…!"_ Glad to have them cover her and Shun was the thing running through Selena's mind, as opposed to the hatred for being dragged over the shoulder last afternoon. But that did not last long since Sora attempted to vault over the two tall ninjas. The red mask one Hikage instantly responded by jumping and stopping Sora's advance. They faced each other, one tall, one short, no one daring to punch the other out of the way.

"Now's the chance!" The blue mask Tsukikage told Selena. She got Shun up and went along with him.

"You're standing in my way." Sora said.

"I am here to stop your way." Hikage said back respectfully. They both activated their Duel Disks and let the blades slap together before throwing themselves back to commence the Duel.

 **DUEL!**

 **Hikage** : 4000 [5]

 **Shiun'in Sora** : 4000 [5]

* * *

"Why are you helping us?" Selena asked a sane question. No stranger would help her unless they had a reason to, usually bad, that was what Selena learned from her mother.

A formal yet ambiguous answer may not convince her, but she wished she had a choice to disagree. "Once I receive the order, I must accomplish it at all costs, even with my own life. That is the mantra of our Fuuma Clan."

* * *

"Selena is the person we need to have when we deal with Academia. Protect her all all costs." Reiji said in the control room. "How many of them are there?"

"There are 7." Nakajima informed.

* * *

"There's a door to the hotel nearby, we can stay in to hide from Academia." Tsukikage said as he, Selena and Shun walked in the open field.

Dennis and an Obelisk Force squad looked on from the rocks above the ground.

"That's Selena. Try your best!" Dennis wished them luck.

"You're not coming?" One of them wondered.

"It will cause problems. There are cameras all over the place and I am still undercover…"

* * *

"Stay focus Shun, we are going to stay in that hotel soon." Selena reassured the wounded falcon.

"Selena-sama." A calm voice spoke up from behind. They all turned around, an Obelisk Force squad was standing right there.

"Please don't resist." Green tried to reason to Selena.

"We only want to bring you back." Red said.

Selena had no other choice, she would not listen to those batshits. "If you want to take me back, do it with force."

Suddenly, Shun put a hand in front of her, Tsukikage also stood in front of her to protect her. The bewildered Osiris Red did not protest for some reason.

"If so, there is no other way." Yellow said, and he along with the rest activated their Duel Disks, three red blades shot out. Tsukikage, Shun and Selena did the same.

 **DUEL!**

 **Red** : 4000 [5]

 **Green** : 4000 [5]

 **Yellow** : 4000 [5]

 **Tsukikage** : 4000 [5]

 **Selena** : 4000 [5]

 **Kurosaki Shun** : 4000 [5]

* * *

"I normal summon Edge Imp Saw!" Sora summoned his first monster, a gear possessed by a demon with only two eyes with a lot of hacksaws rotating.

 **Edge Imp Saw** DARK/Demon/Effect/LV3/ **500** /2000

"Gotta finish this early." He said.

"Not that easy." Hikage countered.

* * *

" _Only three Wild Vultures… I should have never run this card…!"_ Shun touched the top card of his Deck, ready for his first turn, but Tsukikage put a hand to stop him.

"Let me go first. I normal summon Twilight Ninja Shingetsu!" (It's not Vector by the way)

 **Twilight Ninja Shingetsu** DARK/Warrior/Effect/LV4/ **1500** /100

"Three cards set, turn end!" Tsukikage finished, three cards materialized in front of him.

"Ore no turn!" Red began. "I normal summon Antique Gear Hound Dog!"

 **Antique Gear Hound Dog** EARTH/Machine/Effect/LV3/ **1000** /1000

"Monster effect activates! It inflicts 600 damage! Hound Flame!" The dog breathed out flame from its mouth.

"Trap Card!" Tsukikage clicked at the right rear of the screen. "Barrier Ninjitsu of Hazy Extinguishing!" Whirlwind spun around him, blocking the flame. "All effect damages that are 800 or lower are negated!"

"If so, Magic Card, Fusion activates! One on the field and two in my hand!" The Fusion spiral appeared, sucking the dogs in. "Mechanical hounds who carry on the ancient spirits! Flock together and become one with a new power! Yūgō Shōkan! Come forth! Level 7! Antique Gear Triple Bite Hound Dog!"

 **Antique Gear Triple Bite Hound Dog** EARTH/Machine/Fusion/Effect/LV7/ **1800** /1000

"Battle-"

"Before that!" The ninja acted. "Continuous Trap, Barrier Ninjitsu of Gathering Shadows activate! By paying half of my LP, the Battle Phase is forced to end!"

"What?" The wind spun around Tsukikage before disappearing, leaving him in pain.

 **Tsukikage** : 4000 - 2000 [1]

"You…" Shun muttered.

"Compare to your wounds, this is nothing." He assured.

Red clicked his tongue before setting two cards down to finish his turn.

* * *

"Magic Card, Ninjitsu Technique of Hazy Duplication!" Hikage slid the card to his Duel Disk and smoke instantly appeared, covering him from Sora's view. From it, a ninja similar to the one Tsukikage summoned earlier flew out, backflipping along the way.

 **Twilight Ninja Shingetsu** DARK/Warrior/Effect/LV4/ **1500** /100

"Then by releasing it…" The ninja turned into dust. "I Advance Summon Twilight Chunin Nichirin!" The dust formed into a much more muscular ninja who went topless to show his muscles. A scarf around its neck just showed its prowess more.

 **Twilight Chunin Nichirin** DARK/Warrior/Effect/LV6/ **2300** /1000

* * *

"Yūgō Shōkan! Come forth! Level 7! Antique Gear Triple Bite Hound Dog!" One more three-headed dog got summoned from Green's Extra Deck.

"Battle!"

Tsukikage activated Barrier Ninjitsu of Gathering Shadows again. "Once again, I pay half of my LP to end the Battle Phase!"

 **Tsukikage** : 2000 - 1000 [1]

"What the hell is this ninja doing…?" Green muttered in annoyance. "I set down three cards and end my turn."

"Which means it's my turn! Draw!" Yellow proceeded. "I normal summon Antique Gear Hound Dog!"

"And then its another effect activates! By using it and another two Hound Dogs in my hand, I can perform a Fusion Summon!"

"Yūgō Shōkan! Come forth! Level 7! Antique Gear Triple Bite Hound Dog!"

"Battle!"

"Barrier Ninjitsu of Gathering Shadows!" Tsukikage once again blocked the attack at the cost of 3500 LP!

 **Tsukikage** : 1000 - 500 [1]

"Shit…! I set down three cards, turn end!"

The continuous attacks from the Obelisk Force weakened Tsukikage greatly, he crouched down in pain.

"Why are you doing that?" Selena wondered in worry.

"It's all according to plan. The brother Hikage attacks like the Sun to stop the invaders! And I, Tsukikage protect like the Moon to prevent the enemies' attacks!"

Shun stepped forward, preparing for his turn. "So it's my turn next?" He never got the chance though as Selena stood in front without hesitation and started her turn.

"Watashi no turn!" She activated the drawn card immediately. "From my hand, Magic Card Fusion, activate!" Shun got himself another moment of shock.

"The materials I will use are Moonlight Blue Cat and Moonlight Purple Butterfly!"

" _Moonlight…? Hiragi Yuzu and Ruri do not use them…!"_

"Blue cat that prowls through the darkness! Butterfly with violet poison! Spiral into the moon's gravity and become a new power! Yūgō Shōkan! Come to me! Beautiful beast that dances in the moonlight! Moonlight Cat Dancer!"

 **Moonlight Cat Dancer** DARK/Beast Warrior/Fusion/Effect/LV7/ **2400** /2000

Dennis chuckled from behind the rocks. "She really uses the Fusion taught by Academia…huh?" He saw three figures hiding behind the open: Michio, Teppei and Mieru. For some reason, Mieru got unconscious so the big Teppei carried her over the shoulders.

"Magic Card, Moon Light Perfume! I bring back Blue Cat in my graveyard!" The humanoid cat returned. "And when Blue Cat is Special Summoned, it doubles another Moonlight monster's ATK!"

 **Moonlight Cat Dancer** ATK 2400 - 4800

"Moonlight Cat Dancer's effect activates! I Release Blue Cat!" The monster disintegrated. "With that, Cat Dancer can attack twice on all of my opponent's monsters!"

"Battle! Cat Dancer, attack Triple Bite Hound Dog!"

Red smirked. "It's not gonna work! Trap Card, Fusion Dispersal activate!"

"What? Fusion Dispersal?!" Selena gasped as she saw her Cat Dancer disfused, returning to its previous form: Blue Cat and Purple Butterfly. "This Trap forces your Fusion Monster to return to its material form and inflict the ATK of the highest one as damage!" Instantly a strong gust of wind struck Selena, sending her sliding backwards.

 **Selena** : 4000 - 2400 [2]

"It's sad that we know your Deck too well Selena-sama, there is no other way to counter!"

Selena ticked her tongue, she had no other choice to do now. "Turn end!"

As Shun prepared his turn, he was once again stopped by a voice.

"We will be your opponents!" Michio stormed out and Teppei reluctantly followed suit. They both activated their Duel Disks.

"Intrusion Penalty, 2000 Points!"

"EH?" Teppei gasped. He and Michio were struck with electricity immediately.

"GRAHHHHHHHH! We haven't done anything and we instantly lose 2000 LP?!"

 **Michio and Teppei** : 4000 - 2000 [5]

* * *

"Boku no turn, draw!" Sora drew his card. "Magic Card, Fusion activate! I fuse Edge Imp Saw and Furnimal Lio! Steel blades possessed by demons! Become one with the fanged beast and reveal to us your new form! Yūgō Shōkan! Come forth, king of beasts that shreds all! Death-Toy Wheel Saw Lio!" The creepy face Sora made when he summoned a Fusion monster was immediately followed by the teddy corruption. The new monster shredded the outer layer by its seven saws on its face and another three on each hand. Its abdomen was replaced by another saw disk spinning around continuously. Unknown to Sora and Hikage, the saw sound blocked another engine voice from their right.

 **Death-Toy Wheel Saw Lio** DARK/Demon/Fusion/Effect/LV7/ **2400** /2000

"Sora!"

Someone called him at the right bank of the volcanic stream. He looked at him and saw Yuya, Yuto, Yuzu, Yugo the D-Wheeler, Ruri, Ryoga and Gongenzaka.

" _It's you… Yuya…?! You brought your friends as well?"_ He sighed.

How could they show up again when he wanted to forget them for good? He was always with Academia, in fact the reason he got to Standard in first place was to observe this dimension to see if Academia would attack to further accelerate the Arc Area Project. Unfortunately for him, his time in Standard had made him befriend Yuya and his friends.

He could not deny that they were the first friends he ever had. The childhood at the orphanage, then the training in Academia forced him not to make friendship with anyone, the competition, the drive to prove himself, the general atmosphere in the fortress, the loneliness, all of them. When his cover was blown, he sat several days in his room alone, promising to himself that he would sever the ties with Yuya, Yuzu and others. But now they were here, right there, calling him.

" _How could life be so cruel? You threw shit at me since childhood, you threw in people who cared for me as a friend to remind me that you cannot have friends?! How could you…"_

He fought back the growing emotion in his mind, putting up a psychotic face.

He eyed at his opponent Hikage and slowly approached him, forcing the red ninja to step back.

"Sora!" Yuya yelled.

"Oi Sora!" Yuzu also said to the kid.

Sora ignored the callings, continuing threatening Hikage.

"What the hell is wrong with you?!" Gongenzaka yelled. "What are you going to do?!"

"Stop dueling right now Sora!" Ryoga warned. "Or I will fight you!"

"Answer us you asshole!" Ruri demanded. "Turn around!"

"He's not listening." Yugo said to himself. He roared his D-Wheel, attempting to drive in the middle of the field.

Sora gritted his teeth. There was no time to tell them though. _"Stop doing that Yuya!"_

"I nearly got him, wait for a bit!" Sora said nonchalantly. "Besides, you should have watched your surroundings!"

"Surroundings…?"

"That's right baby boy!" A light-hearted voice spoke up behind, along with a suddenly growl of a dragon. The group turned back, at right at that moment, something flew to them. They quickly rolled away, but something had grabbed Yuzu and pulled her up.

Yuya immediately yelled. "Yuzu!" The group also did.

"Yuya!" She helplessly cried.

"Is that…" Ruri realized what was holding her. "Starve Venom…!"

"Fusion Dragon! You got its name right Ruri girl!" The dragon flew to the left, revealing three figures. A teenager in a purple uniform, another one wearing a sleeveless shirt. "You got lucky!"

"Yuri…" Ruri muttered.

"Yuma!" Both Yuto and Ryoga growled.

"Yuma?! The betrayer of Heartland you told us about?!" Yuya asked, Yuto nodded.

"Betrayer…?" Yugo mumbled.

"What the hell? Another boy sharing the same face like Yuya?" Gongenzaka said.

"Stop mistaking me. My name is Yuri." Yuri corrected. "Really, you have poor eyesight big booty boy!"

"Big booty boy?! Are you disrespecting me?" The man growled.

"Dammit Yuri! Release Yuzu now!" Yuya yelled.

"Don't even think about it Yuya-kun!" Darkness finally spoke up in a low tone. "If we do now, she will fall down to the ground, it may kill her."

"Ba... bastard!"

"Besides… I want to test her for a little bit."

"Test? What the hell are you talking about?" Yuzu wondered.

"Stop that shit! Release her now!" Yugo demanded.

"Hello Yugo." Yuri said mockingly. "Or should I call you Fusion. You bring in a bike to save your girlfriend? Rin if you don't know hehe."

"Damn you!" He gritted his teeth. "Where is she now son of a bitch?"

"I will tell you if…" Yuri looked at Yuma, and instantly they jumped down, standing on opposite sides to prevent the group from bailing out.

Yugo attempted to run over Yuri, but the Academia soldier quickly shot out something from his Duel Disk. A projective flew in the air and pierced Yugo's D-Wheel, making it crack in electricity.

"What the…" Yugo tried to pull it out but it suddenly released electricity, shocking him.

"Yugo! You okay?" Yuto asked in concern.

"Argh… I… I'm fine." Yugo assured him. "What the hell is this thing Yuri?"

"It's an electronic disabler. You cannot ride your D-Wheel anymore Yugo." Yuri explained. "You're stuck in here with us."

"Dammit…!"

"And hey!" Yuri turned to Yuya. "You seem to be Yuya right? I think I am going to let your friend play with my friend for a while. Starve Venom!" The dragon released Yuzu by throwing her down near Darkness and disintegrated. She instantly rolled away.

"Yuzu!"

"I'm fine Yuya…" She said weakly.

"She will duel with him for some time, and in the meantime, we will all have some fun in this round of the Hunting Game…" Yuri said creepily before he and Yuma activated their Duel Disks.

Suddenly, they heard a strange sound from afar. They turned to see someone pinned into a wall and fell down face first.

"What the hell…?" Yuya said to no one in particular. "Is that… Michio…?"

* * *

"Boku no turn!" Michio started his turn. "Magic Card, Instant Cooking! I can special summon "Royal Cookmate" monsters with the level that are lower than the opponent's monsters' combined Levels!" He slapped down three cards, three monsters appeared from three energy swirls.

"Royal Cookmate Knight Napolitan! Queen Omelet! King Hamburg!"

 **Royal Cookmate Knight Napolitan** EARTH/Angel/Effect/LV8/ **300** /1100

 **Royal Cookmate Queen Omelet** EARTH/Angel/Effect/LV9/ **300** /?

 **Royal Cookmate King Hamburg** EARTH/Angel/Effect/LV10/ **300** /1300

"One card down and everything is set now!"

"Huh! No matter how many of you, you cannot beat us!" Green said arrogantly.

"I hope you guys will stop underestimating us. Is that right Teppei-kun?" Michio slapped Teppei's back, causing him to nearly trip and drew a card by "accident".

Teppei faked his panic before becoming serious. His voice did not seem to agree with this change though as it was still high-pitched. "Magic Card, Inland Sea! It reduce s1 Level to all of my monsters I control and in the hand! With that, I normal summon the Level 5 The Legendary Fisherman like a Level 4 monster!" Rising from the underground with water was a muscular fisherman riding a shark.

 **The Legendary Fisherman** WATER/Warrior/Effect/LV5/ **1850** /1600

 **The Legendary Fisherman** LV5 - 4

"By releasing it, I can special summon The Legendary Fisherman III!"

 **The Legendary Fisherman III** WATER/Warrior/Effect/LV7/ **2500** /2000

 **The Legendary Fisherman III** LV7 - 6

"After being special summoned, it can banish all of my opponent's monsters!" The monster threw a fishing net at the three dogs, capturing them all with unrivaled precision.

"You're doing very well, Teppei-kun!" Michio congratulated. "And then I activate Trap Card, Monster Pie! For each monster that leaves the field, I can special summon a Monster Pie Token in those monster's place!" Three burning pies hovered above the Obelisk Force.

3x **Monster Pie Token** DARK/Magician/Token/LV3/ **1000** /?

"Royal Cookmate's effect activates! By returning them to my hand, I can destroy one monster for each one returned!" The three monsters turned into light and the tokens disintegrated.

"I will add up to this effect!" Teppei said. "By returning the banished monster to the graveyard, the first damage will be doubled!"

"When a Monster Pie Token is destroyed, it causes 1000 damage! Which means…"

"2000 damage for each one!" Teppei finished. Electricity struck the three Obelisk Force member, making them scream in pain.

 **Red** : 4000 - 2000 [0]

 **Yellow** : 4000 - 2000 [0]

 **Green** : 4000 - 2000 [0]

"We are surely the best team right?" Michio said to Teppei, who agreed. "Of course we are, teammate!"

Suddenly, Green chuckled dryly. "That best team thing will lead to the worst ending right now!"

"What?!"

"I activate all of my set cards!" Green activated his three cards. "Antique Gear Reborn! Antique Gear Spark Shot! And Antique Gear Booster!"

"With Antique Gear Reborn, Triple Bite Hound Dog returns with an 200 ATK bonus!" The dog rose up again, roaring.

 **Antique Gear Triple Bite Hound Dog** ATK 1800 - 2000

"Then Antique Gear Spark Shot deals half of its ATK as damage, but Booster will double that damage!"

"Take 2000 damage and lose! Antique Revive Howling!" The dog fired three streams of energy which joined into a single big stream, hitting Michie and sending him flying painfully.

"Michio!" Teppei yelled futilely at his fallen friend, who was struck to the wall of the building and landed face first to the ground. Selena, Shun and Tsukikage looked on in horror.

 **Michio** : 2000 - 0 [0]

"Hihihihihihi! You shouldn't have interfered!" He pointed his Duel Disk, ready to card Michio.

Yuya gasped. He yelled. "STOP IT!"

A purple stream covered Michio, erasing him from existence. A card then popped out from Green's Duel Disk and fell down near Teppei.

"Michio…" Yuya muttered.

"No…!" Yuzu and Ruri gasped. The poor girls were forced to see this again, and for Yuzu, the first time she saw it directly. Yuto, Yugo and Ryoga clenched their fists.

"Everyone stay here, I will help them!" Gongenzaka said. He ran to the field, Yuma attempted to stop him but the big man delivered a strong kick to his stomach, causing him to drop down.

"Yuma!" Yuri yelled in concern.

"I'm fine." Yuma said. He watched Gongenzaka running away. He and Yuri then quickly cornered the rest to avoid them doing the same thing.

"Sora! Stop this now!" Yuya told the blue hair kid, who responded harshly.

"Quiet!"

The Entertainment Duelist gasped. His eyes began to flash red.

"You will suffer the same fate as him." Yellow talked to the scared Teppei. "Continuous Trap, Gear Reborn, Gear Booster activate, and combining with Spark Shot to create the attack combo!" As soon as the dog was reborn, it fired at Teppei. "Take this! Antique Revive Howling!" Another stream hit Teppei in his chest. The big boy yelled in massive pain before falling down.

 **Teppei** : 2000 - 0 [3]

He sadly looked at the carded Michio, the dead face of his new friend. "What are you doing in that card? Didn't you tell us that we are the best team…?"

Purple light stole Teppei's body and mind, wiping him out from existence…

The madman smiled cruelly. "Be the eternal team in cards!" He threw the card of Teppei near Michio's. This was enough to trigger Yuya, he began gaining a black aura, his eyes flashing brighter, his fists clenching, his hair raising up.

* * *

Hikage had reached the end point of the land he was standing. Just one more step and he would go to the lava.

"It's done now. Wheel Saw Lio's effect activates! It destroys a monster and inflicts its ATK as damage!" The monster fired seven energy blades at the muscular ninja, destroying it in an explosion.

 **Hikage** : 4000 - 1700 [3]

"And now, Wheel Saw Lio direct attack!" The seven saws earlier flew to Hikage's back, ending the duel painfully for him.

 **Hikage** : 1700 - 0 [3]

Instantly, Sora activated his Duel Disk, sealing the red ninja in a card. The teenagers looked on in shock once again, and Yuya reached his breaking point.

"GRAHHHHHH!" He yelled, his head in massive pain.

"Yuya?!" Yuzu wondered. Her eyes glowed in pink.

"Yuya calm down!" Yuto yelled but Yuya did not stop.

"You guys! Stop Yuya now!" Yuzu said from above.

"Yuzu…?"

"Just do it now! I can't bear seeing him like this!"

In his pain, Yuya felt Sora smiling creepily and walking away, the Obelisk Force, the screaming Knight of Duel, Michio, Teppei and Hikage, all being sucked in a vortex.

Yuya stood up, yelled at the sky and ran. "SORAAAA!" He flew through the volcanic stream so fast that Yuri and Yuma did not have the time to react.

"We need to stop him now!" Ruri said as she began to run to Yuya and Sora as well.

"We're not gonna let you do it!" Yuma quickly activated a card, creating a sigil that quickly expanded. It then created an invisible barrier that blocked the entire group in. Ruri hit her head and fell down.

"Ruri!" Yuto quickly ran up to her and helped her up.

"Don't worry Yuto!" Ruri assured her boyfriend.

"What the hell is this Yuma?" Ryoga questioned.

"This is the Key of Solomon pentacle, believed to be able to trap demons inside if they walk in, but today it's capturing all of us." He explained.

"Damn it Yuma! Release this barrier now!" Yuto demanded.

"Don't be foolish! Only he can remove it, and if you want to, you need to defeat us in a duel!" Yuri said, waving his left hand to challenge the trapped preys.

"We will defeat you two very soon!" Yugo took off his D-Wheel and attached his circular Duel Disk in his right arm. All of the teenagers then activated their Duel Disks and began the most dangerous duel they had ever been.

 **DUEL!**

 **Yugo** : 4000 [5]

 **Kamishiro Ryoga** : 4000 [5]

 **Tsukumo Yuma** : 4000 [5]

 **Yuto** : 4000 [5]

 **Kurosaki Ruri** : 4000 [5]

 **Yuri** : 4000 [5]

"Dammit! They're trapped inside that barrier! And what happened to Yuya?" Yuzu said.

"And you're trapped with me pretty girl." Darkness said eerily. "While they were busy, it's best that we waste some time learning each other. Also, the two cards that you are having right now was my doing."

Yuzu became enraged. "You carded them?!"

Darkness simply nodded.

"Damn you!" Yuzu cursed. "You carded Halil and Olga and sent Yuri to terrorize me, and now you separated me from my friends? You think you can scare me like that? Not anymore!" Yuzu quickly activated her Duel Disk.

"Such a strong girl…" Darkness also activated his own. "Just to let you know, the duels I have been through ended pretty quickly, so I will give you the honor to start with 8000 LP. I will still hold the usual amount."

" _He let me have 8000 LP? What does he want?"_ Yuzu questioned this "generous" offer that Darkness gave her. Whatever he proposed, Yuzu knew he surely had a way to take it back without her knowing, but without throwing yourself in danger, you could not know how dangerous it really was.

"Whatever you want. I will start with 8000 LP, and don't regret that choice!"

 **DUEL!**

 **Hiragi Yuzu** : 8000 [5]

 **Darkness** : 4000 [5]

At the Ice area, Yuzu's broken bracelet began connecting together, forming into its complete form, and shining brightly…

* * *

"Now is your turn!" Red declared to Tsukikage. "Antique Gear Reborn activate!" The three-headed dog returned.

"And now Spark Shot and Booster's effects!" Green said. "Antique Revive Howling!"

The stream slowly fired at Tsukikage, destroying the ground. The ninja looked on calmly, accepting his imminent fate.

"Wait up! Action Magic, Flame Guard! Effect damage is negated!" The stream suddenly disappeared. Everyone look to their side.

"Having me here is like the power of the thousand. I have heard from Akaba Reiji and came here!"

"Intrusion Penalty, 2000 Point!" Electricity struck Sawatari, who endured it without screaming.

 **Sawatari Shingo** : 4000 - 2000 [5]

"I will prove that I am the best of LDS!"

* * *

"Sora!" Yuya called the boy in a raspy voice, who innocently looked back at. "You… are wrong…"

Sora did not respond.

"Carding people… it's wrong…!"

" _Please don't do it! Don't give in to your darkness!"_ Suddenly a voice said to him in his head. Young, mature, female. Yuya was now standing in a light but empty space. Suddenly a shadow figure appeared. Naked, tall, slim. Yuya wondered, he did not know why, but he thought he had heard that voice before, he had seen that face before…

He had seen that girl before…

" _You cannot lose yourself like **** did 16 years ago!"_

" _16 years…?"_ Yuya thought. He was suddenly thrown back into reality. He felt something strange, something heavy was leaving him. He felt much lighter now. He was no longer blinded by rage and hatred. His aura disappeared, his eyes returned to normal.

"Smile…" He whispered. "Sora. Duel with me."

"Fine. I still feel bad that I lost to you. Get in here, we will duel without anyone intruding!" Sora walked to behind the rocks and Yuya followed.

A rock bridge with lava flowing under, a lot of floating steps around with Action Cards.

They stood on opposite ends of the bridge, eyeing each other fiercely.

"Through Duel, I will bring you back to who you were." Yuya declared.

"You mean bringing back smile to me?" Sora asked.

Yuya did not say anything.

" _What's wrong with him?"_ The kid wondered. He had no other time though. He needed to win this duel to continue the Hunting Game, and to forget who he was when he was with Yuya and others.

 **DUEL!**

 **Sakaki Yuya** : 4000 [5]

 **Shiun'in Sora** : 4000 [5]

* * *

"A 2 vs 4 duel… interesting." Yuri smirked.

"How about this?" Yuma proposed. "Two of you go first, then I will go next, the other two and then Yuri proceed. No one can attack unless they have completed their first turn."

"Suits well to me." Yugo said. "Prepare to lose and tell me where Rin is, Yuri, Yuma! I will not forgive you two for capturing her."

"Actually it was me-" Yuri said in a mocking tone.

"Ore no turn!" Yugo started immediately, stopping Yuri from talking. "Magic Card, Speedroid Scratch activate! By sending a Speedroid monster to the graveyard, I add a Speedroid monster to my hand." Yugo added a card from his Deck and immediately slapped it down. "And I special summon it! Speedroid Beigomax!"

 **Speedroid Beigomax** WIND/Machine/Effect/LV3/ **1200** /600

"With its effect, I add Speedroid Takentonborg to my hand, and since I control a WIND monster, I can special summon it!"

 **Speedroid Takentonborg** WIND/Machine/Effect/LV3/ **600** /1200

"By tributing it, I can special summon the Tuner monster, Speedroid Red-Eyed Dice from my Deck!" The monster disintegrated, and in its place, a dice with six red balls appeared.

 **Speedroid Red-Eyed Dice** WIND/Machine/Effect/LV1/ **100** /100

"Then I can target Beigomax and give it a Level of 6!"

 **Speedroid Beigomax** LV3 - 6

"The total levels are 7…" Ruri commented.

"Are you playing all out?" Yuto asked.

"I, using the Level 6 Beigomax and Level 1 Red-Eyed Dice, tuning!" A Synchro ring swept through Beigomax, creating six bright stars, and a stream of light erupted.

"Spread those wondrous and beautiful wings. Strike down our enemies at light speed! Synchro Shōkan! Come forth! Level 7! Clear Wing Synchro Dragon!" Yugo had summoned his signature dragon. It roared loudly, wanting to destroy enemies right now.

 **Clear Wing Synchro Dragon** WIND/Dragon/Synchro/Effect/LV7/ **2500** /2000

"Clear Wing… Synchro Dragon…" Yuma mumbled.

"So this is your dragon Yugo!" Ruri said.

"Yeah, the dragon Shun and I saw him summon back in Heartland." Ryoga commented.

"Bringing out this dragon means that you are playing serious?" Yuri told Yugo. "Strange, I heard from Rin that you are very stupid."

"Stop that shit asshole!" Yugo yelled. "I set down two cards and end my turn here." Two card materialized on Yugo's right. (He was standing the rightmost in the group's line)

"Let me take the turn everyone." Ryoga proposed.

"I got it. Do your best!" Yuto said.

"Thanks. Ore no turn, draw!" Ryoga drew his card. "From my hand, Lightning Shark special summon!" A black shark appeared, shooting electricity.

 **Lightning Shark** WATER/Fish/Effect/LV3/ **1300** /1800

"I can special summon it since I control no monsters. Then its effects allows me to special summon Double Fin Shark!" The purple shark with two fins appeared.

 **Double Fin Shark** WATER/Fish/Effect/LV4/ **1000** /1200

"Lightning Shark's effect activates! By discarding a "Shark" monster, its Level increases by 1."

 **Lightning Shark** LV3 - 4

"When Soul Shark is sent to the graveyard-"

"You can special summon it. No need to drag Ryoga." Yuma said. He smirked when Ryoga cursed him.

 **Soul Shark** WATER/Fish/Effect/LV1/0/ **1500**

"Then its Level becomes 4." The monster gained an aura.

 **Soul Shark** LV1 - 4

"I, using the Level 4 Soul Shark and Lightning Shark, Overlay!" The two monsters turned into blue energy and flew into the Overlay Network. A stream of light erupted.

"Xyz Shōkan! Appear now, Rank 4! Bahamut Shark!" Ryoga's another Xyz monster rose up from the portal. It resembled Shark Drake but it had white and blue skin, its four wings were more upward, it had two arms with black claws and it had a long tail like a real shark.

 **Bahamut Shark** WATER/Sea Dragon/Xyz/Effect/R4/ **2600** /2100

"Bahamut Shark's effect activates! Divine Soul!" One of its Overlay Units disintegrated. "I can special summon the Rank 2 Mochi Toad from my Extra Deck!"

 **Mochi Toad** WATER/Water/Xyz/Effect/R22/ **2200** /0

"Summoning an Xyz monster straight from the Extra Deck… interesting." Yuri chuckled.

"Nice move Shark!" Yugo cheered.

"Not over yet! Double Fin Shark is treated as two materials for an Xyz Summon. Double Fin Shark overlay!" The remaining Main Deck monster Ryoga had on the field flew into another Overlay Network.

"Xyz Shōkan! Appear again Rank 4! Bahamut Shark!" Another white shark showed up.

"Then by detaching an Overlay Unit, another Mochi Toad is on the way!" Its only Overlay Unit disintegrated, another toad appeared.

"I then set three cards down and end my turn."

"Which means it's my turn right?" Yuma said.

"Let's see if you can avoid my powerful toads betrayal asshole!"

"Is that your strategy this time Ryoga? Blocking me from activating any card effects twice? I can't believe you play this dirty Ryoga, preventing me from doing anything worthwhile."

"For a betrayer like you, I cannot take any chances!" He explained.

"We have to see about that. Ore no turn, draw!" Yuma started his turn. "I normal summon Gagaga Magician!"

 **Gagaga Magician** DARK/Magician/Effect/LV4/ **1500** /1000

"Then I special summon Gagaga Kid!"

 **Gagaga Kid** DARK/Magician/Effect/LV2/ **800** /1200

"This summon is not from an activated monster effect, so you cannot negate it with Mochi Toad Ryoga!" Yuma smiled. "When Kid is summoned this way, its Level becomes the same as Gagaga Magician!"

 **Gagaga Kid** LV2 - 4

"Let's go! I, using the Level 4 Gagaga Magician and Gagaga Kid, Overlay!"

"Xyz Shōkan! Appear now Rank 4 Numbers 39! King of Wishes - Glimmer of Hope!"

 **No.39: King of Wishes - Glimmer of Hope** LIGHT/Warrior/Xyz/Effect/R4/ **2500** /2000

"Glimmer of Hope… I see, this is your new monster." Yuto said after seeing the broken Hope he used to know.

"It suits for despair more, but I can see you are not in despair, you are happy for betraying us!" Ryoga accused.

" _You think you know why?"_ Yuma held back his anger. He closed his eyes, quietly setting down cards. "Now I set down two cards and end my turn here."

"Ore no turn, draw!" Yuto started his turn. "Yuma, I can see that during your time in Academia, you have evolved. You have created that monster to serve that place. But I also have evolved in order to fight! For my comrades and my friends!"

"What do you mean?"

"What I mean?" Yuto instead showed two cards in his hand and chanted. "I, using the Scale 2 Phantom Knights Tainted Vest and Scale 8 Phantom Knights Used Magazine, Pendulum Scale setting!"

"What?! Pendulum Summon?" Yuma said in shock. Ruri, Yugo, Yuri and Ryoga also had the same expression.

"How could you have those cards Yuto?" Ruri wondered.

"I don't know, I just had it." Yuto replied.

"You better be not kidding me Yuto, don't make me lose my mind!" Ryoga smiled at his friend, still not trusting what he had seen.

"What you mean Shark?"

"Because… Ruri also has Pendulum Cards as well!"

"What?! Ruri too?!" Yuto looked wide-eyed at Ruri.

"Yes. I don't know why, but you remember what happened last morning?"

"Last morning…?" Yuto recalled that moment when Yuya's pendant suddenly glowed. _"Is that…?"_

" _What the hell? Ruri and Yuto can Pendulum Summon? What the hell is going on?!"_ Yuma panicked.

Forgetting that incident for a moment, Yuto returned to the duel. "With this, I can summon monsters with Levels between 3 and 7 at the same time! Pendulum Shōkan! Appear now!" Three monsters showed up.

"Phantom Knights Tattered Vambrace! Phantom Knights Shade Brigandine! And finally, Phantom Knights Fragile Armor!"

 **Phantom Knights Tattered Vambrace** DARK/Warrior/Effect/LV3/0/ **1800**

 **Phantom Knights Shade Brigandine** DARK/Warrior/LV4/0/ **300**

 **Phantom Knights Fragile Armor** DARK/Warrior/Effect/LV4/ **1000** /2000

"You Pendulum Summon… your Trap cards?!" Yuma realized. Yuri could not hide his shock either.

"How could you do it?" Ruri asked.

"It's the Pendulum effect of Phantom Knights Tainted Vest." Yuto explained. "And then Used Magazine's Pendulum effect activates! Since I Pendulum Summon three monsters, I can draw two cards!" Yuto quickly drew two more cards.

"Once per turn, Tattered Vambrace can increases its own Level by 1!"

 **Phantom Knights Tattered Vambrace** LV3 - 4

"2 Level 4 monsters… do it Yuto!" Yugo cheered.

"And I, using the Level 4 Phantom Knights Tattered Vambrace and Fragile Armor, overlay!" The Overlay Network shot out light again.

"From the pitch-black darkness. Rise up against the foolish oppression, Fang of Rebellion! Descend now! Xyz Shōkan! Come forth! Rank 4! Dark Rebellion Xyz Dragon!" Yuto's signature dragon had showed up in this important fight. It and Clear Wing loudly roared at the same time.

 **Dark Rebellion Xyz Dragon** DARK/Dragon/Xyz/R4/ **2500** /2000

Yuto, Yuri, Yugo and Ruri suddenly felt pain inside their chest, but something warm calmed the boys down. They all shrugged it off, finding others reacting to the strange phenomenon strange and not fit to talk about right now. Besides, they were in a duel to death right now.

"Huh… Yugo, let me use your Clear Wing for a bit." Yuto said.

"What are you…" Yugo realized what the Xyz counterpart wanted to do. "Okay I got it!"

"Dark Rebellion Xyz Dragon's monster effect activates!" An Overlay Unit detached. The black dragon opened its wings, striking electricity at the white wing dragon, weakening it.

"Treason Discharge!"

 **Dark Rebellion Xyz Dragon** ATK 2500 - 3750

 **Clear Wing Synchro Dragon** ATK 2500 - 1250

"Reduce your ally's monster strength? What do you want to do?" Yuri wondered.

"Of course I have a reason why! The Overlay Unit detached was Fragile Armor! I can banish it and send a "Phantom" card in my hand to the graveyard to draw a card!"

"I see… such a good strategy." Yuri complimented.

"Not over yet! The card I sent earlier is Phantom Knights Dusty Robe, I can banish it to add another "Phantom Knights" card to my hand. Finally, I set down three cards to end my turn. At this moment, the ATKs of Dark Rebellion and Clear Wing return to normal."

 **Dark Rebellion Xyz Dragon** ATK 3750 - 2500

 **Clear Wing Synchro Dragon** ATK 1250 - 2500

"Watashi no turn, draw!" Ruri drew her card. "Yuto, prepare for my surprise."

"Uh! Do it Ruri!" Yuto replied.

"I, using the Scale 0 Lyrical Luscinia - Amethyst Sparrow and Scale 2 Lyrical Luscinia - Amethyst Blackbird, Pendulum Scale setting!"

"With this, I can summon multiple Level 1 monsters! Pendulum Shōkan! Appear now!" Three monsters flew down and took form.

"2 Lyrical Luscinia - Turquoise Warblers! And 1 Lyrical Luscinia - Cobalt Sparrow!"

2x **Lyrical Luscinia - Turquoise Warbler** WIND/Bird Beast/Effect/LV1/ **100** /100

 **Lyrical Luscinia - Cobalt Sparrow** WIND/Bird Beast/Effect/LV1/ **0** /100

"Such a strange day…" Yuma muttered. "Seeing you two evolve this quick… I am happy." He smiled. "Sad that we are on opposite sides now."

"People never stops evolving, only the immoral person like you does not!" Ruri fired words at Yuma. "Cobalt Sparrow's effect allows me to add Ruby Punting to my hand, then Amethyst Sparrow allows me to draw 2 cards."

"It has the same effect as Used Magazine." Yuma commented.

"And now I, using the two Turquoise Warblers and Cobalt Sparrow, Overlay!" Three small birds turned into green energy and flew into the portal.

"Birds with beautiful wings! Gather on the battlefield and take brilliant flight! Xyz Shōkan! Dance in the sky! Rank 1! Lyrical Luscinia - Assembly Nightingale!"

 **Lyrcial Luscinia - Assembly Nightingale** WIND/Bird Beast/Xyz/Effect/R1/ **0** /0

 **Lyrcial Luscinia - Assembly Nightingale** **0** /0 - **300** /300

"Oh~ This little adorable baby has appeared to give me pleasure!" Yuri said in a childish voice, angering the trio.

"I set down three cards and end my turn. Sa, start your turn you psychotic piece of shit!"

"Remember that I have two Mochi Toads on the field, I will prevent you from doing anything in your turn!" Ryoga warned.

"We're gonna have to see about that. Boku no turn, draw!" Yuri drew his cards, face smiling sweetly which unnerved others.

He took some time to inspect his hand. _"Everyone has brought out their ace monsters, I need to bring Starve Venom out as well, but according to Yuma, Ryoga's Mochi Toad will block me from activating two card effects, which means I cannot bring out the dragon now… but the card I have drawn…"_ Yuri looked at his drawn card. _"Will solve this problem!"_

"From my hand, I activate the Magic Card, Fusion!" Yuri activated his first card. "I will use-"

"Not gonna be that easy!" Ryoga countered. "Mochi Toad's effect activates! It sends itself to the graveyard to negate the effect of Fusion and destroy it! Then I can set it down to my field!" The toad turned white and fired a beam at Yuri's materialized card, destroying it. Yuri's Fusion then automatically flew out from his Duel Disk to Ryoga's hand, he then calmly set it down without looking at it. "And then, if it is sent to the graveyard, I can add Lightning Shark, a WATER monster, back to my hand."

"I then normal summon Predator Plants Ophrys Scorpio!"

 **Predator Plants Ophrys Scorpio** DARK/Plant/Effect/LV3/ **1200** /800

"Then its effects activates! By sending a Predator Plant monster from my hand to the graveyard…"

As soon as Yuri sent a card, Ryoga acted. "Once again, I activate Mochi Toad's effect!" The frog and the scorpion-plant hybrid disappeared. Once again, Ryoga caught the flying card and set it down to his field.

"Now you cannot do anything anymore!" Yuto said.

"Is that really so?" Yuri smirked. "For Ophrys Scorpio's effect, I had sent Predator Plants Heliamphora Python to the graveyard, which activates its effect! I can send a "Predator Plants" monster in my hand to the graveyard and draw one card!"

"Dammit! A graveyard effect!" Ryoga grunted.

"Finally…" Yuri showed a card. "Magic Card, Dragon's Mirror activate!"

"Dragon's Mirror?" Ruri slightly trembled. She remembered what that card did back in her duel with him.

"Right. Since Ryoga has used up his Mochi Toads, I can freely activate it. I, banishing Heliamphora Python and Moray Nepenthes…"

"Yūgō Shōkan! Appear now, Level 8! Starve Venom Fusion Dragon!" Yuri's dragon appeared, roaring at the sky along with Dark Rebellion and Clear Wing to the sky. The pain in Yuto, Yugo, Yuri and Ruri's chest became more painful, their eyes began to glow. They all tried not to scream. Luckily, something warm was relieving the pain inside them.

 **Starve Venom Fusion Dragon** DARK/Dragon/Fusion/Effect/LV8/ **2800** /2000

" _The dragons are… resonating?"_ Ryoga thought. _"What the hell is going on? What's wrong with them?"_

Shrugging off the pain, Yuri continued. "I will set down two cards and turn end."

* * *

"I will take the first turn." Darkness declared. "From my hand, I normal summon Red-Eyes Black Wyvern!" A medium-sized black dragon appeared.

 **Red-Eyes Black Wyvern** DARK/Dragon/Effect/LV4/ **1800** /1600

"When it is summoned, I add Red-Eyed Drake to my hand." Darkness added his card. "Then its effect activates! I can use it and Red-Eyes Wyvern in my hand to Fusion Summon!"

"What? Fusion Summon from hand?!" Yuzu became surprised.

The Fusion spiral appeared behind Darkness, calling in two small dragons. "Yūgō Shōkan! Appear now Level 6! Red-Eyes Surging Dragon!" From the spiral, a new monster came out. It was larger than the wyvern, its claws were white and sharper, its eyes were now red and its scales were much harder.

 **Red-Eyes Surging Dragon** DARK/Dragon/Fusion/Effect/LV6/2200/2000

"Due to the effect of Black Wyvern, Surging Dragon's name is treated as Red-Eyes Black Dragon. When it is Fusion Summoned, I can send Black of Legend from my Deck to the graveyard."

"And then Magic Card, Black Flame Blast activate!" Surging Dragon charged a flame ball at Yuzu and fired it at the pink hair girl, causing her to fall backward.

 **Yuzu** : 8000 - 5800 [5]

She slowly got up. "What happened? What did you do?"

"It's simple. Black Flame Blast inflicts Surging Dragon's 2200 original ATK as damage to you." Darkness explained.

"Inflict damage?!" Yuzu gasped. "It is… a burn deck!"

"A burn-beatdown deck to be exact. And now I activate Red-Eyes Surging Dragon's effect! It will deals half of its original ATK as further damage to you!"

"What? Again?!" Yuzu quickly rolled away to avoid another flame ball.

 **Yuzu** : 5800 - 4700 [5]

"I set down a card and my turn is done."

" _Dammit… just like what he said, if I started with 4000 LP, I will only have 700 LP left. This guy wants to burn me as much as possible before even allowing me to do anything?"_

" _What am I going to do now…"_ Yuzu nervously thought. The real battle had now just begun…

* * *

 **Fanfic OC Cards**

 **Red-Eyes Drake**

DARK/Dragon/Effect/LV3/1200/700

If this card is in your hand: You can Fusion Summon 1 "Red-Eyes" Fusion Monster from your Extra Deck, using monsters from your hand as Fusion Materials, including this card, and if you do, its name becomes "Red-Eyes Black Dragon" while it is in the field. You can banish this card from your Graveyard; Special Summon 1 "Red-Eyes" monster from your GY. You can only use each effect of "Red-Eyed Drake" once per turn.

 **Red-Eyes Black Wyvern**

DARK/Dragon/Effect/LV4/1800/1600

When this card is Normal or Special Summoned: You can add 1 "Red-Eyes" monster or "Black of Legend" from your Deck to your hand, except "Red-Eyes Black Wyvern", also you cannot Special Summon from your Extra Deck for the rest of this turn, except DARK Dragon Fusion Monsters. If this card inflicts battle damage to your opponent: You can Special Summon 1 Level 7 or lower "Red-Eyes" monster from your Deck. You can only activate each of the effect of "Red-Eyes Black Wyvern" once per turn.

 **Red-Eyes Surging Dragon**

DARK/Dragon/Fusion/Effect/LV6/2200/2000

2 "Red-Eyes" monsters

When this card is Fusion Summoned: You can send 1 "Red-Eyes" monster or "Black of Legend" from your Deck to your GY. Once per turn, you can target 1 "Red-Eyes" monster you control: monsters you control cannot attack this turn, except this card, also inflict damage to your opponent equal to half of its original ATK. If this card is destroyed by battle or by an opponent's card effect: Draw 1 card.

 **Predator Plants Heliamphora Python**

DARK/Plant/Effect/LV2/800/800

If this card is sent to the GY: You can send 1 "Predator Plants" monster from your hand to the GY; draw 1 card. You can only use this effect of "Predator Plants Heliamphora Python" once per turn.

* * *

 **Ladies and gentlemen, it's time to pay respect to Michio and Teppei, two interesting characters that was unfortunately carded.**

 **What the cast is going to endure will be partly revealed in:**

* * *

 **Next Chapter Preview**

 **Painful Goodbye**

Not everyone is going to be lucky today…

 **That's it! This is matrixnis, out!**


	33. Scale 33

**Hello everyone! I am back. Thank you all for reviewing the last chapter.**

 **Be prepared to grab a towel to clean your tears, because this chapter will have real loss this time to the main leadup. Besides, I have left two surprises for you guys! Hope you are going to enjoy this serious chapter.**

* * *

 **Chapter 33: Painful Goodbye**

* * *

"Let's go! Ore no turn!" Sawatari drew his card. "I, using the Scale 1 Underworld Troupe - Devil Heel and Scale 8 Underworld Troupe - Funky Comedian, Pendulum Scale Setting!"

"With this, I can summon monsters with Levels between 2 and 7 at the same time! Pendulum Shōkan! Appear now!" A monster flew down.

"Underworld Troupe - Big Star!"

 **Underworld Troupe - Big Star** DARK/Demon/Pendulum/Effect/Scale 3/LV7/ **2500** /2000

"With its effect, I can add Underworld Troupe - Fantasy Magic to my hand and activate it!" As soon as he added his desired card, Sawatari activated it immediately. A book materialized on Big Star's arm and the monster read it. It then transformed itself to wear a purple cape with two purple orbs on the shoulders.

"Battle!" Sawatari declared. "Underworld Troupe - Big Star, attack Antique Gear Triple Bite Hound Dog!" The demonic actor charged a blue ball of energy on its hands and threw it with both hands at Yellow's dog, disintegrating it.

 **Yellow** : 2000 - 1500 [0]

"Have you seen this, intruder? If you destroy it, the combo will hit you in the face right now!" Yellow arrogantly reminded.

"There will be no "destroy"!" Sawatari said. "Thanks to Fantasy Magic, this turn any card destroyed by battle will be returned to the hand! But as a Fusion monster, the only destination is the Extra Deck!"

"Trap activate!" Yellow still had a card to play. "Antique Gear Rebirth Fusion! Since your card effect makes my monster leave the field, I can choose a monster that has its name in its summoning condition and special summon it as a Fusion summon!" The three-headed dog reappeared as a ghost and join in the spiral.

"Appear now Level 9! Antique Gear Ultimate Hound Dog!"

 **Antique Gear Ultimate Hound Dog** DARK/Machine/Fusion/Effect/LV9/ **2800** /2000

"Right after the summon, it will drain your LPs away!" The dog fired multiple blasts at the ground where the Lancers were standing, taking their LPs away.

 **Tsukikage** : 500 - 250 [1]

 **Selena** : 2400 - 1200 [2]

 **Sawatari** : 2000 - 1000 [3]

 **Shun** : 4000 - 2000 [5]

Sawatari gritted his teeth. "Dammit…"

"Stay back…!" Shun ordered, but his wound caused him pain again, forcing him to grab his stomach.

"You should be the one to stay back!" The man Gongenzaka in metal sandals made his entrance, standing between Shun and Sawatari.

"Ore no… TURN!" The powerful wind he created when he drew his card caused Shun and Sawatari to cover themselves.

"Intrusion Penalty, 2000 Point!"

 **Gongenzaka Noboru** : 4000 - 2000 [5]

* * *

"Boku no turn." Sora started his turn. "Continuous Magic, Toy Pot activate!" A large pot filled with balls rose up from the ground behind Sora. "I send Furnimal Wing to the grave and draw a card." Sora inspected it. "Level 3 Furnimal Bear! Special summon!" The angel bear flew out from the ball that slid out from the slide of the pot.

 **Furnimal Bear** EARTH/Angel/Effect/LV3/ **1200** /800

"And then Magic Card, Fusion activate!" Yuya prepared himself.

"Appear now! Horrifying beast that shreds everything! Death-Toy Scissors Bear!" Sora brought out the Fusion monster that gave Yuya a hard time the first time they dueled each other.

 **Death-Toy Scissors Bear** DARK/Demon/Fusion/Effect/LV6/ **2200** /1800

"Then I will set a card down. Turn end." Sora finished his turn. "Sa, charge in Yuya. I will show you my real power through this duel!"

Yuya touched his Deck. "No matter how much power you will display, I will break through it and bring you back to who I used to know! Ore no turn, draw!" He inspected his hand. "Pretty good!"

"I, using the Scale 1 Stargazer Magican and Scale 8 Timegazer Magician, Pendulum Scale Setting!" The magicians flew up in the two transparent pillars, a large blue pendant appeared and swung around.

"Swing, Pendulum of the Soul! Draw an arc across the nether! Pendulum Shōkan! Appear now!" Two monsters flew down.

"Dharma-Eye Magician! Odd-Eyes Pendulum Dragon!" Alongside the heterochromatic dragon, a new magician holding tremendous power in its large hammer showed up.

 **Dharma-Eye Magician** DARK/Magician/Pendulum/Efffect/LV7/Scale 2/ **2000** /2500

 **Odd-Eyes Pendulum Dragon** DARK/Dragon/Pendulum/Effect/Scale 4/LV7/ **2500** /2000

"Remember it Sora! The first time we duel!" Yuya tried to get through the Academia soldier.

"Half of that duel was simply joke…" Sora dismissed. "But now I will not be that bullshit anymore!"

"The smile you had back there was real! Battle! Odd-Eyes Pendulum Dragon, attack Death-Toy Scissors Bear!"

As soon as the dragon leaped, Sora jumped to the nearest floating step to grab an Action Card there and activate it. "Action Magic, Flame Chain! Odd-Eyes loses 400 ATK!"

"At this moment, Stargazer Magician's effect activates!" Yuya quickly acted. "It negates the activation and effect of a Magic card and set it down again! Horoscope Divination!" The magician in white robes raised its staff, the large circular ring in the center activated, sending energy through the entire staff, rewinding the space and stopping Sora's Action Card.

Yuya quickly vaulted to the stalactite where an Action Card was sticking. He activated it before Sora got the chance. "Action Magic, Flame Power! Odd-Eyes gain 400 ATK!"

 **Odd-Eyes Pendulum Dragon** ATK 2500 - 2900

Ticking his tongue, Sora resorted to his set card. "Quick-Play Magic, Fusion Cancel! I return Scissors Bear to the Extra Deck and special summon its materials!" The deadly bear glowed up before separating itself to the smaller monsters.

"If so, Odd-Eyes, attack Edge Imp Scissors!" The red dragon swung its tail forward, slashing the demonic-possessed scissors.

"With Flame Power's effect, you will take damage equal to Scissors' defense points!" Multiple energy needles flew out from the card to Sora, who covered himself with the blade of this Duel Disk.

 **Sora** : 4000 - 3200 [0]

"And then Dharma-Eye Magician, attack Furnimal Bear!" The magician lunged forward and pointed its hammer forward, attempting to crush the bear.

Sora jumped to another step and slid an Action Card. "Action Magic, Zero Penalty! Dharma-Eye's ATK becomes 0! This time Stargazer cannot negate!" Numerous large purple "0" stones fell down, trapping the magician before disappearing and taking its strength away.

 **Dharma-Eye Magician** ATK 2000 - 0

"Counter now, Furnimal Bear!" Sora quickly ordered to avoid Yuya snatching another Action Card. The pink bear gave a strong punch at Yuya's monster, sending it flying back to his field.

 **Yuya** : 4000 - 3200 [2]

"You react fast Sora." Yuya gave a word.

"No need for a compliment. I told you I am serious right now! In my next turn, I will beat you down Yuya!"

"Don't think about it Sora! I want to see the cheerful you before! Don't you remember? Thanks to duel, we became friends!"

"Huh! Becoming friends through duel?" Sora gave a threatening look at Yuya. "That's the "bullshit" I am talking about!"

"Tsk… my words failed to reach to him…" Yuya cursed himself. "But I will not give up, not until I bring you back! I, using the Level 7 Odd-Eyes Pendulum Dragon and Dharma-Eye Magician, Overlay!" Yuya's two monsters turned into purple energy and flew up high before flying down to the portal.

"O Dragon of perfection, come out of the cold ice surrounding you and let out a roar of prideful mighty! Xyz Shōkan!"

"Appear now! Rank 7! Odd-Eyes Absolute Dragon!" Yuya's first Xyz monster rose up, bringing his will to get through the kid he came to care about.

 **Odd-Eyes Absolute Dragon** WATER Dragon Xyz Effect R7 **2800** /2500

"I activate Foolish Burial to send a monster from my Deck to the graveyard."

"Finally, I set down a card and end my turn."

* * *

Gongenzaka looked at two of his Pendulum Cards which he got to already have in his hand. _"These cards were from Yuzu, I must finish this duel as soon as possible. According to what she said, the girl over there is Selena, who Academia is hunting."_ He recalled the moment before, Yuzu suddenly pulled him over and whispered to his ear about Selena and what she knew about her so far. He knew why she had to do it since there are three Xyz survivors walking next to him.

" _She's Academia, but she is being hunted by them. However bad she is, I cannot let anyone who looks like Yuzu be harmed!"_ Steeling his resolve, he began his turn.

"I, using the Scale 1 Red Devil and Scale 12 Black Sun, Pendulum Scale setting!" The two malicious Pendulum monsters took position in their scales, flying upwards behind Gongenzaka.

"With this, I can summon monsters whose Levels are between 2 and 11! Pendulum Shōkan!" Three monsters flew down and took form.

"Two Superheavy Samurai Nusu-10! And Superheavy Samurai Hikya-Q!"

 **Superheavy Samurai Nusu-10** EARTH/Machine/Effect/LV10/ **1000** /1000

 **Superheavy Samurai Hikya-Q** EARTH/Machine/Effect/LV5/ **1200** /1800

"By releasing Nuso-10, I can return Devil Heel to my hand!" The monster turned into energy and flew through the floating Devil Heel, making it disappear. Gongenzaka pointed his right hand at Sawatari with his thumb, index and middle fingers open ready for pickup.

"Did you use it wrong?" Sawatari complained as he took up the card. "With its effect, it can break the combo of the enemy?" He threw the card anyway.

"No, this is enough." Gongenzaka took it. "Then I release another Nusu-10 to add Funky Comedian to my hand!" Sawatari took off the remaining card in the Pendulum Zone and threw it to the large teenager. "Finally, I release Hikya-Q…" The monster glowed an yellow aura and disappeared.

"To give these two cards to Kurosaki!" The Xyz duelist took the cards in surprise.

"Why did you give these Pendulum Cards to me?" He wondered.

"Because you will finish the duel!" He explained. "I end my turn here!"

Shun was unsure what to do. He did not want to get help from others since he worked alone, but looking at his hand, his field, Obelisk Force's field, he could not have other choice.

* * *

"Watashi no turn, draw!" Yuzu started her first turn. _"Why am I so unlucky today…? As if having to duel Yuri was not enough, now I have to duel with another strong Academia soldier?"_

Yuzu took a breath, trying to concentrate. _"No matter the circumstances, I need to finish this duel as soon as possible to help Yuya and others!"_

She looked down at the six people dueling below and the group near the hotel far away, using them as motivation to duel. _"Wait for me everyone, I will finish this duel and help you. My hand can definitely do that right now."_

"From my hand, Magic Card, 1st Movement Solo activate! I can special summon Melodious Diva Aria from my Deck!"

 **Melodious Diva Aria** LIGHT/Angel/Effect/LV4/ **1600** /1200

"Then from my hand Melodious Songstress Soprano normal summon!"

 **Melodious Songstress Soprano** LIGHT/Angel/Effect/LV4/ **1400** /1400

"Earlier you use the effect of Red-Eyes Drake to fuse it with Wyvern from your hand. Well guess what? I can do the something similar!"

"Humph?"

"Soprano's effect activates! I can fuse it with Melodious Diva Tamtam in my hand!" Yuzu sent the needed cards to the graveyard, causing the two monsters to materialize before joining in the Fusion spiral.

"So that's it… you're a Fusion user…" Darkness mumbled. He smirked in excitement. "Interesting…"

"Angel's song! Supreme genius! With the guidance of the baton, gather your power!"

"Yūgō Shōkan! Now come to the stage! Level 6! Melodious Choir Bloom Diva!"

 **Floral Melodious Saint Bloom Diva** LIGHT/Angel/Fusion/Effect/LV6/ **1000** /2000

"Since Tamtam was used as a Fusion material, Bloom Diva loses 500 ATK…"

 **Melodious Choir Bloom Diva** ATK 1000 - 500

"And you take 500 damage! Take this!" Yuzu's monster sang, sending a gust of wind straight at Darkness. He simply arched sideways to avoid it.

 **Darkness** : 4000 - 3500 [1]

"And then since I control a "Melodious" monster, I can special summon Melodious Diva Elegy!"

 **Melodious Diva Elegy** LIGHT/Angel/LV5/ **2000** /1200

"Its effect will boost Angel-type monsters' ATK!"

 **Melodious Diva Aria** ATK 1600 - 1900

 **Floral Melodious Saint Bloom Diva** ATK 500 - 800

 **Melodious Diva Elegy** ATK 2000 - 2300

"So that's what you are going to do…" Darkness said. _"But how is she going to use the 800 ATK Bloom Diva to attack my monsters? That monster must have an effect of some kind? Damn! I should have talked to Yuri about it earlier!"_

"It's too late to realize now Darkness! Battle!" Yuzu raised her hand at her Fusion monster. "Melodious Diva Aria, attack Red-Eyes Black Wyvern!" The monster materialized a mic before turning it on, sending circular waves at Darkness's weaker monster on the field. The wyvern screamed in pain, unable to resist the deadly sound waves anymore before exploding.

 **Darkness** : 3500 - 3400 [1]

" _Good! His set card does not stop attacks!"_ Yuzu thought in her mind, feeling greatly relieved. "And then, Bloom Diva, attack Red-Eyes Surging Dragon!" The clothes the small but powerful monster glowed in purple before sending a straight stream at the chest of the dragon. It tried to stop it.

"It only has 800 ATK, you want to suicide?"

"I never plan to! Bloom Diva will destroy the Special Summoned monster it battles and transfer the damage I would receive to you!"

"What?!" For the first time, Darkness was caught off guard. The stream got stronger and stronger, piercing through the dragon and leaving a rectangular hole on its chest before exploding. The resulting blast knocked the Academia elite back to the wall behind.

 **Darkness** : 3400 - 2000 [1]

"You're… really good…!" Darkness gritted his teeth, holding his stomach in pain while getting up.

"That's the result of underestimating me bastard! Now end with the song of justice!" Yuzu pointed her hand at him very fiercely.

"Final battle! Melodious Diva Elegy, direct attack!" The diva in blue dress clapped her hands before singing a song, sending musical notes from her mouth straight to Darkness. The notes glowed brightly in blue, slightly blinding both Darkness and Yuzu.

"I win!" Yuzu confidently smirked.

…

…

"Bullshit!" Darkness suddenly smiled. Yuzu gasped.

"You think I am really that reckless and overconfident like that? I always have backup plans in my mind!" He declared before slapping down his only card in his hand. A small dragon with black scaly skin, red eyes and two large, fiery wings appeared. It spun around, slapping its red wings at Elegy, making it gasp in pain and forcing it to back down.

 **Red-Eyes Shield Wing Dragon** DARK/Dragon/Effect/LV7/ **100** /100

"What is that monster? Why was my attack stopped?" Yuzu wondered.

"Red-Eyes Shield Wing Dragon can be special summoned when your monster declares a direct attack. That attack is stopped." The dragon rained down red dust from its wings to the masked duelist.

"Then I gain LP equal to Elegy's ATK."

 **Darkness** : 2000 - 4300 [0]

"And half of the same amount will be inflicted to you!" The small dragon breathed flame, sending it to Yuzu. She was forced to cover herself from the hot flame.

 **Yuzu** : 4700 - 3550 [2]

"So, end your turn now little girl, there is nothing you can do now."

Yuzu closed her eyes, angrily berating herself. "Turn end…"

"Which means it's my turn. Ore no turn, draw!" Darkness drew his card.

* * *

" _What is this pain? It's coming again…!"_ Yugo swallowed his nerves. Luckily he did not feel as much pain as before for some reason.

He eyed at Yuri, telling that psychotic soldier to prepare to receive the punishment he would deliver. "Let's go! Ore no turn, draw!" Yugo looked at his card.

"Good! I normal summon Speedroid Pachingo-Kart!" The blue kart materialized.

 **Speedroid Pachingo-Kart** WIND/Machine/Effect/LV4/ **1800** /1000

"When it's summoned, I can destroy a card on the field, and I will choose…" Yugo stopped for a second before pointing upwards. "Clear Wing Synchro Dragon!"

"What?! You want to destroy your own dragon?" Yuma wondered.

"You think?" Yugo said, suddenly Clear Wing blasted energy from its shining wings at the kart, destroying it.

 **Clear Wing Synchro Dragon** ATK 2500 - 4300

"Since a Level 5 or higher monster was targeted for a monster effect, in this case Clear Wing, it can negate the activation and destroy it." He explained. "Then it gains ATK equal to Pachingo-Kart's ATK."

"I see… You destroy your own monster to gain power. Just like you, a mindless asshole who doesn't care what your friend is suffering in Academia." Yuri took his chance to mock.

"Stop that asshole!" Yugo became angry. "Battle! Clear Wing Synchro Dragon, attack Starve Venom Fusion Dragon! Shippu no… Helldive Slasher!"

"At this moment! I activate Glimmer of Hope's effect!" Yuma countered. "By detaching an Overlay Unit, it can negate an opposing monster's attack and I gain LP equal to its original ATK!"

 **Yuma** : 4000 - 6500 [2]

"What?! Negate attack and gain LP?!" Yugo, Ruri, Yuto and Ryoga gasped.

"A more powerful version of Hope!" Yuto said.

"Indeed." Yuma confirmed. "You're lucky that I activated this effect." Only he, Yuri and Ruri knew why though.

"I know that monster must have some effect similar to Hope Yuma! Which is why I have prepared this Trap!" Ryoga clicked a button on his Duel Disk, the set card rose up. "Shark Paralyze! This card negates Glimmer of Hope's effect in this turn and allow Clear Wing Synchro Dragon to attack again!"

"Thanks Shark. I order Clear Wing Synchro Dragon to attack King of Wishes - Glimmer of Hope!"

"Trap activate! Half Unbreak! Glimmer cannot be destroyed by battle this turn and all battle damage involving it are halved!"

 **Yuma** : 6500 - 5600 [2]

"Dammit…!" Yugo mumbled. "I end my turn here. At this moment, the effect of Shark Paralyze ends, Glimmer of Hope's effect returns to normal." The armor of Yuma's new ace monster glowed up again. "I'm sorry Shark, I couldn't destroy neither monsters."

"Don't worry Yugo, I will not let your efforts be in vain." Ryoga assured him. "Get ready Yuri, Yuma! Ore no turn, draw!" Ryoga started his second turn by drawing his card as strong as he could.

"I activate Bahamut Shark's effect! I special summon the Rank 3 Aero Shark from my graveyard!" Water erupted from the ground and from it two sharks connected by a large orange wing flew up.

 **Underwater Mothership Aero Shark** WATER/Fish/Xyz/Effect/R3/ **1900** /1000

"At this moment, I activate Soul Shark's graveyard effect! It attaches itself to Aero Shark as an Overlay Unit and make it gain 1500 ATK in this turn!" A small blue ball of light flew out from Ryoga's Duel Disk and orbited Aero Shark.

 **Underwater Mothership Aero Shark** ATK 1900 - 3400

"Nice Shark! Its ATK is now 3400, you can beat any monsters those bastards control!" Yugo cheered.

"Now I normal summon Lightning Shark!" Ryoga slapped down the monster he added to his hand earlier, the shark appeared and generated lightning around it.

"Then I Reverse Summon Predator Plants - Ophrys Scorpio." Ryoga flipped the face-down card, Yuri's monster burst out. "Next I activate the Equip Magic Scroll of Bewitchment on Ophrys Scorpio and change its attribute to WATER!" The scorpion-plant hybrid glowed a purple aura before changing into blue.

 **Predator Plants - Ophrys Scorpio** DARK - WATER

"Finally, I, using the Level 3 Lightning Shark and Ophrys Scorpio, Overlay!"

"Xyz Shōkan! Appear now Rank 3! Black Ray Lancer!"

 **Black Ray Lancer** DARK/Beast-Warrior/Xyz/Effect/R3/ **2100** /600

"Black Ray Lancer's effect activates! By detaching an Overlay Unit, Glimmer of Hope's effect is negated for this turn!" The monster slashed an Overlay Unit using its spear and blasted a stream of energy at Yuma's monster, taking its power away again.

"And then Aero Shark's effect! By detaching an Overlay Unit, it can inflict 400 damage for each card in my hand! Air Torpedo!" After absorbing an Overlay Unit, the monster fired multiple rockets and they hit the ground near Yuma, forcing him to cover himself.

 **Yuma** : 5600 - 5200 [2]

"Battle! Aero Shark, attack Starve Venom Fusion Dragon!" Another barrage of rockets struck Yuri's dragon, destroying it in an explosion.

 **Yuri** : 4000 - 3400 [2]

"Hahaha! Now is payback time!" Yuri suddenly yelled excitedly like a child.

"What?!" Ryoga wondered.

"If Starve Venom Fusion Dragon is destroyed, it can destroy all Special Summoned monsters all of you scums control, and then inflict damage equal to the combined ATKs of those monsters!"

"The hell is that effect?!" Yugo said in shock.

"I will not let you do it!" Ruri declared. "Counter Trap activate! Battle Stun!" From where Yuri was standing, poisonous liquid spat all over the field but a barrier stopped them from hurting other monsters. "It negates an effect activated during the Battle Phase and destroy it."

"Humph… good move girl. You amazed me." Yuri gave a "compliment" to Ruri. "You surely have improved since our last time "dancing" together!"

"Enough with that nonsense!" Yuto spoke up angrily. He hated anyone who hurt his friends and Ruri.

"The duel continues!" Ryoga said. "I will finish you asshole first before handling Yuma! Bahamut Shark, Yuri direct attack!"

"How foolish!" Yuri mocked. He pointed at his set card which flipped up immediately. "Trap Card open! Playback Reborn! The destroyed Starve Venom Fusion Dragon returns to the field!" In an instant, the trap wrapped itself and transformed into Yuri's signature dragon.

"It… returns to the field…?!" Ryoga muttered.

"Then, this card inflict the attacking monster's ATK as damage!" The purple dragon flung its tail at the black warrior and punched it, causing it to hit Ryoga as it flew backwards.

 **Ryoga** : 4000 - 1700 [0]

"Shark!" Yuto yelled in concern. "Are you okay?!"

"I'm… I'm fine, don't worry…" Ryoga said as he got up again, a small drop of blood on his cheeks due to the impact.

"But now you only have 1700 LP and you are bleeding!" Ruri expressed her concern.

"Don't worry." Yuma suddenly spoke up. "He's not giving up that easy, it's gonna take more to beat him. You guys don't have to make a fuss about it."

"We don't need you to talk about this Yuma! You betrayed us, you don't have the right to speak to us like that!" Ryoga rudely cut him off before starting another attack. "If so, I declare Bahamut Shark to attack…"

"Not gonna work!" Yuri said. "You must attack the monster summoned by Playback Reborn during this Battle Phase!" Starve Venom roared, challenging the white shark to strike it.

Ryoga knew better than to fall into the obvious trap. "Turn end… Consider yourself lucky right now, during my next turn, I will beat all of you!"

"Let's see if you have that chance Shark."

"Don't tell me that-"

"Ore no turn, draw!" Yuma drew his card in a flashy way, similar to what he did back in Heartland. He smiled. "It's here!"

"What?!"

"Rank-Up-Magic Hope Hell Force activate!"

"Rank-Up Magic you say?!" Yugo thought out loud. Of all the people in the barrier, he was the only one not to know the existence of Rank-Up.

"This card targets my Glimmer of Hope and special summon a "Hope" monster that is 1 Rank higher using it as an Xyz material!"

"I, using the Rank 4 Glimmer of Hope, Overlay Network reconstructing!"

"Rank-Up Xyz Change!" A huge explosion occurred. All of Yuma and Yuri's opponents sweated, especially the former's former friends.

"Solitary glimmer of hope, become a streak of lightning and leap from the darkness! Rank-Up Xyz change! Come forth, Shining Numbers 39!" Descended from the portal did the new warrior. The white parts of the old Hope was now more shiny and silvery, the wings were now extended to the sides instead of folding behind the back, some parts of its body like its abdomen, shoulders, hands and legs were now in black, signifying the stronger and rougher warrior of wish.

"Hope the Lightning!"

 **SNo.39: King of Wishes - Hope the Lightning** LIGHT/Warrior/Xyz/Effect/R5/ **2500** /2000

"King of Wishes… Hope the Lightning… what is this monster?!" Yugo mumbled. "I sensed something… unusual…"

"Prepare Yugo! This monster is dangerous!" Yuto warned the D-Wheeler. "I do not think I will face this monster so soon…"

"Since I used to duel all of you, you know how powerful this monster is right?" Yuma asked, silence occurred. "Good, now your fates are in my hand now, who will I choose to receive my gratitude?"

He took a good look at each person.

Yugo…

Ryoga…

Ruri…

Yuto…

All of them, he did not want to hurt anyone, but for the sake of his mother, he would…

A gust of wind swept by…

Yuma glanced at it, before giving his final decision.

"Battle!" Tension rose up.

"King of Wishes - Hope the Lightning! Attack…"

"At this moment!" Yuto spoke up, catching Yuma off guard. "Continuous Trap activate! Phantom Fog Blade!" A large foggy blade flew out from the trap and floated right in front of the warrior. It tried to slash it using its sword but it did not work at all.

"Dammit!" Yuma shrieked.

"With this, Hope of Lightning cannot attack. It only disallows me from activating card effect when it battles but I activated this card before it!"

"You think I am going to let you do whatever you want?" Yuri answered by activating another set card. "Trap Card, Heavy Dust Storm activate!" A huge thunderstorm came out of nowhere, sweeping the field. Everyone covered their faces.

"This card allows me to destroy two Magic or Trap cards on the field. I will choose Phantom Fog Blade and Yugo's set card on the left!" The thunderstorm went after the targets.

"You choose the wrong target asshole!" Yugo yelled and he waved his hand. "Counter Trap Dark Bribe activate! This card allows you to draw one card, but the activation of Heavy Dust Storm is negated and it is destroyed!" From Yugo's trap, a single gold flew out, neutralizing the storm for some reason.

"However." Yugo said. "This is a Battle Royale, each of us is each other's opponent, which means besides me, everyone can draw a card."

"Such a risky move Yugo." Ruri said. "You let everyone but you have another card."

"But it includes all of you right? That's fine for me." Yugo explained. Everyone drew a card expect him.

"In case you don't remember, my Battle Phase is not over yet." Yuma told him.

"But now you have no monsters to attack anymore!"

"That will be over soon. Trap Card activate!" The card flipped up. "Xyz Reborn! Appear again, Glimmer of Hope!" In an instant, the monster flew out from the portal opened below, the trap card then turned into a small yellow sphere and flew around Yuma's resurrected new ace.

"Battle! Glimmer of Hope, attack Lyrical Luscinia - Assembly Nightingale!" The attack target shocked everyone, Hope began to slash its sword.

"Right now, Hope's effect activates! Moon Barrier!" Its Overlay Unit detached, the monster stopped slashing.

"Why did you negate your own attack?!" Ryoga asked, but he realized why when Yuma took out a card in his hand. "Don't… don't tell me…!"

"Right!" He activated his card. "Quick-Play Magic, Double-Up Chance activate! When an attack is negated, that monster's ATK is doubled and it can attack again!" The materialized card charged energy to Hope, increasing its power.

 **No.39: King of Wishes - Glimmer of Hope** ATK 2500 - 5000

"This is the end Ryoga! Glimmer of Hope, attack Black Ray Lancer!"

"If this attack connects, Shark will take 2900 damage and lose!" Yuto said in worry.

"Ryoga!" Ruri yelled at her friend.

"As if I let you!" Ryoga quickly touched his Duel Disk. "Trap Card, Poseidon's Wave activate! This card negates your attack and deals 800 damage to you!" A tidal wave knocked the warrior back and hit Yuma, causing him pain.

 **Yuma** : 5200 - 4400 [1]

 **No.39: King of Wishes - Glimmer of Hope** ATK 5000 - 2500

"I set down a card. Turn end."

* * *

Shun touched the top card of his Deck. "Ore no… TURN!" Just like Gongenzaka, this draw created a strong gust of wind.

He recalled the events that lead into this: drawing Double Exposure, Selena rescuing him, Tsukikage taking damage to protect him, Michio and Teppei's sacrifice, Sawatari intervening, Gongenzaka's words.

"Bullshit…" He muttered to himself. He then faced the Obelisk Force head-on.

"I, using the Scale 1 Devil Heel and Scale 8 Funky Comedian, Pendulum Scale setting!"

"With this, monsters whose Levels are between 2 and 7 can be summoned at the same time!" Everyone patiently looked on Shun, waiting for his move.

"Pendulum Shōkan!F"

"Raid Raptors - Wild Vulture!"

3x **Raid Raptors - Wild Vulture** DARK/Bird Beast/Effect/LV6/ **1600** /2000

" _Three level six monsters… good that Gongenzaka gave those cards to him!"_ Selena commented in her mind.

"I, using the three Level 6 Wild Vulture, Overlay!"

"Prideful falcon, spread your wings dyed in the blood of heroes! Advance through the path of revolution!"

"Xyz Shōkan! Come forth! Rank 6! Raid Raptors - Revolution Falcon!" The secretary bird with large wing ascended to the field after blasting out the purple spark on its body.

 **Raid Raptors - Revolution Falcon** DARK/Bird Beast/Xyz/Effect/LV6/ **2000** /3000

"Revolution Falcon's effect activates! By detaching an Overlay Unit, it can attack all monsters the opponent controls once each!"

"But if you attack, my combo will be delivered nicely!" Green said.

"When Revolution Falcon attacks a Special Summoned monster, its ATK and DEF become 0!" Shun revealed, shocking the Obelisk Force.

"Battle! Revolution Falcon!" The bird started its boosters, releasing fire. It then aimed the boosters at the face of the three dogs, neutralizing them.

 **Antique Gear Triple Bite Hound Dog** **1800** /1000 - **0** /0

 **Antique Gear Ultimate Hound Dog** **2800** /2000 - **0** /0

After that, it flew up high, circling around a bit. "Carry on the will of the fallen… and eradicate all enemies!"

"Revolutional Air Raid!" Revolution Falcon did a bombing run on Obelisk Force's field, destroying all monsters in raging explosions and knocking them out.

 **Red** : 2000 - 0 [0]

 **Yellow** : 2000 - 0 [0]

 **Green** : 2000 - 0 [0]

The defeated duelists then turned into blue particles before disintegrating.

Sawatari jumped up happily. "Yahoo! See that assholes! Oh yes!"

Gongenzaka gave a respectful nod to the sweated Shun, who initially did not know how to respond. He eventually nodded back.

"All right, we need to help others." Tsukikage proposed. "There's a duel happening on our left."

Shun turned to that direction. His eyes widened, in shock, in happiness.

"Can't be…"

No words can be said anymore, Shun instantly ran to the dueling place.

Selena noticed something hitting her eyes. She looked down.

" _My… bracelet…!"_ She realized. Earlier she had felt something unpleasant inside her body but she ignored it pretty easily since her training in Academia allowed her to endure a high amount of pain. But that was unexpected.

" _What is happening…?"_ She wondered. _"It's as if…"_

" _The dragons…?"_

* * *

Yuto took a deep breath to calm himself down, forgetting the rising anger inside him for a moment. "Ore no turn, draw!" Yuto drew his card.

"Reverse Card open! Phantom Knights Mist Claws! I can add back the banished Dusty Robe to my hand." A monster materialized and slashed its claws to the ground before disappearing. Yuto then added the card banished earlier to his hand from his pocket.

Dark Rebellion did a roar, signaling Yuto what to do next.

"I get what you mean Dark Rebellion! And then Dark Rebellion Xyz Dragon's monster effect activates! By detaching an Overlay Unit…" Dark Rebellion ate it. "Starve Venom's ATK is halved and it gains the same lost amount!" The dragon opened its scissors-like wings, charging purple electricity before blasting it at the large warrior, binding it and draining its power. "Treason Discharge!"

 **Dark Rebellion Xyz Dragon** ATK 2500 - 3900

 **Starve Venom Fusion Dragon** ATK 2800 - 1400

"You plan on destroying my dragon?" Yuri asked. "But remember if you do, all of the other monsters will be destroyed and the total ATKs of those monsters will be dealt to the respective owners!"

"Of course I remember it." Yuto said. "I then activate Magic Planter! By sending Fog Blade to the graveyard…" The card disappeared, Hope the Lightning got free. "I can draw two cards."

Yuto took a look at his drawn card and then eyed at Yuri. "Here it is Yuri, Yuma! Quick-Play Magic, Phantom Restriction!" The card that Yuto activated had an image of a graveyard in a cemetery at night being chained by a long grey chain. On its left, Dusty Robe, Silent Boots and Ragged Glove could be seen. After the card image was shown, it absorbed Shade Brigandine.

"By tributing Shade Brigandine and paying 1000 LP, no players can activate any graveyard effects during this turn!"

 **Yuto** : 4000 - 3000 [4]

"Battle! Dark Rebellion Xyz Dragon, attack Starve Venom Fusion Dragon!" Yuto's dragon took flight.

"Hangyaku no… Lightning Disobey!" The fang left a deep gash at the belly of Yuri's dragon, destroying it in an explosion.

 **Yuri** : 3400 - 900 [2]

"Yoss! That bastard has taken huge damage!" Yugo happily said.

"But here comes its graveyard effects!" Ryoga reminded.

"Who said I would activate it?" Yuri suddenly smirked.

"What?!"

"This effect is optional. At this moment, Darkness Absorber's effect activates!" Yuri slapped down a card from his hand, a humanoid monster with black skin, long fur, deformed face and two horns on its face showed up. It then opened a portal and absorbed energy from it.

 **Darkness Absorber** DARK/Demon/Effect/LV?/?/ **?**

"What… what is that… thing?" Ruri muttered, feeling slightly scared at the sight of the creepy monster.

"When a DARK monster is destroyed, I can special summon this monster in Defense Position. It then copies the destroyed monster's Level, ATK and DEF."

 **Darkness Absorber** DARK/Demon/Effect/LV8/2800/ **2000**

"Krugh…! Which means I can just attack again. Dark Rebellion, attack Darkness Absorber!" The dragon obeyed and destroyed Yuri's remaining monster.

"Right now Darkness Absorber's effect activates! When it is destroyed by battle, it can destroy up to two cards and I gain LP equal to its ATK!"

"What?!" Yuto gasped.

"The cards I will destroy are…" Yuri eyed at Yuma, who nodded. "Hope the Lightning and Glimmer of Hope!"

"You destroy Yuma's monsters?!" Ryoga wondered as Yuma's field exploded, leaving him vulnerable to any attacks incoming.

 **Yuri** : 900 - 3700 [1]

"Try to guess what we are gonna do." Yuma provoked. "Especially you Ruri since you take the next turn. And Yuto, I realize you hesitated to attack me. You are still considering me a friend?" Yuto froze.

"If you ordered Dark Rebellion to destroy my Hopes, I would only have 800 LP left. This is war Yuto, not a normal duel we used to have before. I know you too well Yuto, you are still too soft in battle, you refuse to hurt people when you don't have to while you know they could take revenge somehow."

Yuto hated it, but he could not deny it. He never wanted to hurt anyone, friend or foe. He always left Academia a chance to run away despite others' protests.

"You know what Academia did to you and your friends. Should I talk about your father here?"

"Stop it Yuma!" Ruri raised her voice while Yuto tried to keep calm.

"I know it Yuma." He argued. "I hate them for what they did to our hometown, I hate you for betraying us, I hate you for carding Ruri's father and my father. But I cannot hurt them back, I cannot hurt you back. Doing that will only make me just like them, you should know it well. I don't want to hurt you, my best friend!"

"Former." Yuma dismissed. "The moment I turned my back on you, I knew I don't need that sympathy anymore."

"But why did you do it Yuma? Why did you betray us?" Ryoga pressed. "You must answer us today, or my monsters will force you to speak up!"

"You want to know?" Yuma whispered. He looked away, trying to say something but he hesitated. He did not want them to know.

"Tell us Yuma! Why? Tell us!" Ruri demanded.

"That…" Yuma trailed off, looking at Yuri as if he wanted to get some mental help. If he was just as usual, Yuri would just brutally mock him, but today he could only give Yuma a sad look, understanding his predicament since he once was in that situation.

Yuma decided to leave it aside. "That… I will tell you… if you defeat me in this duel!" His deadly glare returned.

"Fine then, you are going to tell us why!" Yuto said. "I set down two cards and turn end. At this moment Dark Rebellion's attack point becomes normal value."

 **Dark Rebellion Xyz Dragon** ATK 3900 - 2500

Ruri checked Yuto's set cards on her Duel Disk. _"Oh! You want me to finish right now Yuto?"_ She gave a look at Yuto, who confirmed by nodding.

"Watashi no turn, draw!" Ruri did her Draw Phase. "Yuto, let's finish the duel!"

"Yeah!"

"First off, Rank-Up-Magic Luscinia Force activate! I, using the Rank 1 Lyrical Luscinia - Assembly Nightingale, Overlay!" The female monster turned into energy before flying down to the Overlay Network, causing a huge explosion and a strong whirlwind.

"Birds with shining wings! Gather on the battlefield and lead the righteous way to victory! Rank-Up Xyz Change!" The new humanoid bird flew up. Donning the black armor, it swore to end the battle real soon.

"Fly up bright, Rank 2, Lyrical Luscinia - Revolting Nightingale!"

 **Lyrical Luscinia - Revolting Nightingale** WIND/Bird Beast/Xyz/Effect/R2 **0** /0

"Like Assembly Nightingale, this card gains ATK and DEF according to its Overlay Units, but this time 200!" Ruri said.

"It has four Overlay Units now so…" Yugo commented.

"It has 800 ATK!" Yuri finished. "And you are going to use that monster to direct attack all of us?"

"You got it right asshole!"

 **Lyrical Luscinia - Revolting Nightingale** **0** /0 - **800** /800

"The total damage you can cause is 3200, it is still not enough!" Yuri pointed out.

"Not with this card!" Yuto suddenly said.

"What you mean?" Yuma asked.

"Double Continuous Trap, Phantom Sword activate! The target Lyrical Luscinia - Revolting Nightingale will gain 800 ATK for each one!" The cards channeled its energy to the humanoid bird, it gave a loud roar to signify that.

 **Lyrical Luscinia - Revolting Nightingale** ATK 800 - 2400

"What?! It now has… 2400 ATK…?!" Yuri mumbled in shock.

"Yoss! With this, Yuri and Yuma will lose right in this turn!" Ryoga said.

"No way…" Yuma whispered.

"Under the wing of rebellion, I give all of the fallen comrades' feeling and the will of the standing to this monster! The time to pay back for what you have done is now!" Ruri chanted.

"This is for hunting me in that night! Revolting Nightingale, Yuri direct attack!" The monster obeyed. It then folded its wings in front of itself, charging something inside. After a few seconds the wings opened, revealing a large bright sphere that shot out a strong beam that hit the top of the barrier violently. Everyone besides Ruri crouched down. The beam then finally went down, hitting the place where Yuri was standing…

Thick black smoke blocked the righteous duelists from view, they all waited to see it clear out, and the pained Yuri whose LP was dropped…

…

…

…

…

…

"Ha… hahahahahaha!"

Yuri's mad smile suddenly resonated the barrier, pulses appear on its surface, one after one…

"What… what the hell…?"

The smoke cleared, Yuri and Yuma stepped forward.

 **Yuri** : 3700 [1]

 **Yuma** : 4400 - 1400 [0]

"What?! You don't lose any LP?" Yugo said in shock.

"But Yuma did! Why…?" Ryoga noticed lightning appeared on Yuma's left. He turned it and gasped in complete shock. "That card…!"

"Continuous Trap, Protective Seal Wall of Light!" Everyone froze. "I activate this card by paying 3000 LP. All monsters you control whose ATKs are equal or lower than 3000 cannot attack!"

"What the hell is that trap?" Yugo said. He could not believe that was a lock card.

"Since Revolting Nightingale's ATK is 2400, it cannot attack." Yuma explained. "So, you got any card that can increase its ATK right now?"

"I hope you have it! Come on girl!" Yuri said in a childish voice.

Ruri sadly looked at her hand. There was nothing to increase her monster's ATK anymore…

"I end my turn…" Ruri said disinterestedly.

"Hah… Boku no turn, draw!" Yuri drew his card.

* * *

"Odd-Eyes Absolute Dragon…" Sora muttered, filled with desire. "This monster focuses on defense, you really think you are going to endure all of the truth I am about to deliver with that pathetic dragon? Besides, it's an Xyz monster, my natural enemy."

"This is not the pathetic dragon!" Yuya said. "This dragon stem from my desire to protect You Show Duel School and all of its people! Yusho-san, Yuzu, Gongenzaka, Ruri, Ryoga and you too Sora! The people I know, the friends I got the privilege to know and bond with, I want to bring happiness and joy to all of you! Sora, you are included as well! You are a sweet kid, not a soldier who causes war with others!"

"I am NOT your friend Yuya!" Sora yelled, stopping Yuya cold. "I was never your friend, I never consider myself to be one. I am from Academia, on a mission to infiltrate this dimension to attack it!"

"You… you said you want to attack this place?! Maiami City?" The Entertainment Duelist said in disbelief.

"Of course! I went to this dimension to cause war, and when the war happens, I will take part in and win! I guess I will have a good time when I duel your friends and card them! And then the worlds will be united again!"

"What?!" Yuya slowly lost his temper. As of now he still wanted to bring him back to who he was, but now he wanted to hurt his friends?! And from the tone of his voice, Yuya was sure that Sora was serious.

"Ruri, Ryoga, Shun… the people you don't give a shit about…"

"Stop…" Yuya muttered, pleading the kid to stop.

"Shuzo, your mom…"

"Stop!"

"Gon-chan… or maybe Yuzu as well-"

"Stop that nonsense!" Yuya yelled at the top of his lungs, his eyes threatening to glow red. "I do not allow you to hurt them, especially Yuzu!"

Sora smirked. _"Good, Yuya… hate me more… hate me more Yuya… so that I can crush you without remorse…!"_ He actually felt pleased that Yuya hated him, getting rid of an unnecessary bond, mentioning Yuzu was really a good point to hit. That was what Academia taught him from the training he had: Friendship is unnecessary.

Once again, Yuya's anger inside his body rose up, a malicious desire to crush Sora down to the ground spoke up in his mind.

Beautiful, tempting…

He really wanted to destroy that psychotic kid who threatened his Yuzu until he was nothing left-

" _What?! What the…? What the hell am I thinking?!"_ His conscience returned, shaking him off the evil thought. _"I am supposed to bring Sora back, not to…"_

" _Kill him…"_ He swore he had heard Yuto's voice resonating in his mind. It repeated "kill him, kill him" repeatedly. Surely spending several days wandering in that child soldier's mind seeing all of his memories messed up his mind greatly.

" _What the hell is wrong with me…?! I am sure Yuto would never want me to do that…"_

Yuya shook his head repeatedly, sweating all the time. The moment he was able to think rationally again, a strong pain erupted, wanting to crush him all over. He was not sure, but he realized it was better just to give in to that thought, the pain would be gone by just doing…

" _No! What the hell?! I can't…!"_

Yuya clenched his fists, his toes. He closed his mouth, swallowed his drool, doing all what he could to relieve the pain.

" _Please my body… please calm down…!"_

Slowly, the pain, the desire, the temptation, all of them, was going away like the slow drop of water falling from the sky.

The fall stopped… he was able to feel normal again, no more malice in his mind anymore.

His eyes no longer glowed anymore.

" _Phew…"_ Yuya allowed himself to sigh in relief.

"Touching yourself enough Yuya?" Sora said in a very annoying voice. "I have been waiting to see you stop shaking your body."

"Sora." Yuya told the kid, calmly. "Don't ever think of hurting my friends and relatives again, and don't even dare to hurt the people from Xyz again!" The way you people attack the Xyz dimension is wrong! Duel is not supposed to cause harm to others, duel is supposed to create bonds between people and bring smile to them!"

"They lied to you all the time and you are still thinking them good?" Sora tried to press, but the unwavered eyes of the broken Entertainment Duelist told him that trick would not do a thing again. "For me, Duel is all about winning! And I will show you that for me winning is more important than friendship! Let's return to the duel!"

Yuya sadly looked at the sweet kid he used to know, his sad eyes and his slightly open mouth telling his disappointment

"Boku no turn, draw!" Sora began his turn. _"Another Furnimal Wing… great!"_

"With the effect of Toy Pot, I send Furnimal Wing to the graveyard to draw a card!" A coin flew inside the hole of the machine. Sora then drew one card.

"Level 2 Furnimal Owl! Special summon!" The pot sent out another ball, which quickly opened. An owl appeared.

 **Furnimal Owl** EARTH/Angel/Effect/LV2/ **1000** /1000

"When this card is Special Summoned, I can add "Fusion" to my hand! Then I activate Furnimal Wing's grave effect! By banishing two of them, I can draw two more cards!" He drew more cards, filling his hand. "After that I can release Toy Pot and draw another one!" The machine disintegrated and Sora quickly drew another card.

"3 cards at the same time?!" Yuya could not hide his surprise at how Sora quickly gained cards in an instant.

"Continuous Magic, Edge Nightmare activate! I special summon Edge Imp Scissors from my graveyard!" The scissors rack returned from the portal.

"Furnimal Owl's effect activates! By paying 500 LP I can Fusion Summon!" A vortex appeared, inviting the small monsters in to become something bigger.

 **Sora** : 3200 - 2700 [3]

"Demonic claws, sharp fangs, fake innocence! Become one in the mystic vortex and show us a new form and power! Yūgō Shōkan! Show yourself! Mystical jungle beast that rips everything to shreds! Death-Toy Scissors Tiger!" From the magical spiral came out a mad teddy. It was a teal bear with the abdomen opened, a pair of scissors pierced through. There were many stiches on its head, arms, legs and tail. Its mouth opened, revealing two demonic eyes underneath."

 **Death-Toy Scissors Tiger** DARK/Demon/Fusion/Effect/LV6/ **1900** /1200

"Wake up Sora! Wasn't teaching Yuzu Fusion Summon start from your friendship with her?!"

"That is unnecessary. Fusion Summon is something more noble!" The kid once again flashed his vulture eyes at Yuya. "The power to fuse the worlds together!"

Yuya argued "Fusing the worlds with violence is wrong!"

"It's never wrong! When this card is Fusion Summoned, it can destroy cards you control equal to its materials!" The monster opened its stomach, allowing the large scissors to cut through Yuya's field.

"Reverse Card open!" Yuya's set card flipped up. "Odd-Eyes Protection!" The scissors cut through the magicians in the Pendulum Zones, destroying it, but as it attempted to do the same thing to the ice dragon, a barrier formed around it and extended suddenly, snapping the scissors of the demonic-looking teddy tiger out. "This turn Odd-Eyes Absolute Dragon cannot be targeted by card effects."

"Tsk…!" Sora growled. "Which means the last target I have to destroy would be that trap, but it is useless right?"

"Yes." Yuya confirmed. "I cannot allow you to hurt anyone anymore! And I cannot allow you to destroy this dragon! This monster represents my desire to protect you and the bond I have with you! Stop this duel Sora!"

"I normal summon Furnimal Dog!" Ignoring Yuya's words, Sora slapped down a card, summoning the dog out.

 **Furnimal Dog** EARTH/Angel/Effect/LV4/ **1700** /1000

"Its effects allow me to add Furnimal Zebra to my hand. And now I activate the Magic Card!" Yuya gasped as soon as the image of the card materialized. It was the card that he used during his duel with Kurosaki Shun.

"Death-Toy Fusion!"

"Death-Toy Fusion?! Don't you say… Mad Chimera?!"

"No. I want to summon a different monster." Sora corrected. "The monsters I will use are Furnimal Dog in my hand, Furnimal Bear, Furnimal Owl and Edge Imp Scissors in my graveyard!" The mentioned monsters appeared as ghostly version of themselves before merging together, lightning erupted that blinded Yuya, forcing him to cover his eyes.

"Yūgō Shōkan! Appear now, wild beast that attacks everything in its way!" Sora's new monster appeared: an indigo teddy wolf that had a blade as its tail, scissors stuck in its left abdomen, another scissors poked out from its opened stomach and as usual for Sora's Fusion monster, two glowing red eyes inside its opened mouth.

"Death-Toy Scissors Wolf!"

 **Death-Toy Scissors Wolf** DARK/Demon/Fusion/Effect/LV6/ **2000** /1500

"The number of attacks this card has is equal to the number of monsters used to summon it." Sora revealed.

"What?! You used… four monsters…!"

"Right, which means Scissors Wolf can attack four times! And it's not over yet! Scissors Tiger's effect makes all "Death-Toy" monsters gain 300 ATK for each "Death-Toy" or "Furnimal" monster I control."

 **Death-Toy Scissors Tiger** ATK 1900 - 2500

 **Death-Toy Scissors Wolf** ATK 2000 - 2600

"But then it only has 2500-"

"Battle!" Sora declared. "Death-Toy Scissors Wolf, attack Odd-Eyes Absolute Dragon!" Its scissors in its stomach extended, attempting to cut Yuya's dragon to shreds.

"What are you going to do Sora?!" Yuya wondered.

"By sending Furnimal Zebra from my hand to the graveyard, Scissors Wolf gains its 1500 ATK until the end of this Battle Phase!"

"What?!" Yuya gasped. The blades lit up in flames, more terrifying than ever.

 **Death-Toy Scissors Wolf** ATK 2600 - 4100

"Odd-Eyes Protection cannot protect your monster from battle Yuya!"

"Odd-Eyes Absolute Dragon's monster effect activates!" Yuya quickly acted. "By detaching an Overlay Unit, it negates this attack!" The dragon used its tail to knock the blades away, protecting itself.

"Then I can summon an "Odd-Eyes" monster in my graveyard!" The ground to Absolute's right erupted, allowing Yuya's signature dragon to come out. Yuya set it in defense position as it had a blue aura around.

"But I still have three attacks left!" Sora reminded. "Go again, Scissors Wolf!" The monster swung its blades back at the ice dragon.

"Once again, I activate Absolute Dragon's effect! Ice Barrier!" The dragon used its last Overlay Unit to gain enough energy to use its hands to grab the blades and throw it backwards.

"But you cannot summon Dharma-Eye because it is not an "Odd-Eyes" monster!" Sora said. "Third attack Scissors Wolf!" This time, the dragon was at mercy of the scissors. It disintegrated immediately.

 **Yuya** : 3200 - 1900 [0]

"Fourth attack! Death-Toy Scissors Bear, attack Odd-Eyes Pendulum Dragon!" Sora somehow made his monster to torture Yuya's monster. It slashed its stomach, making it scream in pain, the wolf then made another slash to its neck, the screaming became louder. Yuya looked on in shock at this torturous scene. Seeing his dragon yell in pain while not being destroyed immediately hurt him deeply, and he did not expect Sora to do it.

He looked at the kid only to see a slasher smile on his face. Yuya froze completely…

He could not look at Sora anymore…

The memories of Yuto appeared in front of his eyes again…

The screaming, the pleading, the crying, the loss of friends, the desire to see the significant other…

The final slash cut off the dragon's head, an explosion occurred, knocking Yuya back. Not that he cared…

"Giving up so soon Yuya…? It's sad to see you down like this, but what I can say…? We are on opposite sides after all…" Sora sadly said to the downed Yuya, who kept looking down.

"Goodbye Yuya, I will make sure your friends and your mother not to be in so much sadness…" Sora raised his hand. "Death-Toy Scissors Tiger, direct attack!" The monster lunged forward, trying to chomp the Entertainent Duelist…

* * *

"Magic Card, Resurrection of the Dead activate! Starve Venom Fusion Dragon returns!" The moment the dragon rose out from the cemetery, something erupted inside him again. The same thing happened to Yuzu, Selena, Yuya, Yuto, Yugo and Ruri.

He ignored it and continued. "Then I normal summon Predator Plants Sundew Kingii!"

 **Predator Plants Sundew Kingii** DARK/Plant/Effect/LV2/ **600** /200

"Ruri! RURIIII!"

"Eh?" Ruri and everyone else turned to see Shun running right at them.

"Brother…?" Ruri mumbled. She found it unable to speak anymore. All emotions erupted, all desires returned, all happiness filled her mind again.

It was her brother!

"Brother!" She smiled, letting out a tear. Yuto and Ryoga also smiled back just as happily as Ruri.

"Ruri!" Shun ran to hug her but a barrier stopped him. "What?! A barrier? What happened?!" He touched the place of the barrier where Ruri's hand was also touching, his eyes full of sadness.

"I did that Shun." Yuma answered. Shun looked at the traitor and instantly got angry again.

"Yuma!" He paused, never expecting to see him this soon again. "Damn you Yuma! Let them go now! Remove this barrier son of a bitch!"

"Only I can remove it, and I don't want to right now." He calmly spoke to the angry vulture. "Just stand outside and watch as Yuri and I beat your father and your friends!"

"Shut up!" Shun roared. "Stop this duel and remove this barrier! Then we will talk!"

"Not now." Yuri said. "By the way, you're Shun, Ruri's older brother right? If you do not know, I was the one who chased her in that night!"

"You did?" Shun gave a hateful look at the person who did that to her sister. _"What the… he looks like… Yuto and Yuya! And that guy Yugo over there!"_

"You did that to my sister?" He yelled.

"Of course!" Yuri nonchalantly answered.

"And you!" Shun pointed his finger at Yugo. "The Pawn of Fusion!"

"Pawn of Fusion?" Ruri wondered.

"You went to our hometown and duel Yuto, now you want to play good guy?"

"I am not that Pawn!" Yugo denied Shun's claim. "Why are you always spelling my name incorrectly?! I am not the Pawn of Fusion, I do not relate to them in any way! I am just here to save my friend!"

"Stop this nonsense Shun!" Ryoga spoke up. "Right now we have a duel with our traitor Yuma and Ruri's kidnapper Yuri over there!"

"He says the right thing Shun!" Yuri said. "Now, please stay outside this barrier and kindly watch the duel will you?"

"No need to say anything! Go on with your turn asshole!" Ryoga said back.

"Very well."

"Please wait for a bit brother. I will win this duel soon." Ruri reassured her brother. "Trust me brother!"

Shun sadly looked at Ruri before sighing. "Fine, I'll stay outside."

Yuri then continued. "It seems that you have brought some friends with you Shun…" He trailed off when he saw Selena behind Gongenzaka.

"And Selena." He whispered. Selena did not say anything.

"Selena…?" Sawatari looked at the girl. "Wait, why did you have Yuzu's clothes?!"

"Because I changed clothes with Yuzu to see Kurosaki." She explained.

"Yuzu!" Gongenzaka suddenly remembered. "She's dueling alone in those rocks!"

"What?! The rocks?!" Tsukikage wondered. "I will go-"

"No, stay here!" Sawatari stopped the ninja. "You need to be here in case those two Academia duelists run away. Gongenzaka and I will go up there." After that the two of them quickly ran off.

"So the talking is over…" Yuri muttered. "Let's continue. Sundew Kingii's monster effect activates! I can use it and Starve Venom to Fusion Summon!"

"Poisonous dragon with hungry fangs! Sweet smelling flower that invites the abyss! Now become one, and indulges all as you desire! Yūgō Shōkan! Come forth! Level 10! Greedy Venom Fusion Dragon!" Yuri's upgraded dragon finally showed up.

 **Greedy Venom Fusion Dragon** DARK/Dragon/Fusion/Effect/LV10/ **3300** /2500

"Greedy Venom Fusion Dragon's monster effect activates! Revolting Nightingale's effect is negated and its ATK becomes 0 until the End Phase!" The dragon let out its petals and went to bind Ruri's monster.

"Clear Wing Synchro Dragon's monster effect activates!" Yugo countered. "When a Level 5 or higher monster activates its effects, it can negate the activation and destroy that monster! Dichroic Mirror!" The white dragon blasted energy from its wing at Yuri's dragon, destroying it.

"Then its ATK is added to Clear Wing!"

 **Clear Wing Synchro Dragon** ATK 2500 - 5800

"With this your dragon is gone!"

"Really?" Yuri smirked.

"What?"

"When Greedy is destroyed, it will destroy all Special Summoned monsters on the field, and the combined original ATKs of those monsters will be dealt as damage!"

"NO!" Ryoga gasped in shock. A pool of venom appeared on the ground and from it multiple streams erupted. They hit all of the remaining monsters on the field and destroyed them, expecting Revolting Nightingale due to Ruri detaching an Overlay Unit from it at the right moment.

 **Lyrical Luscinia - Revolting Nightingale** ATK 2400 - 2200

"Everyone!" Shun yelled helplessly from the outside. All of his comrades were knocked back painfully to the barrier, falling down. Ruri was downed right in front of him, yet he could not go to there to help her.

He panicked, angrily clenched his fists. He tried to punch the barrier but it only caused his hand to hurt more.

"Stop it Shun, you will only hurt yourself!" Selena grabbed his hand vigorously.

 **Yuto** : 3000 - 500 [2]

 **Yugo** : 4000 - 1500 [0]

"One of them has lost all of his LP." Yuri commented.

"What? Don't tell me…" Shun feared for the worst, and it finally happened when the LP counter of Ryoga showed up…

 **Ryoga** : 1700 - 0 [0]

"Shark! Shark! NO!" Shun yelled as Yuri slowly advanced on him.

Ryoga weakly stood up, trying to keep his last cent of dignity. He gave one last look to Yugo, Yuto, Ruri and Shun. All of them froze up, unable to say anything.

"Sorry everyone… I was unable to win…" He sadly smiled. "Tell my sister…"

"That I love her no matter what…"

…

"No no no Shark! Don't! Don't do it Yuri!" Shun pleaded.

"The loser is carded, that is the rules." He calmly said before clicking a button…

Everyone yelled futilely…

Yuma turned around, eyes closing, not wanting to look…

Ryoga kept his stoic face until the end of his existence…

Purple light erupted, and disappeared…

A card fell down…

"No… Ryoga…" Ruri mumbled incoherently.

"Shark…" Yuto and Shun whispered. They were too shocked to even yell out his name in distress anymore…

Yugo could not say anything. He simply looked at the picture of the carded Kamishiro Ryoga in shame, for being the one to cause his fate…

Yuto picked the card up, not wanting to believe what had happened, but he had to accept it…

Shark was gone…

"Yuriiii!" Yuto gritted his teeth. He eyed at him hatefully. "YOU WILL PAY FOR THIS ***********!"

"I'm waiting for that. But my turn is not over yet." He returned back to the other side of the field. "By banishing Sundew Kingii, the material of Greedy Venom Fusion Dragon, I can bring it back." Yuri took the card out and put it in his pocket, the venomous dragon returned.

"Now everyone's field but mine is empty… which one would I choose…" Yuri wanted to prolong his torture more but a harsh look from Yuma forced him to stop.

"All right, I will choose…"

"Greedy Venom Fusion Dragon…"

"Hihihihi…"

"Yuto direct attack!"

"NO! YUTO!" Ruri and Shun yelled. The dragon advanced on the Xyz survivor. Yuto looked down for a moment before suddenly waving his hand.

"By banishing Phantom Fog Blade, I can special summon Phantom Knights Tattered Vambrace from my graveyard in Defense Position!" A portal opened in front of Yuto, allowing his monster to return.

 **Phantom Knights Tattered Vambrace** DARK/Warrior/Effect/R3/0/ **1800**

"So you futilely did a last stand huh?" Yuri smirked. "If so, I will order Greedy Venom to attack Yugo." The dragon changed its direction, trying to finish the D-Wheeler instead.

"Yugo!" Yuto yelled.

"Speedroid Lego's graveyard effect!" He said. "By banishing it from my graveyard, I can special summon a WIND monster back to the field! I will choose Clear Wing!" In an instant, Yugo's dragon returned in Defense Position and made direct contact with Greedy Venom. This action once again caused pain inside his chest but like before, it was not severe due to something calming him down also form the inside.

"Due to Lego's effect, Clear Wing cannot be destroyed by battle this turn!"

"Tsk…" Yuri ticked his teeth annoyingly. However, he soon had an idea, a very good one for him. "Being responsible for carding Shark-kun, you still have the gut to fight back?"

"Shut up!" Yugo yelled. "Finish your turn asshole! I will make you pay for carding Shark!"

"So try if you can, but remember that Clear Wing only has 2500 ATK, it cannot attack due to Protective Seal Wall of Light, you also only have no cards in your hand now."

"Who said I cannot refill my hand somehow?" Yugo gave a cryptic question. "If Speedroid Lego is banished from the graveyard, I can add back Speedroid Red-Eyed Dice to my hand and add another "Speedroid" card from my Deck." Yugo brought his hand size to 2.

"Try to beat me this turn. Turn end." Yuri finished the most effective turn of this duel for now. "There is one thing I want to say though. You wonder what is happening to Rin during her time as a prisoner?"

"What? Rin?" Yugo trailed off. "Why are you mentioning her now? What did you do to her?!"

"I did not do anything to her besides joking at her controlling over you." Yuri said with a smile. "Really, you are 16 now, you need to be a man yet you always let Rin reprimand you all the time like a 2-year-old kid who always pees every day!"

"Shut the **** up asshole!" Yugo yelled, although he could not completely deny what he said though.

"Ah! There is one more interesting topic! About more than a week ago, an Obelisk Force uh… should I say this to you or not?"

"Stop hiding! Say it!" Yugo demanded.

"All right. She was… RAPED by them! Hahahahahahahaha!" He smiled loudly, apparently liking seeing that scene a lot.

Everyone else got shocked for a moment before giving extremely angry looks at him, only Selena being an exception.

" _Yuri… you have gone too far in this…"_ She sadly thought.

"Rin… was… raped…?" Yugo muttered, eyes wide open in shock, breath hyperventilating, cold sweat pouring out.

"But don't worry, he was stopped before he could do the deed and was killed-"

"Shut up…" Yugo whispered, his eyes flashing in green. He clenched his fists, the next words were spoken in a raspy voice, and 100% fueled with rage.

"SHUT YOUR ****** MOUTH UP YOU PIECE OF SHIT!" Everyone silenced at the outburst.

"Huh?! What did you say? Can you repeat for me please?" Yuri pretended not to know, liking Yugo's uncontrollable face a lot.

"Wait up until I beat your ass to a pulp!" Yugo threatened. "Ore no TURNNNNNNN!"

"I normal summon Speedroid Bamboo Horse!"

 **Speedroid Bamboo Horse** WIND/Machine/Effect/LV4/ **1100** /1100

"Its effects allow me to special summon Speedroid Red-Eyed Dice!" The six-sided dice appeared again.

"And then, Level 7 Clear Wing and Level 1 Red-Eyed Dice, Tuning!"

"Spread those wings shining with scared light. Strike down your enemies with that radiance!" Yugo chanted with pure fury in his eyes.

"Synchro Shōkan! Come forth! Level 8, Crystal Wing Synchro Dragon!" The clear white dragon with beautiful glass wing had appeared. It gave a loud roar to Yuri, as if telling him that he would pay for his angering its master.

 **Crystal Wing Synchro Dragon** WIND/Dragon/Synchro/Effect/LV8/ **3000** /2500

Everyone standing around was awestruck by the beauty and the radiance the dragon had, just like what Yugo said in his chant.

"Crystal Wing…" Yuto muttered. "Synchro Dragon…"

"So this is his evolved dragon…" Ruri commented.

"Finally, Magic Card, Hidden Shot! By banishing Taketonborg and Pachingo-Kart, Protective Seal Wall of Light and Greedy Venom will be destroyed!" The card shot out two beams of light, destroying its targets.

"But don't you remember…" Yuri said. "What will happen if Greedy Venom is destroyed?"

"Of course I know, but it wouldn't matter since Crystal Wing can negate the activation of a monster effect and destroy it!" Crystal Wing blasted at the venomous pool appeared near Yuri, getting rid of it.

"But it does not stop me from reviving it though." Yuri took out Starve Venom and its upgraded cousin flew down again.

"But now the attack lock is over and Greedy Venom cannot activate its effects anymore! You will die for provoking me asshole!" Yugo yelled. "BATTLE! Crystal Wing Synchro Dragon, attack Greedy Venom Fusion Dragon!" The dragon flew up high, leaving a blue trail on its way before charging down.

"Huh? You use the 3000 ATK Crystal Wing to attack the 3300 ATK Greedy Venom?" Yuri suspected something.

 **Crystal Wing Synchro Dragon** ATK 3000 - 6300

"Of course. Crystal Wing gains ATK of the Level 5 or higher monster it is battling!" Yugo explained, the dragon bit Yuri's dragon's neck and ripped it, beheading the venomous dragon before it exploded. Yuri set his foot behind the barrier to avoid being blasted away.

 **Yuri** : 3700 - 700 [0]

 **Crystal Wing Synchro Dragon** ATK 6300 - 3000

"Krugh…! Greedy Venom cannot use its nuke effects for a second time, good move asshole!" Yuri grunted.

"Yoss! Now Yuri's field is empty!" Ruri said.

"With just a direct attack and he will go for real!" Shun noticed.

"Final attack! Speedroid Bamboo Horse, Yuri direct attack!" The toy horse charged at Yuri, who for a brief amount of time look completely scared, fearing for his loss.

" _No…! I cannot… lose!"_

Suddenly from his right, a round monster with large cute green eyes, a diamond-shaped red, orange, yellow, green and blue piece on its head flew up and circled around Bamboo Horse, leaving a colorful spiral trail, forcing it not to advance any further.

"No… it is…" Yuto muttered.

"Rainbow Kuriboh…?!" Shun said.

"Rainbow Kuriboh?"

"Yes." Yuma confirmed. "When Bamboo Horse declares the attack, I can equip Rainbow Kuriboh from my hand to it. With that Yugo, your Bamboo Horse cannot attack!"

"What the… a cute monster standing in my way?!" Yugo grunted. "Turn end…"

"Ore no turn." Yuma touched his card. He decided to do something that he used to do.

"KATTOBINGU DA! ORE!" He said his catchphrase. His former friends gasped, knowing that he did that to mock them.

"DRAW!"

Yuma looked at his drawn card.

"It's over now."

…

…

* * *

"First off, by returning Red-Eyes Wyvern to the Deck, I can add back Black of Legend to my hand." Darkness took out two cards from his grave and put one back to his Deck. "And normal summon it!"

 **Black of Legend** DARK/Dragon/Effect/LV1/ **0** /0

"A Level 1 monster with 0 ATK?" Yuzu knew he would never leave a weak monster on the field for nothing.

"You catch on fast." Darkness complimented. "By tributing it, I can special summon Red-Eyes Black Dragon from my Deck." The stone glowed up in red, illuminating the field before transforming into a black dragon with red eyes, thin but scaly frame and two demonic wings.

 **Red-Eyes Black Dragon** DARK/Dragon/LV7/ **2400** /2000

"If I control a "Red-Eyes" monster, I can special summon Red-Eyes Doppel Dragon!" Darkness slapped his only card in his hand down, a fiery ghost of a dragon appeared.

 **Red-Eyes Doppel Dragon** DARK/Dragon/Effect/LV1/ **0** /0

"It can then changes its own Level to 7."

 **Red-Eyes Doppel Dragon** LV1 - 7

"What? Now he has… two Level 7 monsters…!" Yuzu gasped. She realized what Darkness might do.

"Right, but first, Red-Eyes Doppel Dragon's monster effect activates! I can target Bloom Diva and destroy it!"

"So sad for you, but thanks to Melodious Diva Aria, my "Melodious" monsters cannot be targeted for card effects!"

"If so, I, using the Level 7 Red-Eyes Black Dragon and Doppel Dragon, Overlay!" The Overlay Network opened, taking two dragons with it. Yuzu watched on in shock as a large light pillar shot out.

"Xyz Shōkan! Appear now Rank 7!" Rising up from the portal was a pitch black dragon. It donned a black armor with red linings from top to bottom, deep red tyrant wings, it also had a spiked tail to highlight its dangerousness.

"Red-Eyes Hellish Dragon!"

 **Red-Eyes Hellish Dragon** DARK/Dragon/Xyz/Effect/LV7/ **2800** /2400

"Can't be… an Xyz monster?!" Yuzu said in disbelief. "How could you have one when you are from the Fusion dimension?"

"It's simple actually. I am the Commander-in-Chief of the Academia expedition team in the Xyz dimension. I have been issued with Xyz monsters to fight them more effectively, poison with poison."

"Expedition team…? You mean invasion force don't you?"

"Such an intelligent girl. So now you know who you are up against right?"

"I don't care! I will win for the sake of my friends and the people you hurt in the Xyz dimension!" Yuzu declared her resolve.

"We'll see about that. When Red-Eyes Hellish Dragon is Xyz summoned, I can send a "Red-Eyes" monster from my Deck to the grave. I will choose Red-Eyes Black Dragon." Darkness sent another one of his Normal monster to the cemetery. "And half of its ATK will be dealt as damage to you!" A beam of light shot out, hitting Yuzu.

 **Yuzu** : 3550 - 2350 [2]

"Then its effect activates! By detaching an Overlay Unit, I can send Shield Wing Dragon to the graveyard and equip Melodious Diva Aria to it!" The fire wing dragon disintegrated, an Overlay Unit went to Aria and engulfed it. The monster then turned into energy and Hellish Dragon absorbed it.

"Aria!" Yuzu yelled helplessly. "But how… Aria prevents my monsters from being targeted for card effects-"

"This effect does not target!" Darkness revealed. "Which means it bypasses Aria's ability. Hellish Dragon's ATK is then increased by Bloom Diva's original ATK!"

 **Red-Eyes Hellish Dragon** ATK 2800 - 4400

"The hell…?"

"And when Shield Wing Dragon is sent to the graveyard, I can add a "Red-Eyes" card to my hand!" Darkness another card to his hand.

"Now I will banish Red-Eyes Drake from the grave to special summon another Red-Eyes Surging Dragon from the graveyard!" Another black dragon appeared, roaring.

"Finally, Red-Eyes Disruption activate! For each Red-Eyes monster I control, one monster my opponent controls have its effect negated!"

"What?! You have 2 so…"

"Right! Elegy and Bloom Diva's effect are negated. Since Aria is gone, this effect is no longer stopped!" The card fired two beams at the singers, turning them into grey.

 **Melodious Diva Elegy** ATK 2300 - 2000

 **Floral Melodious Saint Bloom Diva** ATK 800 - 500

"It's finished now! Red-Eyes Hellish Dragon, attack Bloom Diva!" The dragon breathed out flame at the beautiful singer, hurting it deeply. Yuzu tried to run away.

The explosion connected, causing Yuzu to lose the duel…

Or as Darkness believed to…

"It's so sad to you." Yuzu smiled.

"What?"

"When you declared the attack, I managed to run and find an Action Card."

"Action Card?" He said in shock.

"Action Magic, Evasion. The attack is negated."

"Tsk…!" Darkness grunted. "But when you resolves a card effect, Hellish Dragon immediately inflicts 500 damage!" The dragon stomped the ground, sending five fiery streams at Yuzu, who screamed in pain.

 **Yuzu** : 2350 - 1850 [1]

"And now, Comet Dragon, attack Bloom Diva!" This time the Fusion monster Yuzu controlled was destroyed, Yuzu tried her best to hold herself.

 **Yuzu** : 1850 - 150 [1]

"Hellish Dragon's monster effect activates! By sending the equipped Aria to the graveyard, I can destroy Elegy!" Yuzu's remaining monster disintegrated.

 **Red-Eyes Hellish Dragon** ATK 4400 - 2800

"Turn end."

Yuzu touched her card. _"This draw will decide everything… I now fight not just for myself anymore, I now fight for Yuya, Gongenzaka, Ruri, everyone else… I will not be weak anymore!"_

"Watashi no turn…" She felt something had touched her, it seemed familiar, maybe from…

Yuya…

" _Let's do this Yuya!"_ She said in her mind.

"DRAW!" The card sparkled, as did the one in her hand…

Her bracelet in the Ice area shone up even brighter, at the same time, Selena's bracelet also lit up, telling her something was happening near Yuzu.

Yuzu turned the card around…

Looking at the card in her hand…

No expression was shown, despite the obvious change in the fabric of reality…

"There's nothing you can do Yuzu." Darkness tried to discourage her. "You will lose."

"Is that really so?" Yuzu said. She looked at him, eyes flashing in purple. "I, using the Scale 1 Melodious Diva Duet and Scale 9 Melodious Songstress Duet, Pendulum Scale setting!" The word "Pendulum" appeared on the blade of her Duel Disk, from behind her two blue pillars shot out. A female monster with orange dress and green hair on the left pillar and another one with green dress and orange hair flew up from the right pillar. They opened their determined eyes, showing their steel resolve.

"With this I can summon multiple monsters whose Levels are between 2 and 8!"

"Pendulum Summon?!" Darkness muttered in surprise. "Another one? What the hell is this day?"

Ignoring Darkness' mumbling, Yuzu raised her hand up high. "Swing! Pendulum of the Soul! Draw an arc across the nether!" The chant that Yuya used had now been taken to a higher and stronger note.

"Pendulum Shōkan!" Yuzu's voice became louder and clearer. "Appear now!" Flying down from the portal was none other than Yuzu's ace monster, but it was somehow more beautiful, more elegant and more powerful than ever. It also had three purple orbs shaped in a triangle around it.

"Melodious Maestra Prodigy Mozart!"

 **Melodious Maestra Prodigy Mozart** LIGHT/Angel/Pendulum/Effect/LV8/Scale 1/ **2600** /2000

"Prodigy Mozart… You're finally back…" Yuzu smiled at her now evolved ace monster.

"Darkness!" She said. "This is Pendulum, the power from my best friend. I now have inherited it! I have inherited his belief, his ideals, his strength! But there is more of that, the Pendulum you see in front of you right now is not only from the result of him, but also of my own strength and my belief in friends! I now not only fight for myself anymore, I also fight for my friends, my family, and above all, piece! You people have destroyed the beauty of the Xyz dimension, I will not allow the same thing to happen in this dimension and others!"

"Prodigy Mozart's monster effect activates! I can special summon 2 "Melodious" monster from my hand, grave or Deck with their effects negated!" Aria and Soprano returned to the field.

"But at this moment, Hellish Dragon inflicts 500 damage to you!" The monster breathed out flame at Yuzu, but a barrier appeared and blocked it.

"What happened?"

"Melodious Songstress Duet's effect!" Yuzu explained. "It negates all effect damage!"

"Shit!"

"And now… Level 4 Melodious Diva Aria and Melodious Songstress Soprano, Overlay!" The two monsters turned into two yellow swirls of energy and joined together in the portal opened above. Lightning shot out.

"The future of potential, come out of the darkness and sing the song of victory! Xyz Shōkan!" The light became brighter and brighter, forcing Darkness to cover himself while Yuzu was somehow unaffected.

At the same time, Sawatari and Gongenzaka had managed to run to the place where Yuzu was dueling. They saw the strong pillar.

"Xyz… Summon?!" Gongenzaka wondered.

"Appear now! Rank 4!" Yuzu declared. The lightning dimmed out, revealing a beautiful monster. It was a young female adult with porcelain skin, thin frame, tall stature, confident blue eyes and purple hair shaped like the Gladiolus flower. It wore a black and purple dress with a long ribbon on her back shaped like wings, adding to its beauty further. If the fact that Prodigy Mozart changing into a Pendulum monster was from her and Yuya's strength, Bloom Diva was the result of wanting to protect You Show Duel School, then this monster was the proof that Yuzu was no longer a weak girl who only tried to put up a strong face anymore. She was definitely much stronger and more independent now after all of the hard struggles she had gone through in a span of a single day and night.

"Floral Melodious Saint Berlize!"

 **Floral Melodious Saint Berlize** LIGHT/Angel/Fusion/Effect/R4/ **1400** /2000

"What is this…?" Tsukikage wondered.

"A Melodious Xyz monster…!" Selena said in awe.

"Floram Melodious Saint Berlize's monster effect activates! I detach all of its materials…" The Xyz monster's Overlay Units disintegrated.

"It gains the same number of attacks equal to the number of Overlay Units detached!"

"But its ATK is only 1400-" Darkness said.

"Battle!" Yuzu declared immediately. "Berlize, attack Red-Eyes Surging Dragon!" Multiple musical notes flew out from Berlize's back in spiral shape, they then joined together and aimed at the Fusion Red-Eyes monster.

"Are you freaking craz-"

"At the start of the Damage Step, the ATK of the monster Berlize attacks becomes 0!" The wave of the large spiral swept over Surging Dragon, making it lose its strength.

 **Red-Eyes Surging Dragon** ATK 2200 - 0

The notes hit the dragon one by one extremely fast, it exploded immediately.

 **Darkness** : 4300 - 2900 [0]

"Due to being destroyed, Surging Dragon allows me to draw a card!" Darkness quickly drew a single card from his Deck. "Shit…!"

"Next, Floral Melodious Saint Berlize, attack Red-Eyes Hellish Dragon!" The dragon with red lines was hit repeatedly once again by large musical notes, the armor exploded, causing the death of the dragon.

 **Red-Eyes Hellish Dragon** ATK 2800 - 0

 **Darkness** : 2900 - 1500 [1]

"Now I will deliver the grand punishment to you Academia piece of junk!" Yuzu told Darkness. "Berlize, direct attack!" Darkness had a hard time dodging the large physical notes.

 **Darkness** : 1500 - 100 [1]

"This is really the end!" Yuzu said. "Prodigy Mozart, direct attack!" The now Pendulum monster raised its orange and green baton up.

"WAVE OF THE GREAT!" The colorful but powerful wave went faster and faster, going straight at Darkness, who looked on with a serious face…

* * *

"I won…" Sora smiled while watching the smoke which covered the downed Yuya as he wanted to…

"Huh?" Sora spoke up in shock when he suddenly saw Yuya's LP on his Duel Disk.

 **Yuya** : 1900 [0]

"What… what the hell has… happened?" He muttered.

"When you declared the attack…" Yuya weakly got up. "I banished Speedroid Tri-Eyed Dice to negate the attack…" He revealed the card to the kid.

"What? Speedroid? You did not have a card that have that name."

"I actually did."

…

…

 _When Yuya, Yuto, Yugo, Yuzu, Ruri, Gongenzaka and Ryoga were running to the Volcano area to stop Academia, Yugo suddenly called Yuya._

" _Yuya!"_

" _What-uh!" He was about to say what when suddenly something was flying to his hand. He quickly caught it and looked at it._

 _A Duel Monster card._

" _Speedroid Tri-Eyed Dice…?"_

 _He looked at Yugo, wondering why he gave him the card._

" _Think it as my sorry for hurting you that night. It might help you somehow since I realize your Deck does not have much defense. Just please forgive Ruri and Ryoga later okay?"_

…

…

"The person who gave me this card was Yugo. His friend is Rin who was kidnaped by your people! Academia! Where you are form! Who gives you the right to do that?!" Yuya accused.

"I don't know what you're talking about." He ignored. To be honest, he only heard that Yuri had somehow captured a girl and Academia placed her at the Western tower.

"Even if you don't know, you are still responsible for causing a war to Heartland, destroying the hometown of Yuto, Ruri, Ryoga and Shun! You destroyed the people there with what was supposed to bring people smiles! Don't you feel guilty for that?!"

"This is war, it was bound to happen anyway."

"Stop that bullshit! If you cannot do anything anymore, stop your turn!"

"Humph! I end my turn here." Sora finished his turn. _"He's somehow changed… what the hell has happened to him…?"_

"Ore no turn, draw!" Yuya drew his card.

"Magic Card, Pendulum Halt activate! I can draw two cards and for the rest of this turn I cannot add anymore cards from the Deck to my hand."

"That's a great gamble. You want to make me smile with that shit?" Sora asked.

Not saying anything, Yuya placed his hand on the Deck. _"This draw will decide everything…"_

" _This kid is too lost in Academia's teaching… I cannot make him smile genuinely anymore… I need to… WIN!"_

"This is my Destiny Draw!" Yuya declared.

"DRAW!"

Yuya opened his eyes, looking at the drawn cards…

"It's here…"

"What? Don't you say…" Sora took a deep breath…

"I, using the Scale 1 Mystic-Eye Magician and Scale 8 Ascending Magician, Pendulum Scale setting!" On the left tube was a mysty-eye magician and on the right tube was a magician wearing a robe with numerous black dots shaped like a portal usually seen in Xyz summons. They all flew upwards.

"With this, I can summon Level 2 to 7 monsters at the same time!"

"You want to bring back Odd-Eyes Pendulum Dragon?" Sora cockily said. "But it cannot surpass my monsters' ATK!"

"Who said I was going to Pendulum Summon?" Yuya said back, Sora gasped in surprise. "Mystic-Eye Magician's monster effect activates! From the graveyard, Odd-Eyes Absolute Dragon returns and Odd-Eyes Pendulum Dragon will be attached to it as a material." In an instant, Yuya's Xyz dragon returned and an Overlay Unit appeared and orbited Absolute.

"What? Absolute has returned? And it also has a Xyz material back?!" Sora said in slight awe.

"And then, Ascending Magician's monster effect activates!" The clothes it wore shone up.

"I!" Yuya clenched his left hand, his eyes flashing red. "Using the Rank 7 Odd-Eyes Absolute Dragon, Overlay Network reconstructing!" The dragon turned into purple energy before crashing in the portal opened above.

An explosion occurred, nearly blinding Sora.

"Dragon lord from the mystic region, break the ice condemning you and take vengeance to the ones sealing you away!"

"Rank-Up Xyz Change!" From the center of the explosion, a large ice glacier rose up.

"Appear now! Rank 8!" The glacier exploded, scattering everywhere, cooling the lava below somewhat. Inside it, a dragon opened is icy wings, revealing itself to the excited Sora. The new dragon had lost all of the blue that remained on Absolute, instead its body was completely white, its horn was longer and pointier and its wings were larger and thicker, looking like real mythical wings rather than just four long sticks. It bended its arms and powerfully opened them, roaring at the sky. Its blue and red eyes glowed brightly, signaling that it would soon take revenge on the planet Earth for putting it in ice for nearly eternity.

"Odd-Eyes Freezing Dragon!"

 **Odd-Eyes Freezing Dragon** DARK/Dragon/Xyz/Effect/R8/ **3000** /2800

* * *

"What do you mean over?" Shun asked.

"You will know soon." Was Yuma's only answer. "First off, I banish Rank-Up-Magic Hope Hell Force to bring back Glimmer of Hope." The warrior returned. "And using it to Overlay!" The monster flew down to the Overlay Network, causing an explosion.

"Chaos Xyz Change! Come forth, Chaos Numbers 39! Crimson conqueror who unifies chaos, release the eternal seal, and in one flash blow away the darkness! Descend, King of Wishes - Hope Ray V!"

 **CNo.39: King of Wishes - Hope Ray V** LIGHT/Warrior/Xyz/Effect/R5/ **2600** /2000

"Hope Ray V?!" Ruri said. "Are you going to destroy… Bamboo Horse?"

"But as soon as you do it, Crystal Wing will negate and destroy!" Yugo reminded.

"I know. Which is why I will activate this card! Rank-Up-Magic Astral Force activate!"

"I, using the Rank 5 Hope Ray V, Overlay Network reconstructing!"

"Rank-Up Xyz Change! Appear now Rank 7! Numbers 11! Big Eye!"

 **No.11: Big Eye** DARK/Magician/Xyz/Effect/R7/ **2600** /2000

"Big Eye?!" Shun yelled in shock. He had a good guess of what Yuma would do. "No, stop this! Stop this Yuma!"

"Big Eye's monster effect activates!" Yuma ignored. An Overlay Unit disintegrated. "By detaching an Overlay Unit…"

"I can take control of Lyrical Luscinia - Revolting Nightingale!"

"What?" Ruri gasped. Big Eye opened its eye, sending an energy wave at Ruri's monster.

"At this moment! Crystal Wing Synchro Dragon's effect! It negates the activation of Big Eye and destroy it!" Yugo's dragon quickly flew in to stop Big Eye…

But it was knocked back!

The white dragon looked around, wondering what had stopped it from destroying the conical monster…

"What the… Big Eye was not… destroyed…?" Ruri muttered in fear.

"How?!"

"Did you cheat?"

"Action Magic…" Yuma said slowly. The shining card on his left indicated everything…

"Runaway Effect! It negates Crystal Wing's effect activation* and deals 500 damage to its owner!" A gust of wind swept through Yugo, damaging him.

 **Yugo** : 1500 - 1000 [0]

"Action Magic?!" Gongenzaka could not believe what was happening. "How did he get an Action Card?"

"Simple…"

…

…

" _Hm? What is this?"_

 _Yuma noticed a strange card stuck between the rocks when he, Yuri and Darkness were walking in the Volcano area._

 _He took it up and inspected it._

" _Runaway Effect?"_

" _It's an Action Card, the same kind of card Halil and Olga were using earlier during their duel with me." Darkness commented._

" _I don't intend on using it. It's cheap and unfair." Yuri said, voicing his dislike for this concept._

 _Yuma looked at the card, thinking about what he could do…_

…

…

"You got that before the duel?!" Yuto wondered.

"Ain't that what we were learnt back in Resistance?" Yuma said. "Always prepare for the worst situation. Now with the effect of Big Eye continued, Revolting Nightingale will come to me!" Ruri's monster glowed red before flying to Yuma's field.

"Its ATK is 2200 and it can attack directly four times… you know what will happen right…?" Yuma let his word sink in. Yuto, Ruri, Yugo, Shun, Gongenzaka and Selena froze.

"Battle! Lyrical Luscinia - Revolting Nightingale…" He eyed at the remaining three, who helplessly waited for his attack declaration. Whatever the choice was, it would surely bring disastrous consequences.

…

Yuma closed his eyes, looking away. He fought back his trembling emotion.

…

"Yuto direct attack!"

"NO!" Yugo, Shun and Ruri yelled. The female monster flew right at Yuto and slashed its wing on his body, making him yell in pain. He flew down, not being able to get up.

 **Yuto** : 500 - 0 [2]

Yugo and Ruri instantly went to Yuto and helped him up, but he was unconscious.

Yuma slowly walked to the other side of the field, aiming his Resistance Duel Disk at Yuto.

"Yuma…"

He continued.

"Yuma stop!" Ruri pleaded, shielding her boyfriend. "Don't do it!"

"Stop it now Yuma!" Shun roared. Yugo tried to stop him but Yuma gave a strong punch to his chest and kicked him away. Yugo could not stand up due to the massive pain.

"Don't card him Yuma!" Ruri tearfully begged. "What would your parents think of you if you do this?"

This stopped him cold. Yuma froze in place, suddenly remembering his dead father and his comatose mother again.

"My father… my mother…" Yuma mumbled, head looking down, not showing his eyes.

"They were carded by Academia don't you remember? What would they think if they know you betrayed us and worked for them?" She tried the last time to at least make her former friend consider.

"You don't know the full story behind girl." Yuri spoke up, uncharacteristically sounding more pity than usual.

"The full story?"

"Yeah, but you don't need to know, because you and your boyfriend will be carded soon."

"NO! STOP IT YUMA!" Shun yelled futilely from the outside.

Yuto briefly woke up again, seeing Yuma about to card him.

"Goodbye Yuto, and I am sorry…"

"NOOOOOO!"

A bright blue light shot out, brightening the entire barrier…

* * *

*: In Episode 93 of Yu-Gi-Oh ARC-V, Jack says Runaway Effect negates the **activation** of a monster effect.

* * *

 **Fanfic OC Cards**

 **Floral Melodious Choir Berlize**

LIGHT/Angel/Xyz/Effect/R4/1300/2300

2 or more Level 4 Melodious monsters

At the start of the Damage Step, if this card battles an opponent's Special Summoned monster: that monster's ATK becomes 0 until the end of the Damage Step. You can detach as many materials as possible: This turn this card can make additional attacks equal to the number of materials detached.

 **Red-Eyes Hellish Dragon**

DARK/Dragon/Xyz/Effect/R7/2800/2400

2 Level 7 monsters

Cannot be destroyed by card effects while it has Xyz Material. While this card has Xyz Material, each time your opponent activates a card or effect, inflict 500 damage to your opponent immediately after it resolves. When this card is Xyz Summoned: You can send 1 "Red-Eyes" monster from your Deck to your GY, and if you do, inflict damage to your opponent equal to half of its original ATK. Once per turn: You can detach 1 material from this card; Tribute 1 monster you control, and if you do, equip 1 monster your opponent controls to it. This card gains ATK equal to that monster's original ATK. Once per turn: You can send the equipped monster to the GY, then target 1 card your opponent controls: destroy it.

 **Red-Eyes Doppel Dragon**

DARK/Dragon/Effect/LV1/0/0

If you control a "Red-Eyes" monster: You can Special Summon this card (from your hand). You can only Special Summon "Red-Eyes Doppel Dragon" once per turn this way. When you do, you can make this card's Level become 6 or 7, also you can only Summon or Special Summon DARK Dragon monsters for the rest of this turn.

 **Red-Eyes Disruption**

(Magic Card)

Target monsters your opponent control, equal to the number of "Red-Eyes" monsters you control; negate their effects.

 **Red-Eyes Shield Wing Dragon**

DARK/Dragon/Effect/LV1/100/100

When your opponent declares a direct attack: You can Special Summon this card (from your hand), and if you do, negate the attack, then gain LP equal to the attacking monster's ATK, and if you do that, inflict damage to your opponent, equal to half of the amount you gained. If this card is sent to the GY: You can add 1 "Red-Eyes" card from your GY or Deck to your hand.

 **Yuya and Yuzu's new monsters' effects will be revealed later.**

* * *

 **First off, if you expected an explosive chapter with the dragons resonating, I am sorry, this is not. It is actually a very sad chapter, sorry for any Kamishiro Ryoga fans…**

 **And a cliffhanger! Yuto's life is at risk!**

 **Yuma is just full of surprise like in ZEXAL, and today he used an Action Card! Neat right?**

 **Forget it for a while, I finally bring justice to Yuzu! She can now Xyz summon and her ace monster is now a Pendulum monster unlike those bullshit writers who made her wet over Reiji's multiple summons! And finally Yuya managed to Rank-Up!**

 **I never understand why they do not let Yuma have Absolute Dragon on the show, not counting ranking it up. I felt like I need to bring justice to him in this aspect so I created a Rank 8 monster for him.**

 **Thanks thetiger39 for giving me the idea of Yuzu's Xyz monster. I have changed a little bit to fit this story progression for her more.**

 **Finally, I am sure that you guys will not like this either, but I hope not, because I will tackle one of the Bracelet Girls that was not mentioned as much in this story, but I am not going to let her fade anymore (also sorry for that):**

* * *

 **Next Chapter Preview**

 **Crystal Revenge**

With Sanders and BB standing in their way, Rin decides to duel them to make them pay for what they did to her. As the battle rages on, she gives them an appropriate punishment.

 **This is matrixnis, out!**


	34. Scale 34

**Welcome back everyone.**

 **We are going to return to Academia to see how Rin will enact her revenge against her captors. The more bestial side of Academia will be explored here.**

 **Warning: This chapter contains Academia's cruelty and sexual suggestions.**

* * *

 **Chapter 34: Crystal Revenge**

"Sanders…!" Rin muttered. The chance of freedom was right there, right now, but he was dare to stop her from getting it?!

"Hohoho! What do we have here?" The Instructor of Academia chuckled. He pointed his finger at each one of them.

"The weak girl Rin…"

"The former Honor Student Tenjoin Asuka…"

"And…huh?" He stopped when he looked at him, the man who everyone thought was carded. "Hell… Kaiser Ryo?! How… how could you have survived? Yuri carded you!"

"Turned out I escaped death somehow." Ryo answered.

"We don't have time to chat with you sorry." Asuka said and she along with Rin and Ryo ran to the door they went through earlier, but suddenly Ryo noticed something was coming at them fast.

"Watch out!"

They managed to duck as something flew by from their right and went over their heads. At the same time multiple Academia students surrounded them in a large circle.

"Shit… we're trapped!" Rin muttered under her breath as she got up, realizing what was happening.

The three stood back-to-back with each other, defensing themselves, ready for any move Academia may throw. Besides the students and Sanders, there was one of them who is different. He was in his teens but he was muscular, six-pack, he had red unkempt hair, he wore a short sleeveless shirt and ragged pants.

"BB…" Rin whispered.

"You know him?" Ryo asked.

"Yeah. I duel him everyday…"

Rin quickly activated her Duel Disk which Academia had given her, or specifically, Sanders. Asuka and Ryo followed suit.

"Last stand?" Sanders chuckled.

"Try to charge in, we will beat all of you down!" Ryo declared.

"Three against many? I don't think it will work out that way." An Osiris Red student said.

Asuka whispered through her earpiece. "Yusho-sensei, we are spotted. Blow the control room up and meet us at the tunnel."

…

…

No response.

"Yusho-sensei?"

…

…

Still no response.

…

…

" _What the hell…? No explosion and no contacting?!"_

"Calling for backup?" Sanders spoke up, Asuka's face paled at that. "Or wanting to destroy the control room?"

"What?" Ryo gasped. "How do you know?"

"How do we know?" The instructor repeated. He then waved his hand, signaling the two students behind to stand away, revealing a brushed Sakaki Yusho being horded by two Obelisk Blue members. One of them was holding a duffel bag which had the sticky bombs that was deactivated and Yusho's Duel Disk.

"Yusho-sensei!" Both Asuka and Ryo yelled. "Are you alright?!"

"I'm fine-argh!" Yusho was cut off when one of the captors punched his stomach, making him yell in pain.

"Stop it! Do not hurt him!" Asuka yelled.

"So let me guess." Sanders began. "You are going to sneak in this place, then you are going to rescue Rin while you destroy the control room and the communication system to get better access, at the same time you find as much information about this place as possible? Good move but dick one you brainless scums!"

"There are heat signature equipment placed at several places of this fortress. One of them caught you three, and the place where we receive it is not in the control room, but a different one!"

"Heat signature?!" Ryo wondered. "We did not know it…"

"Of course, only some people in here including the Professor know this, even you Kaiser or that bitchy Honor Student do not know it."

"Stop calling me bitch!" Asuka flashed a hateful glare at the Instructor.

"You people are sick you bastard!" Yusho yelled. "You even have a room filled with carded stu-" He was stopped by a powerful punch from Sanders.

"Dammit Sanders! Let him go!" Rin said. She pleaded. "Take me! Take me instead! Let that man go and let Asuka-san and Ryo-san go!"

"We're not gonna let you do that Rin!" Yusho instantly shut her idiotic idea down. At the same time Ryo held her back.

"Oh Rin!" Sanders said. "You are ready to trade your life for him and the two betrayers over there…?"

He turned to BB, who was drooling, excited for another opportunity to unleash his rage by dueling. He then looked at Yusho, Asuka and Ryo before pulling out a stick and pointing it to the sky.

"How about this?"

"How about what?" Rin wondered.

"You are going to duel against me and BB. If you win, we will let you, Yusho and those two traitors go. If you lose, you know what about to happen."

"Don't listen to him Rin. He's lying!" Asuka warned the blue hair girl.

Rin knew it better than anyone else. Her tough life back in City taught her that, and to be honest, she did not know if she could even trust Ryo, Asuka and Yusho anymore. But right now they were her ticket to freedom, if they truly wanted to break her out, she would at least do something good before turning on them to find her way back to City to find Yusei, Aki and Yugo somehow.

"I know, but trust me. I have a personal grudge with him. I will make him PAY today!" Rin gritted her teeth and she raised her left hand up, Duel Disk ready.

She could never forget it, the awful times she had with Sanders and BB…

* * *

…

…

…

" _Get up!"_

 _Sanders ordered to the sleeping and tired Rin. She did not want to get up._

 _SLAP!_

 _A hit from his stick._

" _Get up!"_

 _Rin nearly did not respond. Her body was so numb from all the pain and torture he did to her. She could not get up anymore…_

 _SLAP!_

 _Rin gasped a bit from the third hit. This time it struck her head._

" _Get up you bitch!" He did not hold back anymore. He grabbed her hair and forced her to face him._

 _Even when Sanders forced her to look at him, Rin did not intend to. This bastard did not worth her tiny piece of respect to even look at. His disgusting face, disgusting beard, disgusting hair, disgusting everything, she hated him so much._

" _You wanna play dumb right?" Sanders said and he delivered a strong kick to her stomach, sending her crashing to the wall behind._

" _Sad that I cannot ruin your beautiful face though."_

 _That madman smiled cruelly before grabbing her again and dragging her out of the prison. They went out to the open field outside, where a large water tank was nearby._

 _Sanders whispered to Rin's ear. "You're gonna like this." He then forced her head down the water, drowning her. Initially, Rin did not respond to this, but she eventually did. Her hands and her legs were kicking uncontrollably. Her grasp became bigger and bigger, nearly on the brink of death._

 _Sanders smiled, waiting until she was near death before pulling her out and throwing her down. Rin gasped for air very hard, coughing uncontrollably to suck the water from her mouth and nose out, her hand grabbing her neck tightly._

 _Her entire face, and now most of her clothes were soaked with water. She looked like a complete mess now._

" _Disobey me again, and I will leave you die for real."_

 _Rin knew Sanders would not ever do that, from her secret conversations with Selena, she knew that the Professor wanted to keep her alive for some reason. She was too tired and traumatized to argue now though._

 _Sanders waited until Rin was able to breath normally again. He then forced her up and went to the Jungle Area…_

 _The dreaded place she never wanted to go to…_

…

…

" _Battle! Gladial Beast Andabatae, Rin direct attack!"_

 _BB ordered his Fusion monster, a tall reptile in blue armor whose upper part was extended like wings on its back to slash Rin with its sword. Rin yelled painfully before being knocked back, but the Duel Anchor connected her Duel Disk with BB's own forced her down abruptly. As a result, she fell down face-first._

 _ **Rin**_ _: 1000 - 0 [1]_

 _The electrode collars placed on her neck, stomach and legs activated, sending electricity over her entire body each time she lost LP. Rin yelled in massive pain._

" _Again." Sanders coldly ordered._

" _No… please…" Rin tried to plead him to no avail._

" _Get up!" Sanders clicked a button, activating the collars again. Rin jotted up with another shock before lying down motionlessly._

" _You're not going to stop until I told you so or the Battle Beast satisfies his bloodlust today."_

" _Or…" He crouched down, whispering to her ear._

" _I will make him do that thing on your body…"_

 _Instantly Rin got up, punching the madman._

" _Enough! I am not going to let you do that to me-AHHHHHH!"_

 _Sanders activated the collars again, making the poor girl scream one more time._

" _You BITCH!" He cursed and kicked Rin hard._

" _Get up and duel BB again. And remember this time you must bring out the monster the Professor has created especially for you…"_

 _Rin remembered that monster, she did not want to do it because it would prove that she was now submissive to Academia's torture and she never wanted to do that._

"I would rather die than use that monster…"

…

…

…

* * *

This had happened every day after her duel with Selena. Despite the Professor's protests, Sanders would force her out of the prison and make her duel BB, the most dangerous and feral student in Academia, even more so than Yuri, another one of Sander's products. Unlike that psychotic boy however, BB was more emotionally unhinged and insane, not being able to recognize friend or foe anymore. That made him an extremely dangerous duelist and the second most successful student that Sanders trained.

Every time she was forced to duel BB, she was met with the same thing: 100% lost ratio. His deck was faster than what her burn and beatdown strategy would do with a lot of destruction and disruption, preventing her from even fighting back. She pleaded Sanders everyday to free her of this but he would not listen, instead he put on the collars to force her to duel even more. This had damaged Rin's physical and emotional state greatly, to the point of attempting suicide via hanging but Apollo managed to stop her before she could do that crazy thing.

Now looking at Sanders and BB, two people who destroyed her world completely, she would not be afraid anymore. She would duel them and beat them down very harshly, as a payback for what they did to her.

"Eager to take vengeance?" Sanders mocked. "But you will duel me alone. Take them!" He signaled the students to take Asuka and Ryo away to Yusho's location.

"Dammit Sanders! This is not about them! Let them go!"

"Duel us first, then you can do anything." Sanders said back. He and BB activated their Duel Disks.

"Ready to die for what you did to me!" Rin threatened.

 **DUEL!**

 **Rin** : 4000 [5]

 **Sanders** : 4000 [5]

 **Battle Beast** : 4000 [5]

* * *

Rin inspected her hand. "With the effect of Wind Witch Ice Bell, I special summon it along with Cold Bell from my Deck!" In a moment, a female wizard riding a long staff with the ice end and another one but with white hat and light blue suit appeared from the wind.

 **Wind Witch - Ice Bell** WIND/Magician/Effect/LV3/1000/ **1000**

 **Wind Witch - Cold Bell** WIND/Magician/Effect/LV1/100/ **500**

"Now the effect of Ice Bell and Cold Bell will activate! Each one of you will take 500 damage!" Rin declared. Ice Bell materialized an ice needle and threw it at Sanders, Cold Bell on the other hand generated wind and blasted it at BB, damaging them both.

 **Sanders** : 4000 - 3500 [5]

 **BB** : 4000 - 3500 [5]

"And then I normal summon Wind Witch - Glass Bell!"

 **Wind Witch - Glass Bell** WIND/Magician/Tuner/Effect/LV4/ **1500** /1500

"Its effect allows me to add Snow Bell to my hand, and I will special summon it!" As soon as she got her card, Rin slapped it down, allowing the white bell with two cute angel wings to come out ringing.

 **Wind Witch - Snow Bell** WIND/Magician/Tuner/Effect/LV1/ **100** /100

"And now I, using the Level 4 Glass Bell and Level 1 Snow Bell, tuning!" Snow Bell turned into a Synchro ring and swept over the ice witch, changing it into three stars.

"Synchro Shōkan! Appear now! Level 5!" Coming out of the light was a female monster covered in armor. Its stomach was a small blue bell.

"Wind Witch - Frost Bell!"

 **Wind Witch - Frost Bell** WIND/Magician/Synchro/Effect/LV5/ **1900** /0

Sanders found himself to be nervous. Rin had never summoned this card during her duels with BB. _"Another Level 5 Synchro monster… I have never seen this card before…"_

"I set down two cards. Turn end." Rin finished her turn.

"Strange." Sanders muttered. "You leave those two weak monsters on the field. You only want to damage BB and me you whore?"

"Go on with your turn asshole!" Rin ignored him.

"Huh! Fine, but I will not do anything now. BB will take the lead."

Smiling excitedly, BB grabbed the top card of his Deck and pulled it out. "Ore no TURNNNN!" Whirlwind swept over the field like always.

"From my hand, Gladial Beast Laquer summon!" A muscular humanoid tiger appeared. Four ornaments hovered around it before lightning up in flame, creating a fire circle around Laquer.

 **Gladial Beast Laquer** FIRE/Warrior/Effect/LV4/ **1800** /400

"It only has 1800 ATK, still 100 short of Frost Bell…" Yusho commented. A student nearby quickly punched him to shut him up.

"And then Equip Magic Gladial Beast's Armament - Manica on Laquer!" Laquer equipped itself with a new bronze metal arm armor on its right hand. "With this Laquer cannot be destroyed by battle."

"Dammit! This is bad!" Asuka muttered.

"He's gonna switch Laquer with another one during the end of the Battle Phase!" Ryo said. Rin remained silent as she had known this tactic very well during her nightmare duels.

"Battle! Gladial Beast Laquer, attack Wind Witch - Cold Bell!" The tiger went through the fire and attempted to punch the bell.

"Continuous Trap activate! Wind Witch - Wind Barrier!" A gust of wind appeared, blocking Laquer from attacking.

"With this card, I banish Wind Witch - Glass Bell to prevent Frost Bell from leaving the field."

"Does not matter." BB said. "At this moment, Gladial Beast Laquer's monster effect-"

"Not gonna happen!" Rin suddenly said. She waved her hand at her monster. "Frost Bell's monster effect activates! By returning Ice Bell to my hand, your Gladial Beast Laquer is also returned to your hand!" Rin quickly took Ice Bell from the blade back to her hand.

"What?!" BB, Sanders and the students gasped in shock. The Synchro monster created another frost wind that hit the tiger numerous times. It glowed up in yellow before disintegrating. The card in BB's blade flashed purple.

"Since this effect is a Quick Effect, you cannot chain Laquer's own to it. Take it back to your hand asshole!" BB reluctantly did what she said with a grunt.

"Such underhand tricks…!"

"Not over yet! After this effect resolves, it deals 500 damage to the opponent!" The frost wind now hit BB repeatedly, forcing him to crouch down to avoid further damage. Luckily, his brutal training under Sanders allowed him to endure great pain.

 **BB** : 3500 - 3000 [4]

"Two cards set. Turn end!" BB set down two cards.

"You bitch!" Sanders growled. "You had that card all along?!"

"Of course. I cannot show all of my monsters to you assholes!"

"So why I cannot see them when I inspected your Deck?" He wanted to know how.

"Because I put this card in HERE!" She pointed at her pants. "You are stupid enough not to call a female student to check my clothes!"

"What the hell?!" Sanders' face turned red. He got busted by an old trick that he could not say anything in response. To make it even worse, some students chuckled at their instructor's fatal mistake.

"Stop! Don't you remember who she is?" He tried to reassert his authority. "You!" He pointed his stick at Rin. "You will pay for provoking me! Ore no turn, draw!" He drew his card with strong force.

"At this moment, Continuous Trap activate!" BB activated his set card. "Police Verso! For each card destroyed, its owner take 500 damage."

Sanders continued. "From my hand I activate the Magic Card, Slave Fusion activate! With its effects, I send Slave Ape and Slave Tiger to the grave to Fusion Summon without considering the requirements!"

"What?!" Rin said in surprise.

"Here it goes!" A student said.

"That monster!" Said another one.

"Captive ape! Invite your master to whip the fierce tiger! Yūgō Shōkan! Appear! Gladial Beast Tamer Editor!"

 **Gladial Beast Tamer Editor** DARK/Beast-Warrior/Fusion/Effect/LV8/ **2400** /3000

"Editor's monster effect-"

"At this moment, Frost Bell's effect activates!" Rin quickly prevented Sanders from doing his play. "I return Cold Bell to my hand to-"

"Counter Trap activate!" BB clicked his Duel Disk. A card flipped up.

"What?" Asuka gasped.

"Gladial Beast Prowess! The activation of Frost Bell's effect is negated!" The trap shot out a beam of energy at Frost Bell, stopping it from doing anything. "Then it loses 1000 ATK and I can special summon Laquer from my hand!" Rin's monster dimmed and BB summoned the humanoid tiger again.

 **Wind Witch - Frost Bell** ATK 1900 - 900

"Good work BB!" Sanders congratulated and his product smiled in return.

"Now I can activate Editor's effect without any trouble! It can special summon a "Gladial Beast" monster from either player's Extra Deck to its owner while ignoring the condition!" The monster readjusted its staff, generating a blue energy whip from the front. It then slapped it down on the ground, opening a portal that allowed a monster to come out.

"I choose Gladial Beast Gyzarus from BB's Extra Deck!"

 **Gladial Beast Gyzarus** DARK/Bird Beast/Fusion/Effect/LV6/ **2400** /1500

"No! This is bad!" Yusho muttered.

BB gave a sneer before saying. "When Gyzarus is Special Summoned, it can destroy up to two cards on the field!" The monster fired out multiple purple needles at Frost Bell and the trap card.

"Wind Barrier's effect! By banishing Snow Bell, Frost Bell will not leave the field!" Rin quickly countered. The trap created a white, frost-like bubble to protect the monster from being destroyed.

"But now the effect of Police Verso will activate! Take 500 damage!" A hand materialized above Rin. It then pointed its index and created electricity to strike her.

 **Rin** : 4000 - 3500 [3]

"That's a move I have expected from you Rin!" Sanders said. "But you cannot escape this time! When two or more "Gladial Beast" monsters are on the field, Tamer Editor can destroy one monster and inflict its ATK as damage to its owner!"

"Dammit, if this effect goes through Rin will take huge damage!" Ryo said in concern.

"The target I will choose is… Wind Witch - Frost Bell!" Editor struck its whip at the human-like bell repeatedly, making it yell in pain before exploding. Rin tried to cover herself but was pushed back by the impact.

 **Rin** : 3500 - 2600 [3]

"And with the effect of Police Verso, take 500 damage!" The hand struck the poor blue-haired girl again.

 **Rin** : 2600 - 2100 [3]

"Rin!" Asuka yelled.

"I'm.. I'm fine…" She assured the blonde. "Frost Bell only has 900 ATK thanks to Prowess, so I only lose 1400 LP…"

"Not gonna be soon!" Sanders said. "This will be the final turn! Battle! Gladial Beast Tamer Editor direct attack!" The monster roared to the sky, its emblem on its chest lit up, firing an energy beam at Rin.

"Say goodbye to your freedom Rin! Hahahaha!" Sanders smiled uncontrollably.

"Is that really so?" Rin suddenly muttered.

"What?!" Suddenly, the beam switched direction right before it hit Rin to the left, nearly hurting the student who was unfortunately standing there.

Everyone looked on in surprise, unable to grasp what had happened.

"What happened?"

"I banish Wind Barrier from my graveyard to take no damage this turn. I can activate it when my field has no monsters."

"Such tricks!"

"Normally, you can switch Tamer Editor's place for another monster form your Deck, but can you trade it for a weaker Level 4 or lower monster from your Deck?"

"No need to say you bitch!" Sanders cursed. "Turn end!"

"Watashi no turn…" Rin touched the card. "DRAW!"

"Magic Card, Gust Gift activate! I send Wind Witch - Cold Bell to the grave to draw two cards."

She glanced at the drawn cards, her eyes widened at the sight of one of them.

" _Fusion…"_

* * *

Rin froze at the sight of the card. The card that enabled Fusion Summon, the method of the people who kidnapped her, tortured her and attacked the Xyz Dimension. She hated it so much. She remembered the moment when she got the card and the Wind Witch Fusion monster.

…

…

 _Sanders threw two cards down near her. One was the Magic card decipting a colorful spiral and the other was that Fusion monster…_

" _Take it." He ordered._

 _Rin did not respond._

" _Take it you lowly Common bitch!" He raised his voice._

" _No…" Rin whispered._

" _What?"_

" _No." Her voice became clear and precise. "I am not gonna take them! I will never use Fusion! Your Fusion!"_

" _Good choice of words…" He muttered before torturing her body again…_

…

…

Rin desperately tried a different way to win the duel without using the dreaded cards that she was forced to take, but the cards in her hand did not take it as a yet though.

" _Dammit! Besides Fusion, I only have Ice Bell and Cold Bell, none of which is a tuner! I could use the effect of Frost Bell in the graveyard to summon Winter Bell, but then it will only have 2400 ATK, not enough to destroy any monster Sanders and BB control. If I use this card…"_

No! She swore to herself she would not use that card! It would only prove that she was broken under Academia's torture!

NO! She would not use it!

NOOOO!

" _It's not the method that is bad, but the people who use it…"_

She gasped, eyes widened.

Suddenly, she remembered what he had told her…

* * *

…

…

 _It was the night after she was given the two cards of the enemy. The warm light of the full moon went through the windows of the prison room, to the cold wall…_

 _Looking at it, Rin curled herself on the other side of the wall, tears began running down from her eyes. She missed them, she missed them a lot._

 _She missed City, she missed the orphanage._

 _She missed the kids._

 _She missed the men of the house: Yusei, Shinji._

 _She missed the only female friend she had: Aki._

 _And she missed her idiotic but cheerful and energetic boy:_

 _Yugo…_

 _She had cried a lot… every night… she might not be able to cry today anymore…_

" _Where are you… Yugo… everyone…"_

" _Are you looking for me…?" Her voice hiccupped…_

 _KENG!_

 _A sound. Something hit the door._

 _A tray of food then slid to her under the door._

 _Time for dinner… not that she cared…_

 _Did she even want to eat?_

" _Eat it."_

 _A strange voice, unlike the usual disrespectful one from an Obelisk Blue._

 _Rin looked up to see who, and she was slightly surprised._

" _Yuma…"_

" _Eat it. I have specifically ordered the food tonight from the Professor, also got help from Barrett as well. Hope it will make you feel better."_

" _Better?" Rin said disinterestedly. "Better than the torture? You sure are hypocritical for a betrayer of Heartland…"_

" _You think I really want to work for them?" Yuma said to no one in particular. "Just eat it."_

 _Silence occurred for a minute, or as Rin thought to be. At least this teenager thought about her for a bit, and she could feel the sincere in his voice and his eyes._

 _She decided to grab the tray and began to eat. The food was really good and fit her eating habit as well. In fact, these were her favorite foods and undoubtedly the best meal she had ever had._

" _Um! Yummy!" She let out a smile subconsciously. As if nature liked to play with her, she instantly realized Yuma was still standing near the door. She shyly looked down and continued eating._

" _Don't be shy." Yuma chuckled at the girl's blushing._

" _How… how do you know I like these foods?" Rin honestly wanted to know how._

" _Selena told me." He revealed._

" _Selena?" Rin asked._

 _Yuma nodded. "Uh. Despite the harsh interior, she does seem to care about others. She does tell me about your life back then. Same faces aside, you remind me of a friend of mine."_

" _A friend of yours?" Rin looked up. "Who?"_

 _Yuma did not sure if he wanted to say, but he eventually did. "Ruri. She shared the same face as you and Selena. She's always kind and considerate to her friends and others, just like you to the boy Yugo."_

" _Yeah he is like that as well even though he is pretty dumb." Rin slightly smiled as she remembered him._

" _I'm sorry." Yuma suddenly said._

" _What?" Rin wondered._

" _For being a part of Academia, the faction who ruined your life." He trailed off, voice slightly crackling. "I never wanted to work for them… if not for my mother…"_

" _You have a reason to." Rin quickly told him to try to make him feel better. "No one can blame you for that, and if they find out why, I am sure that they will forgive you…"_

" _Forgive? Huh…" Yuma humorlessly chuckled. "I carded their parents and friends Rin. I carded my fellow Heartland citizens just for the sake of getting help to my mother. I am condemned to death for doing that Rin, no matter what reason is. Right now my mother is the reason I continue being in here and if she dies…"_

" _Don't think about it for a second. Just think that your mother will be fine." Rin said._

" _How… how do you know my mother will forgive me? You don't even have a fami…" Yuma stopped, feeling guilty for saying that. "I'm sorry." He looked away._

" _It's fine. I got used to it." Rin said, although Yuma knew she felt hurt inside a lot._

" _Leaving it aside." Yuma changed the subject. "I heard this afternoon Sanders gave you the card Fusion and a Wind Witch Fusion monster to force you to use it. Did you do it?"_

" _I never want to use it. It's the method of the people who destroy other's lives!" Rin quickly declared. "You hate Fusion a lot don't you? It ruined your hometown, it ruined your life!"_

" _Whatever." Yuma said. "I betrayed my hometown yet I still use Xyz. People would think Xyz is bad too since I use it. But look." He said the next words slowly and carefully. "I don't know if this helps you, but Fusion in itself is not bad. It is just another Extra Deck summon method of the Duel Monsters game. Naturally it is not bad."_

" _What do you mean?" Rin wondered. "You should have hated Fusion a lot for running your life!"_

" _What I mean is: It's not the method that is bad, but the people who use it. Think about this, if Fusion invaded Synchro, you would think that Fusion is bad just like what Heartland people think right now, but if Xyz did the deed instead, you would say that Xyz is bad right? Don't be afraid of Fusion, don't let the torture Sanders did to you affect your judgement. You are not affected by it as much as my former citizens do, so remember this: Fusion, just like Synchro or Xyz, is not inherently bad."_

" _And if you think I am a hypocrite for saying so, I think that I just have more time in here to know that only Academia uses Fusion to destroy people's lives, the rest of this dimension definitely does not think it that way…"_

...

...

* * *

" _Thank you Yuma. Your words are right. I should not be afraid of Fusion just because it hurts me…"_ Rin internally thanked Yuma, who helped her realize how naturally good Fusion was. She would not be afraid of Fusion anymore, she would embrace it and use it for good reasons.

Rin opened her eyes, looking fiercely at Sanders and BB. "Sanders! BB! Everyone else! You tried to break me, you tried to force me to use Fusion to prove that I am weak and prone to torture, but I am not! You use Fusion the wrong way! It should not be used to hurt people!"

"What the hell are you saying petty girl? You try to defend yourself?" A Ra Yellow student mocked her.

"I give you an order!"

"What? Order?! Hahahahaha!" Sanders laughed hysterically. "I have never heard such an idiotic word being spoken before!"

" _What the hell is she thinking?"_ Both Yusho, Asuka and Ryo wondered. Meanwhile they began to find a way to break free.

"You are pathetic Rin! No matter what you say you will lose soon!"

"Last chance!" Rin remained calm and serene.

"Not gonna do it bitch!" Sanders told her.

"Good. I will deliver you the way you use Fusion on me and others!" Rin declared. "Since I control no monsters, I can bring back Wind Witch - Frost Bell!" In a second, the Synchro monster resurrected itself.

"After that Sanders! Your Gladial Beast Tamer Editor is returned to your hand and you take 500 damage!" The monster disintegrated, shocking the instructor before he reluctantly put it back to his Extra Deck.

 **Sanders** : 3500 - 3000 [2]

"And then I normal summon Wind Witch - Flake Bell!" A white bell sitting in the middle of a beautiful snowflake appeared.

 **Wind Witch - Flake Bell** WIND/Magician/Tuner/Effect/LV2/ **0** /0

"Level 5 Frost Bell and Level 2 Flake Bell Tuning! Winds of winter, snow and ice! Become my power to blow everything away! Synchro Shōkan! Come forth! Level 7! Wind Witch - Winter Bell!" Rin called out her signature monster.

 **Wind Witch - Winter Bell** WIND/Magician/Synchro/Effect/LV7/ **2400** /2000

"So you have summoned your ace monster." Sanders commented. "But it only has 2400 ATK!"

"I know, which is why I will use this card!" Rin raised her hand.

"Magic Card, Fusion activate!" Rin activated that card, shocking everyone present.

"What?! Fusion?" Sanders said in shock. "You… you… use that card?"

"The Fusion materials I will use are Winter Bell and Ice Bell!" The monsters joined in the Fusion spiral. "Sound of the winter wind through the snow! Combine with the inner voice and intensify the ringing bells! Yūgō Shōkan! Come forth! The crystal bell that sounds solemnly!"

"Wind Witch - Crystal Bell!"

 **Wind Witch - Crystal Bell** WIND/Magician/Fusion/Effect/LV8/ **2800** /2400

"Amazing…" Asuka muttered.

"A Fusion monster…!" Ryo said. Everyone else was also surprised.

"Its effect activates! It will copy Cold Bell's effect in the graveyard!" Rin revealed.

"Shit!" Sanders shrieked.

"Right. Which means you will now take another 500 damage Sanders!"

 **Sanders** : 3000 - 2500 [2]

"Now get ready to see your field wiped out son of bitches!" Rin said as she activated her remaining card in her hand. "Magic Card, Hidden Gust! By banishing Ice Bell and Cold Bell, Gladial Beast Laquer and Gyzarus will be destroyed!" The card shot out two energy beams, hitting BB's monsters and destroyed them.

"Good! Now their fields are left open!" Ryo said.

Sanders tried to deny. "But it still only has 2800 ATK! BB will still be left standing-"

"Trap Card activate!" Rin's last set card opened. "Miracle Locus! By allowing all of you to draw 1 card, Crystal Bell gains 1000 ATK and an additional attack this turn!"

"What? It can attack twice…?!" BB gasped. He realized his loss was imminent.

 **Wind Witch - Crystal Bell** ATK 2800 - 3800

"Crystal Bell, direct attack!"

 **BB** : 3000 - 0 [2]

The students and Sanders froze. The most effective student of Academia had been defeated…

"And now…" Rin glared at Sanders. "Sanders… Pay for what you DID TO ME! Crystal Bell, destroy him!" The monster obeyed. Roaring in rage, the Fusion monster used its lance below it to ram Sanders, hitting his private spot. Blood began to run out as Sanders yelled painfully, losing the duel and the thing to make him a man.

 **Sanders** : 2500 - 0 [3]

Rin coldly looked at the whimpering Sanders who was still holding himself in massive pain. The rest of the people there were shocked as well, but right at this moment, Asuka, Ryo and Yusho broke free by attacking the students nearby.

Yusho quickly took the duffel bag and his Duel Disk. He then ordered Rin.

"Rin! Close your eyes!"

She instantly did so as Yusho activated a card that caused an extremely bright light that blinded the surroundings instantly. Rin, Asuka, Ryo and Yusho quickly regrouped and ran down the door to the lower level that Yusho's two students went through earlier.

"Yusho-san! We need to go the control room first!" Ryo got an idea while they were trying to escape Academia.

"Why Ryo? We have no time!" Asuka asked.

"The cameras are now working again. If they get our images and report this to the police, we will be in big trouble." Ryo explained.

"All right! I get what you mean Ryo!" Yusho agreed. "Use the sticky bombs!"

"Save it! I got a better idea!" Ryo quickly pulled out a card from his Deck and activated it. "Come out! Cyber Dragon!" In an instant, Ryo's signature machine dragon had come out in the narrow basement.

"Destroy the control room! Evolution Burst!"

Receiving order from Hell Kaiser, the dragon fired a strong stream of light from its mouth which swept through the room over and over, destroying everything in there.

The trio looked on, completely in shock at the destruction Cyber Dragon caused.

"All right…" Ryo muttered. He took Cyber Dragon back to his Deck, the dragon disappeared. "We need to go."

"Stay right where you are!" Several Academia students ordered loudly as they ran to the group from behind. If Ryo had kept Cyber Dragon a little bit longer, he could have solved this problem right now.

"Shit! They're coming!" Asuka said.

"Keep running!" Yusho ordered.

"But they are too many! We may not get out!"

"The sticky bombs!" Rin got an idea. "Use them!"

They continued running to the door that if they went through, they would get to the door they accessed earlier.

"All right, now use them!" Rin quickly grabbed some and threw them up to the ceiling. She then activated one in the bag.

"Are you sure? You may kill them!" Yusho warned.

"We have no choice. You wanna live or mourn for their loss like their parents?" Rin answered back. Even though they were shocked at Rin's apparent disregard of the lives of the students there, they knew they had no choice.

"Fine…" Yusho finally muttered. They all got out and closed the door.

Ryo grabbed a clacker and clicked it, activating the sticky bombs.

 **BOOOMMMMMMMMM!**

A huge explosion occurred inside, the trio covered their eyes and ears.

Debris fell down, fire raging, sprinkler system activating…

"Oh shit…" Asuka mumbled when they peeked in. Everything inside was destroyed completely, a huge debris blocked the way, preventing the students from getting to where they were now. There was some crying in pain, others frantically yelling for help.

It seemed that they had truly killed them…

They all registered for a moment before Yusho managed to say. "All right… Now let's get outside."

They opened the door and went outside, but what they saw shocked them.

Instead of an empty tunnel, numerous Obelisk Force members were there, surrounding them.

On the other side of the bank was a person…

None other than…

"Akaba Leo…"

* * *

 **Fanfic OC Cards**

 **Wind Witch - Frost Bell**

WIND/Magician/Synchro/Effect/LV5/1900/0

(Quick Effect) You can return 1 "Wind Witch" card you control to the hand, then target 1 monster your opponent controls; return it to the hand, and if you do, inflict 500 damage to your opponent. If you control no monsters: You can Special Summon this card from your GY, then target 1 monster your opponent controls; return it to the hand, and if you do, inflict 500 damage to your opponent. You can only use each effect of "Wind Witch - Frost Bell" once per turn.

 **Gladial Beast Prowess**

(Counter Trap Card)

When an opponent activates a Magic/Trap or monster effect: negate the activation, and if you do, all monsters your opponent controls loses 1000 ATK, also Special Summon 1 "Gladial Beast" monster from your hand.

 **Hidden Gust**

(Magic Card)

Banish up to 2 "Wind Witch" monsters in your GY, then target that many cards your opponent controls; destroy them.

* * *

 **Finished! Rin had used Fusion Summon! And in the most glorious way possible!**

 **As you can see, Academia is definitely a very hellish place. Everyone in this chapter contains some grey part to their personality. I will explain a bit: what Academia did would leave some impact on them for the rest of their lives, destroying part of their innocence completely. Rin was tortured like hell in here so surely some of her good part will be gone and she would not even trust who wants to free her because there must be a reason why other people want to help her, which sadly is extremely common in real life (No implying).**

 **And for an early reminder: What happens to the captured Psychic Duelists in the Synchro Dimension will be MUCH, MUCH WORSE.**

* * *

 **Next Chapter Preview**

 **Lancers? Are you kidding me?**

Finding out that many participants are carded to fight Academia and to form the Lancers, Yuya demands Reiji to duel him to settle things. Meanwhile during the escape, Rin, Asuka, Ryo and Yusho were stopped by Akaba Leo, there seems to be no way out…

 **This is matrixnis, out!**


	35. Scale 35

**Welcome back everyone! I hope you liked my last chapter!**

 **Now we are going back to Standard and see Yuya unleash his rage at Reiji for causing this mess.**

 **I would say that this chapter will be the turning point for Yuya. Life throws shit to his once optimistic view of the world and people. Can he get over it? Also some of Reiji's psyche will be revealed as well. There will be a massive twist at the end of the chapter!**

 **Let's find out!**

* * *

 **Chapter 35: Lancers? Are you kidding me?**

* * *

"What… what the hell…" Sora said between shock and excitement. His smile became wider and more enthusiastic. "A new Odd-Eyes Xyz monster… and it uses Rank-Up without a Rank-Up-Magic…"

"It's really fun, Yuya!" He said.

"Fun?!" Was Yuya's silent reply while he still looked down, his bangs were hiding his eyes, but not his curled-up mouth. "Fun? Why the hell are you still splitting that nonsense?!"

"Eh? What are you talking about? You use Rank-Up, which is very fun and exciting-"

"It's NOT!" Yuya roared, looking at Sora furiously, who jotted up in shock. "Rank-Up, the method of the Xyz dimension… Heartland… of people like Yuto, Ruri, Shark, Shun… the people you created a war with just to play the Hunting Game. And you say it is FOR FUN!"

"It's not fun, it's war!" Yuya said angrily. "It's war! And you hurt them, just for FUN!"

"THAT'S NOT FUN! THAT'S GENOCIDE!"

Sora froze up, never seeing Yuya this angry before. _"What the hell… did I do something wrong?"_

Yuya pointed his left hand at the new monster. "After Odd-Eyes Freezing Dragon is Xyz Summoned, all other face-up cards have their effects negated and it gains 300 ATK for each until this End Phase!" The ice dragon gave a loud roar before firing multiple ice needles from its mouth, hitting the killer tiger and wolf repeatedly. The affected monsters on Sora's field turned grey while Freezing Dragon glowed a blue aura, signifying its increased power.

"Absolute Zero Freezing!"

 **Death-Toy Scissors Wolf** ATK 2600 - 2000

 **Death-Toy Scissors Tiger** ATK 2500 - 1900

 **Odd-Eyes Freezing Dragon** ATK 3000 - 4200

"Battle! Odd-Eyes Freezing Dragon, attack Death-Toy Scissors Wolf!" The dragon extended its wings, gathering ice around it and forming into a bigger one. It then took flight and attacked the killer wolf.

"But, it only has 4200 ATK, still not enough to win-" Sora reminded but.

"At this moment, I detach an Overlay Unit from Odd-Eyes Freezing Dragon!" The dragon bit one of the orbs orbiting it.

"And it gains attack points equal to that of Wolf!"

"WHAT?!" Sora gasped. The dragon flew, destroying the rocks during the way.

 **Odd-Eyes Freezing Dragon** ATK 4200 - 6200

Sora and Yuya both noticed an Action Card in the center of the field. They both jumped to grab it as the dragon nearly hit Scissors Wolf.

11:59:59

12:00:00

A loud horn, signaling the time's up.

The Action Field Wonder Quartlet began to disintegrate, the four Solid Vision areas slowly disappeared, returning the usual view of Maiami City back.

"The Battle Royale is now over!" Nico Smiley announced the end of the 1-day-long round.

Sora and Yuya both stopped and turned to each other.

"Darkness! Sora!" Came Yuri's voice from Sora's Duel Disk. "Fall back!"

"The Battle Royale is over…?" Yuya said, realizing that Sora's and his Duel Disk had stopped working, as per the rules of the Battle Royale of the Maiami Championship.

A short while later, Darkness, Yuri and Yuma all ran to the street where Yuya and Sora were standing. Yuri did not forget to kick Yuya out of the way though.

* * *

The blue light disappeared, Yuma opened his eyes, ready to see the empty space which used to be occupied by his former friend Yuto.

But…

…

…

Yuto was still there!

Everyone looked on in absolute shock, even Ruri had stopped crying.

Yuto widened his eyes, not believing what had happened.

Yuma froze, his face just as shocked as the rest, unable to understand what was going on.

Yuto quickly gasped and delivered a strong kick to Yuma's stomach, sending him flying backwards. Yuri quickly held Yuma in place.

At the same time, Nico Smiley announced the end of the Battle Royale.

Everything around them slowly disintegrated in yellow dust, returning the normal city view.

All of the still activated Duel Disks in the area automatically shut down, the barrier disappeared.

Everyone registered the sudden change.

Yuma and Yuri quickly fell back.

"Darkness! Sora!" Yuri called. "Fall back!"

"You're not gonna get away dickheads!" Shun said and ran to stop them, but Darkness suddenly jumped in between them and kicked the Raid Raptors duelist back.

"Shun!"

"Brother!"

Yuto and Ruri gasped. They quickly held him.

"I'm fine…" Shun assured them.

Yugo ran to his D-Wheel and checked. Luckily what Yuri had done to it did not last long. His D-Wheel had returned to normal again.

Yugo roared the engine and went with the rest.

* * *

Darkness looked at his only card in his hand.

Red-Eyes Shield Wing Dragon…

"From my hand!" Darkness swung his hand up.

Yuzu gasped.

"Red-Eyes…"

All the world around the pink-haired girl collapsed.

"Shield Wing Dragon's monster effect-"

A loud horn occurred. The Battle Royale had over.

Everything around them slowly disintegrated, the Maiami City returned. Yuri yelled to him from his Duel Disk.

"Oi! Bastard! Stop moving!" Sawatari yelled.

"Gongenzaka! Sawatari!" Yuzu said at them.

"You're lucky… Hiragi Yuzu…" Darkness calmly responded. He quickly jumped down, leaving Sawatari cursing him. He stopped Shun and kicked him back. They both ran to the center of the street below where Sora and Yuya were standing.

They delivered another kick to Yuya and regrouped with the surprised blue-haired kid. A short while later, everyone else arrived near the bridge.

Yuri, Yuma, Sora, Darkness looked at their arch nemesis (except Dennis who was planted as a spy): Yuya, Yuzu, Yuto, Ruri, Shun, Yugo, Gongenzaka, Sawatari, Tsukikage, Mieru.

The two groups looked at each one intensely.

Darkness and Yuzu eyed at each other.

Yuto, Ruri and Shun looked hatefully at Yuma and Yuri. The former smiled while the latter showed nothing but calmness in his face.

Selena remained distant while looking at Yuri, who glared at her.

They all knew one thing: today's fight was over.

"We're gonna see you later soon." Yuma declared. The high-ranking Academia members activated the Dimension Travel program on their Duel Disks and rose their non-dominant hands up. Blue light erupted and they were covered in particles.

Soon they were completely gone.

* * *

Dennis was feeling a shit storm in his head. _"Dammit! Hiragi Yuzu, Kurosaki Ruri and Selena are right here, but Yuri could not capture them! What will happen to me…!"_

Yuya looked at the spot where Sora was earlier. He blamed himself for failing to get through Sora.

" _Sora…"_

"Yuya!" Yuzu spoke up sweetly, running down below to him.

"Yuzu!" Yuya excitedly said back. "You're okay!"

"I am!" She answered.

"Ruri!" Shun told his sweet younger sister. She happily smiled and ran to hug him.

Yuto smiled as well before joining in the hug. They finally had met together again, after all of the chaos and losses.

The rest looked on warmly.

"I have watched all of your Duels." A voice spoke up. Yuya looked at the upper bridge.

"Akaba Reiji!" Besides him, Aki and Yusei were standing next to their respective D-Wheels.

"Yusei! Aki!" Yugo greeted his friends. They smiled in return.

"You're here at the right time!" Sawatari said. "Just like you said, I have expelled Academia! With this I will become a member of Lancers right?"

"Lancers?" Gongenzaka wondered. "What is that?"

"This Battle Royale is the test to choose the Duel Soldiers." He revealed.

"Choose?!" Yuya gasped. "What do you mean by that?"

He quickly ran to the upper bridge with Yuzu while the rest followed.

"Tell me Reiji! You knew from the start that those people from the Fusion dimension will show up?"

"Uh. I know." Reiji answered, turning his back to him. "That's why I turned the third round of Youth Class from a tournament into a city-wide Battle Royale. I planned to use your powers to stop the enemies."

"We?!" Ruri wondered. "Why us?"

"Others have fought as well, but they have been eradicated expect one." Sawatari said.

"Eradicated?!" Gongenzaka gasped.

"Besides, they have attacked my father and LDS so that's why I got recruited."

"Just like what I have expected, you have successfully forced Academia back." Reiji continued. "You are truly our anti-Academia Duel Warriors! You have shown the power worthy of the title Lancers!"

"Screw it!" Yuya yelled. "To hell with your Lancers! For something like that Michio… and Teppei were… and everyone else and well! They were turned into cards!"

"You put everyone else who are here in danger as well! What the hell are you thinking Reiji?" Ruri argued as well, but what she earned back was completely unexpected.

Yuya glared at her and growled. "Shut up you bitch! You have no right to talk with me right NOW!"

"Yuya!" Yuzu immediately berated him. "You're still childishly hating her like-" She stopped when he also quietly glared at her as well. She had never seen Yuya this stupid and moody like this.

"Many people have died…" Yuya said to Reiji. "Because of your STUPID plan!"

"It's not Reiji's fault." Selena spoke up. Everyone turned to see her. "It was my fault for causing this trouble."

"What do you mean your fault?" Gongenzaka asked. "Selena?"

"Selena?!" Ruri wondered. "Who are you?"

"My name is Selena. A Duelist from Academia." She revealed without hesitation.

"What?" The big teenager gasped, just like the rest.

"Academia?!" Sawatari said. "So you're our enemy?!"

Dennis meanwhile closed his left eye, thinking. _"Ah jeez… you went and said it yourself. I was thinking of bringing you back to Academia myself but… now it would be impossible."_

"Academia…?" Suddenly Yugo spoke up. His face looked down covering his eyes but the cold rage was visible just from the way he said that name.

He then threw down a bottle he was holding, shattering it.

"Yugo…?" Yusei said in concern.

"No…" Aki feared.

He ominously approached the former Academia soldier. "You're from Academia."

No response.

"You know where Rin is?"

Selena cautiously stepped back. "Yep."

"What happened to her?"

She did not say.

"WHAT HAPPENED TO HER?"

Selena tried to defend herself but Yugo quickly grabbed her wrists with one hand and her neck with the other, his legs locking Selena's own.

He forced her head near the rail, fully intent on killing her if he wanted to.

"Yugo STOP!" Aki yelled.

"WHAT THE HELL HAD HAPPENED TO HER? WAS SHE RAPED?!" He yelled at the top of his lungs.

"She was not raped, I can promise you that Yūgō." Selena tried to calm him down but she made a big mistake.

Yugo punched Selena extremely hard in the face, nearly causing her to fall down if not for his right hand grabbing her neck. Everyone gasped at this sudden display of violence, expect Reiji who only glared. Yugo then roared at her face.

"YŪGŌ JA NEEEEEE! YŪGO DAAAAAAA!"

He attempted to punch her again but Yusei quickly separated Yugo from Selena and delivered the former a strong punch that sent him flying for about five meters.

"Stop it! Control yourself you hothead asshole! You embarrassed all of us!"

Tsukikage checked Selena's face and wiped the blood on her nose and mouth.

"No thanks. I can do it myself." Selena declined and washed the blood herself.

Yugo checked the bruise on his left eye. He looked at Yusei before standing up. He eyed at Selena one last time.

"If I find out what you say is wrong, I will kill you myself…" He then returned to his D-Wheel.

"She was not Academia anymore." Reiji said. "She was hunted by them."

"That's right." She confirmed. "Obelisk Force aimed at me."

"But why are you wearing Yuzu's clothes?" Gongenzaka asked.

"What?!" Yuya finally realized that Yuzu was wearing the Osiris Red clothes. "Why are you wearing this Yuzu? You two changed each other's clothes?!"

"Yes." She confirmed. "Selena wants to see Kurosaki Shun."

"What?!" Yuto gasped.

"My brother?" Ruri wondered.

"Yuzu told me to meet Kurosaki to ask him directly what has happened in the Xyz dimension." Selena told Ruri and the rest.

"I did not tell her about Yuto or Ruri because it would cause a misunderstanding." Yuzu said.

"But…" Yuya suddenly realized something. "Where's Kamishiro?"

Yuto, Ruri and Shun looked away, trying their best to hold back their sadness. Yugo looked down in shame.

"No… no way…" Yuzu covered her mouth.

Yuto revealed Ryoga's card, shocking everyone but Reiji.

"That's…!" Gongenzaka gasped.

"Shark-kun!" Sawatari said.

"I'm sorry everyone… it was my fault…" Yugo whispered.

"Don't feel hard about it buddy. You did not know Greedy Venom's effect, like we all did!" Yuto tried to confront him. Yugo still felt massive guilt inside, how could he not have predicted it would have a similar effect like Starve Venom?!

" _Good… one less thing to worry about…"_ Dennis smiled in his mind.

"I'm sorry…" Was only Selena's quiet response.

"Anyway…" Reiji readjusted his glasses. "All of you have survived… what we need right now is that power!"

Yuya trembled.

"Instead of thinking about the fallen, be proud that you have won the Duels against the strong enemy." Reiji gave a slasher smile.

"Quiet!" Yuya raised his voice. "What the hell is "proud"? What is it when many people have been carded?! If you have not forced us to fight then Michio… Teppei… Kamishiro… and everyone else… would have been alive right now!"

He ran at him. "Bring them… bring them BACK RIGHT NOW!" Yuya delivered a punch to Reiji's face, but he caught it nonchalantly.

"Yuya!" Yuzu told him.

Reiji threw that fist off. "If you are a Duelist… instead of that fist, unleash your rage through Duel!"

Yuya declared. "Right! I will do that! In the place of the people whose life you have expended, I will force you to say sorry for them!"

"Fine." Reiji said, adjusting his glasses again. "If I lose, I will do it until you are pleased."

"Yuya! Control yourself!" Yuzu reminded her best friend. Yuya reluctantly nodded.

Reiji then turned to the group. "You have still not known about your mission, about why I formed the Lancers. That is to prevent our dimension from suffering the same fate like the Xyz dimension."

Reiji raised his hand up. "Action Field on!"

"Field Magic, Future Metropolis Heartland activate!"

The card materialized before shining up. All of the nearest Real Solid Vision machines activated, transforming the scenery around the group into that dreaded field again.

Yuto, Ruri and Shun instantly got reminded of their hometown again. They all gritted in anger.

"Heartland!" Selena said. "Of the Xyz dimension…"

"Right…" Shun spoke up. "Our… our hometown!"

Yuya called Reiji out. "Turn off this field Reiji! Don't force Yuto, Ruri and Kurosaki to remember it anymore!"

"For the sake of Selena Yuya." Reiji said. "If she wants to know the truth. Kurosaki Shun, please tell the truth. Only you can say it right now, just look at Ruri and Yuto."

"No need to say it you asshole! Don't forget to undo what you did to my sister!"

Shun sighed in defeat. He had let Reiji play him and his comrades again.

"It seems that I have brought up the unspeakable shame… Well in this case let me talk first. In the Battle Royale, Academia from the Fusion dimension ambushed you…"

"STOP!" Both Yuto and Ruri yelled.

"Stop it…" Yuto whispered.

"Reiji…!" Yuya gritted his teeth.

"Before they came here…"

"Stop…"

"The Xyz dimension has been…"

"STOP! STOP SAYING ANYTHING ANYMORE!" Yuto and Ruri spoke harshly.

"Calm down. I will win." Yuya reassured the angry Xyz couple before turning to Reiji. "In their place, I will beat you down and force you to say sorry!" Yuya declared.

" _This is a hard duel… with Yuya like this, can he win against him…?"_ Yuzu thought. She could only hope Yuya would control himself though, not wanting either player to win. There was too much to think right now.

"You're okay?" Ruri asked her in concern, noticing her tiredness.

"I'm fine. It's just…"

 **DUEL!**

 **Sakaki Yuya** : 4000 [5]

 **Akaba Reiji** : 4000 [5]

* * *

"I take the first turn!" Yuya declared. "From my hand, I normal summon Entermate Skullcrobat Joker!" Appearing from a bubble was a clown in black robes.

 **Entermate Skullcrobat Joker** DARK/Magician/Pendulum/Effect/LV4/Scale 1/ **1800** /100

"When it's Normal Summoned, I can add Wisdom-Eye Magician to my hand, then I will use it and the Scale 4 Entermate Trump Witch, Pendulum Scale setting!" The word "Pendulum" appeared on Yuya's Duel Disk and from behind, two monsters flew up.

"Next up, I destroy Wisdom-Eye…" The monster disintegrated. "To add the Scale 8 Timegazer Magician and set it in its place!"

"With this I can now summon Level 5 to 7 monsters!" A pendant appeared and swung between the scales.

"Swing, Pendulum of the Soul! Draw an arc across the nether! Pendulum Shōkan! Appear now, my monsters!" Two monsters flew down.

"Stargazer Magician! And Entermate Mammo Splash!"

 **Stargazer Magician** DARK/Magician/Pendulum/Effect/LV5/Scale 1/1200/ **2400**

 **Entermate Mammo Splash** WATER/Beast/Pendulum/Effect/LV6/Scale 4/1900/ **2300**

Dennis spoke up. "Pendulum Summon right away? Yuya's hot blooded now!"

"With this, I end my turn!" Yuya declared.

"Why does an Academia member want to know about the Xyz dimension?" Shun asked Selena. Yuto and Ruri looked on.

"Watashi no turn!" Reiji drew his card. "With the effect of DD Swirlal Slime, I can use it and DD Baphomet to Fusion Summon!" Reiji sent the cards to the GY slot, the word "Fusion" appeared on his Duel Disk.

"Arcane swirl that takes in all forms! Engulf the grotesque God, and now become one and give birth to a new king! Yūgō Shōkan! Be born! DDD Flame King Temujin!" The conqueror burning in flames descended to the field again.

 **DDD Flame King Temujin** DARK/Demon/Fusion/Effect/LV6/ **2000** /1500

"That's…!" Yuzu gasped.

"The Fusion monster Reiji used in that last battle!" Gongenzaka said.

"Darling used to duel Akaba Reiji before?" Mieru wondered.

"Yep. At You Show Duel School."

"Who won that time?" Dennis asked.

"The duel was interrupted before the winner was declared, but if it went on, Yuya would lose."

"Then from my hand, I normal summon the Tuner monster DD Night Howling!"

 **DD Night Howling** DARK/Demon/Tuner/Effect/LV3/ **300** /600

"Tuner monster?!" Dennis said in surprise.

"Yes. Akaba Reiji does not only use Fusion." Gongenzaka revealed.

"Tuner… Synchro…" Yugo muttered. "This person uses Synchro as well?"

"When it is summoned, I can bring back a "DD" monster from the GY but it loses its ATK and DEF." Reiji slapped Baphomet down, the monster returned again from the mouth of Night Howling.

 **DD Baphomet** DARK/Demon/Effect/LV4/ **1400** /1800

 **DD Baphomet** **1400** /1800 - **0** /0

"I, using the Level 4 DD Baphomet and Level 3 DD Night Howling, tuning!"

"Howls that tear through the night. With the swiftness of a gale give birth to a new king! Synchro Shōkan! Be born! Level 7! DDD Gust King Alexander!"

 **DDD Gust King Alexander** WIND/Demon/Synchro/Effect/LV7/ **2500** /2000

"Amazing…" Dennis muttered.

"Synchro Summon…" Yusei whispered.

"Who the hell is this man?" Aki wondered.

"At this moment, Temujin's effect will bring back DD Swirlal Slime!" The monster raised its sword, allowing the green slime to rise up.

 **DD Swirlal Slime** DARK/Demon/Effect/LV2/ **200** /200

"And then Alexander's effect activates! A Level 4 or lower "DD" monster from the grave will return!" Alexander created a small wind around it. It then slammed its blade down, the grotesque god returned.

"DD Baphomet's effect activates! Swirlal Slime's Level is changed from 2 to 4!"

 **DD Swirlal Slime** LV2 - 4

"With this there is two Level 4 monsters…" Yusei said.

"Is it…" Dennis whispered.

"I, using the Level 4 DD Swirlal Slime and DD Baphomet, Overlay!"

"In order to subjugate all that resides in this world, now, descend onto the peak of the world! Xyz Shōkan! Be born! Rank 4! DDD Wave King Caesar!"

 **DDD Wave King Caesar** WATER/Demon/Xyz/Effect/R4/ **2400** /1200

Dennis swallowed. "Fusion… Synchro… and also Xyz!"

"You're from LDS and you don't know this?!" Sawatari asked. "Akaba Reiji is famous for being able of using all three summon methods!"

"You know it too?"

"But I have only seen this for the first time!"

"Not only three!" Yuya said. "Akaba Reiji can also use Pendulum. And there is also that "evolution" as well."

* * *

"You're here to fight us?" Yuto asked Selena.

"That's true. If I win against the leftovers of Xyz in Standard, the person who does not bring me to the frontline Professor will feel ashamed of himself! I want to prove my skill to Akaba Leo! That's why I came to this dimension. But… I thought their goal of uniting the dimensions is righteous. I thought achieving that in the war is an honor, but Yuzu had told me that our comrades in Xyz only use it in name only." She looked at the bridge. "Just like the Hunting Game, smiling and carding one by one excitedly! Is that the truth? What Yuzu told me…?"

"It's the truth." Shun confirmed. He remembered that time again. "They continuously hunted our defenseless citizens and treated it like a game!"

Selena's face trembled, her once determined eyes shook greatly, all of her beliefs in Academia had been fallen down…

In just a minute of conversation to the survivors…

"Feel good?" Yuto cryptically asked.

"The fake image of the place you once worshiped?" Ruri added.

* * *

"Battle! Alexander, attack Stargazer Magician!" The monster swept it blade down, generating a tornado that sent the magician crashing to the tall building behind. The impact made it fall down and crushed the monster.

"Caesar, attack Mammo Splash!" Water erupted from the sword, sweeping the elephant away from existence. For some reason the water turned into a trail of flame.

"And now, Temujin, attack Skullcrobat Joker!" The monster slashed its sword at Yuya's only monster left, destroying it.

 **Yuya** : 4000 - 3800 [1]

"Yuya!" Yuzu gasped in concern. _"But why is Reiji doing this? He's…"_ Yuzu realized when she looked at the field. _"Imitating the warzone?"_

* * *

From the flame, Shun, Ruri and Yuto saw the running citizens again, multiple Antique Gear monsters hunting them…

The screaming, the laughing, all of it…

"Until now, that face, that smile is still carving deeply in my eyes and ears… I can never forget it!" Shun said in a small but anger voice, breaking Selena's view of Academia further.

"Calm down brother." Ruri patted Shun on his back.

"So this is the warzone you have talked about Yugo?" Aki asked.

"Uh." Yugo said. "I only saw a glimpse of it, but I cannot forget it, ever…"

* * *

"Now I set down a card and end my turn." Reiji ended his turn with a smile on his face. "Up to now, everything is still according to your plan. "Now is the real part", is that what you think? You have finally found the evolution of Pendulum, then use it on me! The new power you have gained!"

"See through everything…?" Yuya whispered while standing up. "As expected of a prodigy Duelist, Akaba Reiji!"

"Did you foresee the outcome of the Battle Royale with that brain of yours too? How many would fall… how many would survive… Are you satisfied that it ended just as you expected…?"

"No wonder why the Akaba family is such a huge mess right now."

Reiji's smile stopped.

Yuya chuckled. "We have a father who loved to destroy the other dimensions for some stupid reasons… we have a mother who hides her trickery by that "royal" smile when she threatened to take over the legacy of my father…"

Yuzu, Ruri and Gongenzaka understood it well. From the control room, Himika froze.

"We have a younger brother who was traumatized by your family's teaching so much that he did not say anything…"

Reira became slightly feared.

"And we have the main character! A bullshit President of LDS that took Sakaki Yusho away and turn other people into your marionettes!"

"WE ARE NOT YOUR PAWNS!" Yuya suddenly roared.

Silence occurred.

"Michio and Teppei… Kamishiro Ryoga… and many others… they all have a heart! They are just normal people! Pulled into a vortex created by you and your father's intentions! We are not tools for your evil family's deeds!"

"Don't you understand it? Or you have sold your soul to the devil?!"

Reiji did not display any emotion outside, but inside he got reminded of his dark time again. After Akaba Leo disappeared, he was so determined to teach him a lesson that he went to the Fusion dimension. From there he learned that he wanted to cause an inter-dimensional war, he was then forced back. What he did not want others know is that he became massively depressed just like Himika, he even resorted to drinking to try to forget the eternal guilt caused by his father. With the help of his mother though, he decided that what had happened had happened, he could not erase this guilt anyway. He swore to endure this pain, this shame, he would become cold, calculated and ruthless. He would then form a plan to stop that madman, the man who he once loved completely. He would not care about innocent lives anymore, there were many to spare at Heartland already.

Reiji did wonder how much pain he could endure, and Yuya's words unintentionally tested it again.

"Ore no… TURN!" Yuya drew his card.

"I, using the set Scales, Pendulum Shōkan!"

"Reborn from the Extra Deck! Entermate Mammo Splash! Stargazer Magician!"

"And finally from my hand! Odd-Eyes Pendulum Dragon!" His signature monster appeared again, roaring loudly.

 **Odd-Eyes Pendulum Dragon** DARK/Dragon/Pendulum/Effect/LV7/Scale 4/ **2500** /2000

Suddenly Yuya, Yuto and Yugo felt that same pain rising up from his stomach again. They all managed to hide it though.

"Entermate Mammo Splash's monster effect!" The elephant played with a ball using its trunk. "Using this card as an material, I can perform a Fusion Summon, but it will be banished."

"I will use it and Odd-Eyes Pendulum Dragon! Dual-colored eyed dragon. Become one with the blizzard behemoth and give birth to a new power!"

"Yūgō Shōkan! Come forth, ferocious dragon with luminous feral eyes! Beast-Eyes Pendulum Dragon!"

 **Beast-Eyes Pendulum Dragon** EARTH/Dragon/Fusion/Effect/LV8/ **3000** /2000

"OH! It's the dragon that first appeared during my duel!" Gongenzaka noted.

"When a Pendulum monster leaves the field, Stargazer Magician can special summon it!" The magician used its staff to draw colorful and mystical lines before sweeping it down, manipulating space. The odd-eyes dragon returned.

Just like before, the pain appeared again.

" _What the hell…"_ Yuto thought.

" _Each time the dragon is summoned…?"_ Yugo also wondered. They all sweated.

"Then I activate Entermate Trump Witch's Pendulum effect! I can perform a Fusion summon again!" Odd-Eyes and Stargazer flew in to the Fusion spiral appeared above them.

"Wielder of mysterious powers, become the bright light in the eyes of the dragon! Yūgō Shōkan! Come forth! Arcane dragon wielder of ancient magic! Rune-Eyes Pendulum Dragon!"

 **Rune-Eyes Pendulum Dragon** DARK/Dragon/Fusion/Effect/LV8/ **3000** /2000

"This time is the Fusion dragon in the duel with Mieru!" Mieru said.

"Using the power Pendulum Summon, Yuya now has two Fusion monsters at the same time… amazing!" Yuzu commented.

"With the use of the Level 5 Stargazer Magician as one of its materials, Rune-Eyes can attack three times!" Three energy orbs touched at three different spots of the circular disc on its back, forming a triangle.

"Battle! Rune-Eyes Pendulum Dragon, attack Flame King Temujin, Gust King Alexander and Wave King Caesar!"

"Rengeki no… Shiny Burst!" The powerful light blue stream from the dragon first hit the flaming overlord before destroying it.

 **Reiji** : 4000 - 3000 [2]

The stream then continued to send Alexander to the cemetery.

 **Reiji** : 3000 - 2500 [2]

Finally Caesar was fell victim to the blast, exploding as well.

 **Reiji** : 2500 - 1900 [2]

As calmly as ever, Reiji talked. "At this moment, the effect of Caesar which was sent from the field to the graveyard activates. I add a "Covenant" card to my hand."

"Useless! You will not get the chance to use that card!" Yuya shot back. "In the sorrow of the fallen, you will be judged for your numerous sins!"

"Yuya…" Yuzu whispered.

"Go now! Beast-Eyes Pendulum Dragon!" The dragon jumped up. "Hell Dive Burst!" The stream of fire took the form of a head of a lion, aiming at the morally ambiguous President of LDS.

"Reiji's LP is 1900!" Mieru noted.

"If he takes 3000 damage from Beast-Eyes' direct attack… it will be…" Gongenzaka said.

"Over!"

Reiji gasped, eyes widening in fear…

…

 **BOOMMMMM!**

* * *

Smoke covered his side of field.

Yuya patiently looked at it.

Suddenly, Reiji's footsteps could be heard.

Followed by two slow steps.

"What?!"

"The trap I set: DDD Covenant Change has been activated." Reiji calmly explained and Yuya gasped strongly in shock.

"By banishing Alexander, the DDD monster with the highest original ATK in the grave, this battle damage is negated."

"No way…" Yuzu whispered.

"And then… I add a Level 4 or lower DD Pendulum monster to my hand."

"I have come to understand that the reason you found the path from Pendulum to Xyz, and to Fusion, was because of your strong feelings towards Hiragi Yuzu. But!" Reiji raised his voice.

"Winning with feeling is not enough!"

Yuya knew there was no denying to this. If he had not let emotion get the better of him, he would have predicted the only set card Reiji had would change the flow of the game to his favor. And there were some Duels that he had utterly won because of violence even though he could not control it and he definitely did not want to.

"The Lancers are a squad made to fight Academia in real combat. Remember that such unstable emotions can be fatal in a real battle!"

"I don't intend to be a part of your Lancers!" Yuya argued. "I just want to bring smiles to people, not to fight in a war! And surely I will never work with those two murderers!" Yuya pointed his left hand at Shun and Selena without even looking at him. They did not show any feelings despite being slightly shocked.

"Kurosaki Shun nearly killed me back in the alley, I have seen him card people! They are innocent people! All of them! A survivor in war or not, I do not work with murderers!"

"No way…" Yuzu gasped. "Yuya, is that true? Kurosaki wanted to kill you back then?!"

"Why don't you look at him and his friends now Yuzu?" Yuya said without looking at her. Yuzu turned to the Xyz remnants and their guilty faces said it all.

"And I have not heard any news about Hokuto… most likely carded." At this Reiji hardened his eyes, everyone turned to the former Academia duelist who only looked at the ground.

"Ho… Hokuto?"

"Since Kurosaki did not have a change to meet him, there leaves only one person who can card Hokuto…" Yuya correctly said. "And I guess she does not feel guilty either…"

Selena looked away, unable to look at anyone. It was true that she carded him, but at that time she did not know things well, she only have the goal of proving her worth to the Professor in mind. She shredded her humanity in favor for it, and she initially did not think much about. But now after being reminded by a very angry Yuya and knowing things more, she trembled slowly.

"Yes…" Was all she said.

"You can bring those two to your team if you want Reiji, but I will NOT join in, and I will not let you recruit Yuzu or my other friends as well!"

"Then let the other three dimensions die?" Reiji gave him a piercing question. "While you arrogantly drink your sorrow and hatred on them for carding a few people?"

"What…? I…" Yuya mumbled.

"Life is unfair, not everything is running life you want to. While you stay here using the Entertainment Dueling to bring smiles to people here, those from the Xyz dimension are being carded, feared, traumatized, demoralized. Uncountable Heartland citizens are unceremoniously carded, even women, children, toddlers, babies…" Reiji spoke very seriously, Yuto, Ruri and Shun shook madly.

"Their lives are extremely miserable, they need help from everything they can to defeat Academia, the disease of the four Dimensions, the abomination that should not have ever been existed! We Lancers are the cure! The group of the best Duelists in the multiverse. We will save the dimensions, and that is where your beliefs of bringing smiles through Dueling would be used, not lazily applied here. So yeah, you can back out if you want, but you are our best shot. If you want to get out of the Lancers and let people from the Xyz and Synchro dimension die, you must WIN against me first before thinking about anything."

Yuya gritted his teeth. He could not deny it after seeing everything in Yuto's mind. He thought he could use his philosophy in there, but numerous situations have affected him, making him doubt of his ability to do it anymore. And now he realized he and many others were being played in Reiji's palm, he decided he would not do it anymore. He would stand up by himself, not listening to his illusions.

"Very well, as you wish. But you will lose soon!" Yuya declared before setting a card down. "Turn end."

"Watashi no turn… draw!" Reiji started his second turn. He showed two cards to Yuya.

"I, using the Scale 1 DD Magical Savant Galilei and Scale 10 DD Magical Savant Kepler, Pendulum Scale setting!"

"With this, I can summon monsters with Levels between 2 and 9!"

"It's here! Akaba Reiji's Pendulum Summon!" Gongenzaka said.

"Grand power which shakes my very soul! Arise within me and give birth to a new light that rends the darkness!"

Pendulum Shōkan! Appear! The supreme deity that passes judgement upon the twilight of gods! DDD Oblivion King Abyss Ragnarok!" Came out of a portal was a large, demonic king of the end of the world in a beige throne. It had many strings around it, its cape was tattered but the base was still intact.

 **DDD Oblivion King Abyss Ragnarok** DARK/Demon/Pendulum/Effect/LV8/Scale 5/ **2200** /3000

"When this card is special summoned, a "DDD" monster from the graveyard shall reborn!" Two strings struck the ground, pulling out Temujin from the abyss.

" _Abyss Ragnarok has only 2200 ATK… he will not be able to destroy any of my monsters…!"_ Yuya thought.

"Right now, I banish DD Swirlal Slime…" Reiji then slapped down a card from his hand. "To special summon DD Magicial Savant Corpenicus!" A helocentrism model flew up.

 **DD Magicial Savant Corpenicus** DARK/Demon/Pendulum/Effect/LV4/Scale 1/0/ **0**

"Then its effects allows me to send DD Necro Slime from the Deck to the grave. Since a "DD" monster is Special Summoned, Temujin's effect allows Alexander to return!"

"DD Necro Slime's monster effect activates!" Reiji raised his hand up and pointed it down in a playboy style, unlike the usual President manner. "By banishing it, I can use Temujin and Alexander to Fusion Summon!"

"What?! Pendulum-Fusion?" Yuya noted.

"Crush the flame of the conqueror, and with the force of your surging wave, open up a new world! Yūgō Shōkan! Appear, autocratic god of limits! DDD Wave Oblivion King Caesar Ragnarok!" A monster resembling a cross between Abyss Ragnarok and Wave King Caesar appeared.

 **DDD Wave Oblivion King Caesar Ragnarok** DARK/Demon/Fusion/Effect/LV10/ **3200** /3000

"Once again, after being sent from the field to the graveyard, Caesar allows me to add a "Covenant" card to my hand."

"Battle!" Reiji started his Battle Phase. "Wave Oblivion King Caesar Ragnarok, attack Beast-Eyes Pendulum Dragon!" The monster jumped out of its throne.

"At this moment! Caesar Ragnarok's effect activates!"

"What?! During the Battle Phase?!" Yuya gasped in shock.

"By returning Kepler to my hand…" Reiji did so, the monster turned into blue dust and went to its left hand. "Caesar can equip your other monster Rune-Eyes Pendulum Dragon to it!" It threw its strings and wrapped Rune-Eyes before disintegrating it.

"Rune-Eyes!" Yuya yelled in dismay. "Shit!"

"Then Rune-Eyes' ATK is added to Caesar Ragnarok!"

 **DDD Wave Oblivion King Caesar Ragnarok** ATK 3200 - 6200

"ATK… 6200?!" Yuya could only whisper, as did Yuzu, Gongenzaka and Sawatari.

"The End of Judgement!" The monster blasted a blue stream, destroying Yuya's other dragon. Yuya got sent flying backwards, nearly falling down the stairs. He weakly got up, wiping the wound on his face.

 **Yuya** : 3800 - 600 [0]

"It's bad! Yuya only has 600 LP!" Yugo said.

"If the next attack from Abyss Ragnarok connects then…" Yuto commented.

"He will lose!" Ruri finished.

"Yuya! Don't lose! Please!" Yuzu said in concern.

"It's finished now!" Reiji said. "Abyss Ragnarok, direct attack!" The monster charged a large sphere of energy before changing it into a powerful stream.

"Trap Card!" Yuya countered. "Pendulum Reborn! Come out from the Extra Deck, Odd-Eyes!" In a moment, the trap transformed into his signature dragon.

"It has 2500 ATK, so Abyss Ragnarok cannot defeat it!" Yuzu smiled. "Good move Yuya!"

Yuya slightly smiled at that.

"Humph… if so, Abyss Ragnarok, stop your attack." As soon as Reiji ordered, the sphere disappeared. "But during the Main Phase 2, I activate Abyss Ragnarok's other effect!"

"What?! Another effect?"

"By tributing DD Magical Savant Corpenicus…" Abyss Ragnarok wrapped the 0 ATK monster, making it disappear. "It can banish Odd-Eyes Pendulum Dragon!"

"WHAT?! NO!" Yuya yelled as Reiji's monster fired a string at the head of his dragon. It disappeared in a vortex. "ODD-EYESSSSS!"

"No way…"

"Yuya's signature dragon Odd-Eyes is gone…" Gongenzaka said.

"Yuya has fallen in Reiji's trap…" Sawatari noted.

"He could have banished one of those two Fusion dragons earlier." Yuto said.

"But he did not, in order to force Yuya to bring out another monster to banish." Yugo continued. "And Yuya clearly loves his dragon so much."

"This is all what you can do?" Reiji mocked Yuya, who could only curse him in his mind. "You definitely did not do all of your best, and take this: I have not either. I set down a card and end my turn."

" _Dammit… he had trapped me, now my dragon is gone, I have no cards left in my hand or field…"_ Yuya nervously thought. _"Everything will be bet on this draw…"_

"Ore no turn…"

…

…

…

* * *

"DRAW!" He looked at it…

"Magic Card, Treasure Cards of Adversity activate! I can draw two cards."

"Hoh? So you are gambling." Reiji said.

" _This draw will decide everything…"_ Yuya thought. Suddenly he saw a howl of a dragon. It was covered in darkness but he could see it mostly had red skin and it had two-colored eyes. The life energy it emitted seemed to connect with one of the cards he was about to draw.

Believing in that prophecy, Yuya boldly drew his cards. "Draw!"

The moment he inspected it, he gasped in delight.

"It's here…"

Everyone looked at the Entertainment Duelist in anticipation.

"From my hand, Resonate Magician's effect activates! By destroying the Scale 4 Entermate Trump Witch, I can place it in its place!" The witch disintegrated, Yuya took the card out and placed a new one in. From the left tube, a magician in white robes with blue stripes flew up. A number 2 appeared below it.

"With this, multiples Level 3 to 7 monsters can be summoned at the same time!"

"Swing again, Pendulum of the Soul! Draw an arc across the nether! Pendulum Shōkan! Appear now, my monsters!" Three monsters flew down.

"Wisdom-Eye Magician! Entermate Skullcrobat Joker!"

"And from my hand! Tuner monster, Speedroid Tri-Eyed Dice!"

 **Speedroid Tri-Eyed Dice** WIND/Machine/Tuner/Effect/LV3/300/ **1500**

For the first time in the duel, Reiji was legitimately surprised.

"WHAT?! That card?!" Yusei wondered.

"Yugo…" Aki turned to the D-Wheeler. "You… gave it to Yuya?!" Yugo nodded, smiling.

"Watch this Akaba Reiji!" Yuya said, pointing at the President of LDS. "This is my new power! The power I got from Yugo! I, using the Level 4 Wisdom-Eye Magician and Level 3 Speedroid Tri-Eyed Dice, Tuning!"

"Come out from the raging galaxy, and rain down justice to the worthy!" A stream of light erupted.

"Synchro Shōkan! Appear now Level 7!" A new dragon flew out from the rings. It had blue skin, some red armor on its claws and body, it had red and blue eyes. Right after coming out, a meteor exploded, sending debris flying everywhere and flame burning.

"Odd-Eyes Meteorburst Dragon!"

 **Odd-Eyes Meteorburst Dragon** FIRE/Dragon/Synchro/Effect/LV7/ **2500** /2000

All of the people present and in the control room looked at Yuya's new dragon in awe, some cannot hide their surprise.

"WOOHH!" Sawatari said.

"Fantastic!" Yugo cheered.

"Yuya's new dragon!" Yuzu said.

"An Odd-Eyes Synchro monster!" Gongenzaka completely lost himself.

"I could not believe it!" Himika exclaimed. "This annoying kid has managed to Synchro Summon?!"

"Now he can use all Extra Deck summon methods like the President!" Nakajima pointed out. Reira briefly looked surprised but otherwise he did not say anything.

"When it is Synchro Summoned, it can special summon a monster from the Pendulum Zone!" The dragon created multiple small meteors that crashed the transparent tube Creation Magician was floating, allowing it to fly out.

 **Creation Magician** DARK/Magician/Pendulum/Effect/LV4/Scale 8/ **500** /1500

"What the?! What are you doing Yuya?" Sawatari asked. "It only has 500 ATK!"

"Resonate Magician's effect! All Synchro monsters gain 1000 ATK!"

 **Odd-Eyes Meteorburst Dragon** ATK 2500 - 3500

"And then Creation Magician's effect activates! It copies Meteorburst Dragon's ATK!"

 **Creation Magician** ATK 500 - 3500

"Resonate Magician's Pendulum effect activates! By returning Skullcrobat Joker to my hand…" Yuya took the card back. "Caesar Ragnarok's effect is negated!" The monster fired a green energy stream at the oblivion king, draning its colors.

"Yoss! Caesar Ragnarok's ATK is returned to normal!" Gongenzaka noted.

 **DDD Wave Oblivion King Caesar Ragnarok** ATK 6200 - 3200

"And then I normal summon Entermate Skullcrobat Joker again!" The joker showed up once more.

"Its effect allows me to add Synchronize Magician to my hand. And I will set it in the Pendulum Scale!"

"Battle!" Yuya declared. "Odd-Eyes Meteorburst Dragon, attack Caesar Ragnarok!" Instead of generating energy to its mouth, the red dragon materialized several fire balls and flew them at the demonic king.

"Don't you forget Caesar Ragnarok's effect Yuya?!" Yuto reminded the boy. Yuya did not respond, instead waiting on Reiji.

" _Strange…"_ Reiji noticed it as well, but decided to do it anyway. "Caesar Ragnarok's monster eff-"

"Useless!" Yuya suddenly acted. "During the Battle Phase, Meteorburst's effect disallows you from activating any monster effects!"

"WHAT?!" Reiji gasped.

"Nice Yuya!" Yugo cheered. "Now Reiji cannot activate Caesar Ragnarok's effect to equip monsters anymore!"

"Tsk!" Reiji clicked his tongue before waving at his set card. "Reverse Card open! Covenant with the Great Devil!" The meteors hit the barrier formed by the trap.

"What the…"

"It negates the attack and return DD Necro Slime to my grave." Reiji said.

"But I still have Creation Magician to attack! Go now!" The female monster readied its bow. It fired an arrow at Caesar Ragnarok, destroying it.

 **Reiji** : 1900 - 1600 [2]

"Synchronize Magician's Pendulum Effect activates! At the end of the Battle Phase, since a Synchro monster destroys one opponent's monster by battle, I can draw a card." Yuya drew one card and looked at it.

"Also, I can target Odd-Eyes Meteorburst Dragon and gain LP equal to its original ATK!" The monster waved its staff at the red dragon, generating red dust and raining it down on Yuya.

 **Yuya** : 600 - 3100 [1]

"I set down a card and end my turn here. At this moment, Creation Magician's ATK returns to normal."

 **Creation Magician** ATK 3500 - 500

"Dammit… Yuya is back at a disadvantage again!" Sawatari noted.

"Don't you believe in your friend?" Yuzu berated him.

"I do. But you gotta admit he was in a bad situation now. Whenever Reiji gets a turn, he will crush his opponent with his high-powered monsters. I don't know if Yuya can get through. Besides, you need to admit that Yuya did become hypocritical." He looked at Yugo, who froze briefly but nodded in approval.

"He's being hurt inside after all what he went through. About the duel, he may have a chance… The card I gave him this morning…"

"I congratulate you Yuya. Really." Reiji said. "Now you have mastered Synchro Summon, we are in the same league now. The only thing that can decide who win this duel now is who is more skillful."

"Stop that nonsense! Continue dueling!"

"It's nice that the power to Synchro Summon came from Yugo, the Pawn of Fusion as Kurosaki said. He definitely had dueled you that night right?"

"What?!" Yuya gasped.

"You forgive him and use his power, but not the same for Yuto, Ruri and Shun?" Reiji continued, Yuya became angry but he could not argue. Everything he said was true.

"As I said earlier, such unstable feelings will not be enough to win in this duel, not even in a battlefield! Now is my turn…"

"Watashi no turn…" Reiji drew his card.

"During my Standby Phase, Galiliei's Pendulum Scale increases from 1 to 3." The number rose up from 1 to 3. "And Great Devil will force me to take 1000 damage." A small hole appeared on Reiji's chest, draining energy from him. He held the spot in pain.

 **Reiji** : 1600 - 600 [3]

"First off, I activate the Continuous Magic, Covenant with the Hellgate!" The card materialized and shone up. "With its effect, I add DD Lamia from the Deck to my hand." Reiji revealed the added card.

"After that, I use the Scale 10 DD Magical Savant Kepler to set the Pendulum Scale again!"

"With this, I can summon monsters with Levels between 4 and 9! Grand power which shakes my very soul! Arise within me again and give birth to a new light that rends the darkness!"

"Pendulum Shōkan! Be reborn!" Three monsters appeared.

"DD Magical Savant Corpenicus! And from my hand, DD Rebel King Leonidas and Tuner monster, DD Lamia!"

 **DD Rebel King Leonidas** DARK/Demon/Pendulum/Effect/LV7/Scale 3/ **2600** /1200

 **DD Lamia** DARK/Demon/Tuner/Effect/LV1/100/ **1900**

"Tuner monster!" Aki exclaimed.

"Once again, Corpenicus allows me to send a DD monster from my Deck to the grave." Reiji looked at his Deck.

" _I need to be careful…"_ He sent one card, one important card.

"DD Necro Slime's graveyard effect! By banishing it and Temujin, I can perform a Fusion Summon!"

"Raging conqueror, join yourself with the dark swirl and be born into a new king! Yūgō Shōkan!"

"Appear now! Level 7! DDD Oracle King d'Arc!"

 **DDD Oracle King d'Arc** DARK/Demon/Fusion/Effect/LV7/ **2800** /2000

"Pendulum-Fusion…" Shun commented. Thanks to Ruri and Yuto, he did not flinch at the sight of Fusion anymore, at least for now.

"And now, Level 7 DDD Rebel King Leonidas and Level 1 Tuning!" A Synchro ring from Lamia swept over the rebel king, changing it into seven stars.

"Climb over the corpses of heroes, carrying your bloodstained blade! Synchro Shōkan! Be born! Level 8! DDD Hexblood King Siegfried!"

 **DDD Hexblood King Siegfried** DARK/Demon/Synchro/Effect/LV8/ **2800** /2200

"Another Synchro monster of Akaba Reiji…" Yuzu said.

"It's a Level 8 monster, it must have strong effects…" Yusei speculated.

"Get ready Yuya!" Reiji warned. "Abyss Ragnarok's monster effect! By tributing Corpenicus again, your Odd-Eyes Meteorburst Dragon is banished!"

"Not again!" Yuya countered. "Thanks to Resonate Magician's effect, my Synchro monsters cannot be targeted for your card effects!"

"Yoss! Meteorburst is saved!" Gongenzaka said.

Reiji quickly proved it to be false. "DDD Hexblood King Siegfried's monster effect activates! It negates a Magic or Trap card's effect until the next Standby Phase!"

"What?!"

"Of course I will choose Resonate Magician!" The monster shook uncontrollably before losing its colors. The string hit the dragon's head and made it disappear.

"Shit!" Yuya expressed his anger.

"Battle!" Reiji declared. "I order DDD Oracle King d'Arc to attack Creation Magician! Oracle Charge!" The female monster held its sword in a thrusting position before charging at the magician, impaling it. Yuya's only monster yelled in pain before exploding.

 **Yuya** : 3100 - 800 [0]

"This is the end! Siegfreid, attack Entermate Skullcrobat Joker!"

When the sword was near the joker, a pyramid-like toy suddenly appeared, stopping the attack.

"What?!" Yuto gasped. "Is that…" He turned to Yugo, who smiled.

"Yes. I banished Speedroid Tri-Eyed Dice to negate this attack." Yuya turned to Yuto. "Thank you Yugo. Your card is very useful!"

"No problem."

"Not bad. Thanks to the power Yugo gave to you, you managed to avoid losing this duel, but don't forget I still have Abyss Ragnarok!" The monster hit the joker, destroying it. Yuya feel down hard from the stairs, causing Yuzu to yell his name in distress.

 **Yuya** : 800 - 400 [0]

"Yuya!" Yuzu immediately ran to him but Yuya yelled.

"STOP!"

"But… Yuya…"

"This is my duel with Akaba Reiji! No one can interfere! Even you cannot! Hiragi Yuzu! If you respect my wishes, please stay OUT!" He did not look at Yuzu, only fixing his eyes on Reiji.

Yuzu became shocked at her friend's fierce determination. This was probably the first time she had seen him this angry. She was about to argue but she quickly understood her friend.

"Okay Yuya… I understand… Now win the duel. And if you do not…" She looked down, her bangs covering her eyes before looking at her best friend again.

"I will kill you for not being manly enough…"

The sharp words she spoke caused the rest of the teenagers to jot with cold sweat. Instead Yuya just smirked.

"Got it…"

Yuzu then looked at Reiji angrily before walking back to the bridge.

Reiji continued the duel. "I end my turn-"

"Quick-Play Magic activate!" Yuya suddenly interrupted.

"What?"

"Wavering Eyes!" Numerous eyes appeared, firing red beams at all the cards in the Pendulum Zones, destroying them. "By destroying all cards in the Pendulum Zones, I can apply the number of effects equal to the number of cards destroyed!"

"There are four cards destroyed so…" Ruri realized.

"I can activate four effects! One card: inflict 500 damage to my opponent!" Reiji was hit by another red beam, but d'Arc suddenly absorbed it.

 **Reiji** : 1600 - 2100 [0]

"What happened?!" Yuya wondered.

"d'Arc effects changes any effect damage to me to LP gain." He revealed.

"Whatever. But then, two cards: I can add a Pendulum monster to my hand from the Deck."

"Three cards: I can banish your Siegfried!" The eyes aimed at the monster with a red cape and blasted it, making it disappear.

"Good! Now he has no way to prevent Yuya from using Magic, Trap or Pendulum Effects anymore!" Yuto said.

"Finally, four cards: I can add another Wavering Eyes to my hand. Which means if you dare to set the Pendulum Scale again, I will stop it immediately. Ore no… TURN!" Yuya drew his card with much force.

"Wavering Eyes… It's bad…" Yuzu suddenly whispered.

"What?" Ruri asked.

"He used a card to prevent his opponent from Pendulum Summon. It's not his playstyle at all…"

"But don't you look at him? He's dead serious right now, he would not leave Reiji a chance if he can. And I guess he will not go easy on me later on…"

"Be ready Reiji! I have drawn the card I needed!"

"Try." Was only Reiji's answer.

"I, using the Scale 3 Mystic-Eye Magician and Scale 8 Ascending Magician, Pendulum Scale setting!"

"With this, multiple monster whose Levels are from 4 and 7 can be summoned at the same time!"

"Swing for the final time, Pendulum of the Soul!" Yuya chanted. "Draw an arc across the nether! Pendulum Shōkan!"

"Appear now! My monsters!" Three monsters flew down.

"Wisdom-Eye Magician! Entermate Skullcrobat Joker! And Creation Magician!"

"What? Yuya? You set those monsters in Defense Position?! Why?!" Yugo thought out loud.

"What are you doing Yuya?" Yuzu wondered.

"You will know later. First off, I activate Mystic-Eye Magician's Pendulum Effect! From the Extra Deck, I special summon Odd-Eyes Absolute Dragon and attach Stargazer Magician as an Xyz material!" The monster fired a blast at Yuya's Duel Disk, white light erupted. Later, Yuya's first Xyz monster appeared.

"OHHH! That is Yuya's first Xyz monster in his first duel against Reiji!" Gongenzaka pointed out.

"So nostalgic… you want to beat me with that dragon Yuya?" Reiji asked.

"Sadly the monster summoned by this effect cannot attack or activate its effects though. But! Ascending Magician's Pendulum Effect activates!" The monster pointed its staff upwards, creating a portal.

"Look at this Reiji! This is the power and feeling I have taken from Yuto! A person whose friends you manipulated! I, using the Rank 7 Odd-Eyes Absolute Dragon, Overlay!" The ice dragon flew up to the portal, causing a huge explosion. Reiji smirked.

"WHAT?!" Everyone gasped.

"Don't tell me…!" Shun whispered.

"Dragon lord from the mystic region, break the ice condemning you and take vengeance to the ones sealing you away!"

"Rank-Up Xyz Change!" From the center of the explosion, a large ice glacier rose up.

"Appear now! Rank 8!" The glacier exploded, scattering everywhere, cooling the lava below somewhat. Inside it, a dragon opened its icy wings, revealing itself. The new dragon had lost all of the blue that remained on Absolute, instead its body was completely white, its horn was longer and pointier and its wings were larger and thicker, looking like real mythical wings rather than just four long sticks. It bended its arms and powerfully opened them, roaring at the sky. Its blue and red eyes glowed brightly, signaling that it would soon take revenge on the planet Earth for putting it in ice for nearly eternity.

"Odd-Eyes Freezing Dragon!"

 **Odd-Eyes Freezing Dragon** DARK/Dragon/Xyz/Effect/R8/ **3000** /2800

All of the people besides Reiji froze completely, unable to grasp the bizarre situation. Reiji opened his hand, placing it so that Yuya's Rank-Up monster seemed to be standing gently in his palm. He had detected a strange source of energy in the control room and it was from Yuya. The method was…

" _Rank-Up Xyz Change…"_

"This is it…" He gave a slasher smile. "What I want to see!"

"After this card is Xyz Summoned using an "Odd-Eyes" Xyz monster as an material, until the end of this turn it negates the effects of all other face-up cards on the field, also they cannot be activated as well! Absolute Zero Freezing!" The ice dragon gave a loud roar before firing multiple ice needles from its mouth, hitting all other cards repeatedly.

 **Odd-Eyes Freezing Dragon** ATK 3000 - 5700

"ATK 5700!" Yuzu said in joy.

"Now Yuya will win!"

"Reiji…" Yuya whispered before roaring. "ARE YOU READY TO PAY FOR YOUR SINS?!"

"In the name of the fallen, I will deliver their justice! BATTLE!" The dragon extended its wings, taking flight.

"Odd-Eyes Freezing Dragon, attack DDD Oracle King d'Arc!" The dragon flew at its target.

"At this moment, I activate Odd-Eyes Freezing Dragon's other effect! By detaching an Overlay Unit, it gains ATK equal to the ATK of the monster it is battling!"

"Yuya's really lost control of himself now!" Dennis commented.

 **Odd-Eyes Freezing Dragon** ATK 5700 - 8500 (There are 9 cards on the field)

"ATK… 8500…!" Ruri muttered in shock. Yuya surely was going overboard. She wondered what would happen to her if she had to duel him again…

"Now you will lose! AKABA REIJI!" Yuya roared. A huge explosion happened, affecting the entire field, fire appearing from everywhere.

Reiji gasped loudly…

The thick smoke took a very long time to disperse. Everyone looked patiently at it.

Yuya slowly walked to the stairs again, intending on seeing the downed and pathetic from of a President who immorally let teenagers die.

Suddenly, Abyss Ragnarok fired multiple strings near Yuya, forcing him to back off.

Then, Reiji was revealed to be standing on top of it, adjusting his glasses as usual, although he was brushed greatly.

 **Reiji** : 10600 - 4900 [0]

"HUHHH! What…?! What the hell?! How did you…" Yuya muttered.

"You are clearly very strong. I did not expect you to improve this quickly… But it is still not enough!" Reiji then revealed the card.

"DD Worm…!"

"Right. During my last turn, with the effect of Corpenicus, I sent DD Worm to my graveyard. When you declare an attack on a "DD" monster you control, I can banish it from my graveyard to increase my LP equal to Freezing Dragon's ATK."

…

…

 _Reiji quickly took out DD Worm and pointed it forward, the explosion from the battle knocked him back extremely hard, and if not for Abyss Ragnarok holding him at the right moment, he would hit his neck on the pillar behind._

 _ **Reiji**_ _: 2100 - 10600 [0]_

…

…

"If there is nothing more you can do, finish your turn." Reiji's voice was now cold, clearly filled with rage, even if only for a small amount.

"Dammit!" Yuya cursed. "I set down a card. Turn end…"

 **Odd-Eyes Freezing Dragon** ATK 8500 - 5700 - 3000

"Watashi no turn… DRAW!" Reiji looked at his card. "I take 2000 damage from the Covenants."

 **Reiji** : 4900 - 2900 [1]

"You have evolved even more, faster than what I expected. Rank-Up Xyz Change… such a powerful monster…"

Yuya instantly realized what Reiji was saying. "Don't… don't tell me…!"

"Then let me return the favor! Continuous Magic, Covenant with the Despair Dimension!" The depressing card image made the Xyz survivors feel cold sweat again.

"Is that…" Selena whispered.

"Yep. Too little, but enough to tell you what Academia has caused." Ruri said.

"If you don't know, this is the card I have used during the duel with Tsukumo Yuma the betrayer when he and Darkness attacked LDS." Reiji informed Yuto, Shun and Ruri, who gasped. Yuzu did as well.

"With its effects, I summon back DDD Wave King Caesar, and now, Rank 4 Wave King Caesar, Overlay!"

"No! Can't be!" Shun gasped.

"Reiji can do it too?!" Yuto said in disbelief.

"Hero of legends, with your profound justice, pierce through all things! Rank-Up Xyz Change! Descend! Rank 5! DDD Marksman King Tell!"

 **DDD Marksman King Tell** DARK/Demon/Xyz/Effect/R5/ **2300** /2000

"A Rank-Up Xyz Change to a Rank 5 monster!" Gongenzaka said.

"But it only has 2300 ATK, how could it-" Yuzu wondered.

"No." Selena said. "It's over…"

"Since I take effect damage from "Covenant" cards this turn, I can detach an Overlay Unit form Tell…" An Overlay Unit went into the bowgun. "To reduce an opposing monster's ATK by 1000, and inflict 1000 damage!"

"What?!" Yuya gasped. "Ascending Magician prevents Freezing Dragon from being targeted by card effects… but…"

"Right. Other monsters you control can. It was a mistake of you to summon those monsters Sakaki Yuya. If you have not wanted to defeat me with that overbearing power, you would still have a chance to survive this turn." Reiji mocked Yuya for this fatal mistake.

"Sa… Tell! Deliver the end of this duel to the loser!"

"PIERCING ARROW!" The energy arrow pierced through the joker, and then it exploded, sending the screaming Yuya flying. He was crashed down on the ground painfully.

 **Entermate Skullcrobat Joker** ATK 1800 - 800

 **Yuya** : 400 - 0 [0]

The Heartland field disappeared, the streets and buildings of Maiami City returned.

"Yuya…" Yuzu whispered sadly.

"Has…" Gongenzaka.

"Lost…" Sawatari.

Yuzu quickly ran to her best friend's side and helped him up. He did so without looking at her, too shameful for losing.

Reiji walked near Yuya whose back was facing him.

"Clearly you are still too weak. This is not enough to defeat Academia… or even entertain people."

Yuya clenched his teeth at that, nearly wanting to punch Akaba Reiji's perfect teeth if not for Yuzu holding him back.

"But you have potential, so does everyone after the Battle Royale. With Pendulum Summon, your power have exceeded that of LDS Top Team. That's why I chose you to be Lancers, to go across dimensions together!"

"Across dimensions?!" Gongenzaka wondered.

Reiji closed his eyes, confirming what he said. The President then walked off, not forgetting to check on Nakajima.

"The data of the Duel?"

"Everything has been recorded!"

"Good…"

Reiji stopped.

"Sakaki Yuya…"

He did not respond.

"Remember what I told you… you can quit Lancers if you want…"

"And let the lives of other people in the remaining three dimensions be destroyed…"

With that he finally walked away, returning to the partially destroyed LDS building.

Yuzu tried to shake Yuya back to reality. "Yuya…"

The boy in question stared into a distance, before clenching his left fist and punching the ground hard, blood dripping from his palm.

"DAMMITTTTTTTTTT!"

...

...

...

* * *

The moment they got out of the tunnel, they were met with Obelisk Force and the leader of Academia.

"Akaba… Leo…" Yusho whispered his former friend's name. The cold and collected Professor simply looked at them.

"Hello old friend…" Leo "greeted" him. "I completely did not expect to see you again like this…"

He waved his hand, several Obelisk Force members captured Rin, Asuka and Ryo, leaving Yusho alone. They were then brought to the other bank near Leo.

"NO! Let me go!" Rin yelled. She got feared of this fortress and she definitely did not want to be captured again.

"Dammit Leo! Let them go! They are not involved in our business!" Yusho said.

"First off, ever since they escaped and joined with you, they are involved. Second, I don't want to capture them… yet."

"Yet?" Asuka said. "What do you mean?"

"Look around us. You have destroyed the walkway behind you, the manhole you used to infiltrate in was sealed. Just look below."

True to the Professor's words, the manhole cover below them was in its place again.

"And the only way to get outta here was to run out of this tunnel which was also filled with Obelisk Force over there. So in short, you are all trapped in here with us."

"So what are you going to do with us Leo?" Yusho asked. "Why don't you just throw us in prison already?"

"Throw you in prison?" Leo chuckled. "To hell I would do it! You will surely find a way to escape this place again just like Rin. No… I want to end this problem right now!"

Right after that, Leo fired a Duel Anchor at Yusho's Duel Disk, but unlike the usual red, its color was purple. He then did something with his Duel Disk that made the anchor extend to two. Two Obelisk Force attached them to Asuka and Ryo's Duel Disks.

"What is this?" Yusho wondered.

Leo explained. "It's a Duel Anchor, but a different one. I have modified it so that each time you take damage, you, Asuka and Ryo will receive an electric shock."

"WHAT?! Electric shock?" Asuka gasped.

"And if your LP goes 0, you will be automatically carded along with them."

"You… you crazy?" Yusho said in disbelief. "Release them! Right now Leo! As your friend, I force you to do it NOW! Don't bring them in our bullshit problem anymore!"

"He's right!" Rin spoke up. "I know you want to do something for me, which is why my prison room is actually pretty nice and you did not place that Duel Anchor on my Duel Disk! If you want to capture someone, capture me, not them! Release Asuka-san, Ryo-san and Yusho-san now!"

Ignoring Rin's pleading, Yusho turned to his former friend. "After a Duel Anchor is set, no one can interfere. Only by dueling can this be released. So shall we duel Yusho? In the Entertainment style you pioneered?"

"To hell with it!" Yusho rebuked. "This is not Entertainment! This is torture!"

"Whatever you think. Call it my Entertainment if you wish." Leo calmly said before activating his Duel Disk.

"You have gone too far Leo… What would your son think of you…?" Yusho sadly said before activating his own as well. He was now in a tight situation: Rin was about to be captured, Asuka and Ryo were about to be carded and himself would be as well is he lost. Obelisk Force surrounded him so he could not use violence to get out of the tunnel. He needed to form a plan quickly…

 **DUEL!**

 **Sakaki Yusho** : 4000 [5]

 **Akaba Leo** : 4000 [5]

* * *

"I give you the privilege of taking the first turn." Leo said.

"Privilege? Are you kidding? _Professor_?" Ryo growled but was stopped by a punch to his stomach. He knew letting your opponent take the first turn could be a good strategy because they would be forced to start with only five cards in their hand and there are Decks that could take advantage of going second. His is an example.

"Thanks, for that privilege." Yusho "thanked" Leo in a respectful voice, although disgust was visible in the first word. "From my hand, I normal summon Entermate Revue Dancer!" Yusho slapped down a card from his hand to the blade, in front of him a

 **Entermate Revue Dancer** LIGHT/Magician/Effect/LV3/ **800** /1000

"And then Continuous Magic, Bubble Barrier activate!" As soon as the image of the card showed up, multiple bubbles flew out and surrounded the cute monster Yusho had.

"With this card's effect-"

"Your Entermate monsters can once per turn negate an attack. I knew it so well buddy." Leo rudely cut him off. Yusho did not take it as an insult though.

"You know my Deck well, but can you predict my moves when I have also upgraded myself too?" Yusho asked him before setting down a card.

"Hm! If there is one thing I cannot predict about you, it would be that you were the person who was behind Hell Kaiser's miraculous escape." Leo said, looking down at the shocked Ryo.

"What?! You know?"

"Hohoho! Admit it immediately? I expect you to deny it."

"How do you know I helped him escape Leo?" Yusho asked.

"At first I did not expect but…"

…

…

 _It was six months ago, back in the south end of the island. Ryo and his brother Sho voiced up their denial to continue working with Academia. They committed horrordeous crimes to the Xyz dimension and it came back to haunt them during their sleeps. They were unable to deny their conscience anymore and they decided to rebel. Unfortunately Academia found out and sent Apollo and Yuri to intercept._

" _Battle! Sun Protector, direct attack that traitor!" The monster raised its staff and struck electricity at Sho, making him yell in pain and defeat._

" _SHO!" Ryo yelled._

 _ **Marufuji Sho**_ _: 1800 - 0 [2]_

 _Ryo ran to his younger brother but a bright purple light engulfed him. Sho disappeared before Ryo could cradle him one last time._

 _He dropped down on his knees, unable to say anything._

 _Apollo pulled out a card with the image of Sho, mocking him. "See kid… this is the result of betraying us… now your brother will join you as well…"_

 _Yuri quickly declared the final attack. "Battle! Starve Venom Fusion Dragon, attack Cyber Dragon Infinity!" The dragon charged energy on its mouth and blasted it at the machine dragon, destroying it. Ryo was sent flying backward, stopping near the edge._

 _ **Marufuji Ryo**_ _: 700 - 0 [0]_

 _Ryo tried his best to regain consciousness as Yuri approached him, Duel Disk at the ready._

" _Such good potential wasted… you shouldn't have done this…"_

" _Goodbye… Hell Kaiser…" Yuri clicked his Duel Disk, purple light erupted._

 _Moments later, a card got pulled out from his Duel Disk, the image of a calm Kaiser appeared._

" _Mission accomplished Professor." Yuri reported._

" _Good job Yuri." He praised back, taking the two cards. "Two brothers… together in death… how pity…"_

 _What they did not know however, Ryo was being handled by Entermate Sky Magician._

 _Ryo tried to shrug the monster off to break free, but suddenly a screen appeared on its face._

 _A black, static one._

" _Relax. I am here to save you."_

…

…

"Later I found out that the card did not have any life energy after re-reading it. There is only one person I know who can do this magic trick."

"Yusho-sensei…" Asuka concluded.

"Yep." Yusho confirmed. "I used a card to create a dummy that resembled Ryo and saved him at the right moment."

"Then when Yuri was about to card him, Sky Magician dove in from below and caught him. Am I right?"

The pioneer of Entertainment Dueling remained quiet.

"Such a good trick I admit. I only noticed something wrong later when I checked the camera feed. You're just full of surprises like always buddy."

"All thanks to Real Solid Vision." Yusho talked. "The result of your invention. I am sad however that you use it for military applications, not for something more beautiful!"

"Thanks to Real Solid Vision, I could create Entertainment Dueling, bringing Duels to the next level! And that, my friend, is what Real Solid Vision would be used on. Not this! Not to cause genocide!"

"Yusho-sensei…" Ryo muttered.

"So tell me Leo! Why did you do this! Why did you invade the Xyz dimension?!" He raised his voice, demanding an answer from his former friend.

Leo chuckled. "Now is no time to talk about it. Don't forget that your student's lives are at risk."

"Watashi no turn…" Leo drew a card. "Draw!"

Yusho ticked his tongue.

"From my hand, I discard a "Spirit Tech" monster to special summon Spirit Tech - Proud Soldier!" From Leo's Duel Disk, a monster flew out. It wore a bright white armor, it wielded a white sword, it had electric aura around it.

 **Spirit Tech - Proud Solider** LIGHT/Machine/Effect/LV4/ **1800** /300

"Then its effect activates! I can add a "Spirit Crystal" card to my hand." Leo took out a card that got pulled out from his Deck and showed it to Yusho.

"We have known each other very well Yusho. I guess this monster will not surprise you one bit right?" Leo slapped down the added card. "I normal summon Spirit Crystal - Sylphid Core!" A small sphere with four smaller green orbs around and a green center appeared.

 **Spirit Crystal - Sylphid Core** WIND/Machine/Effect/LV2/ **0** /0

"Sylphid Core's monster effect activates!" Leo declared, Yusho hardened his face. "Once per turn, it targets a monster you control and destroy it with an additional 800 damage!"

"Trap Card open!" Yusho quickly flipped his card. "Entermate Sky Ring! The effect is negated!" Revue Dancer reflected the blast, making it hit the ceiling instead.

"Good! Yusho-sensei has protected his monster!" Asuka smiled, but Leo simply smirked.

"What's so funny?"

"I still have another thing to do. Proud Soldier's effect! By halving its ATK, Sylphid Core can use its effects twice!"

 **Spirit Tech - Proud Solider** ATK 1800 - 900

Bubble Barrier exploded, Yusho, Asuka and Ryo all got shocked by electricity from the purple Duel Anchor. They yelled in pain and all dropped down to the ground.

 **Yusho** : 4000 - 3200 [2]

"Asuka! Ryo!" Yusho called of his students although he was in pain.

"Everyone!" Rin gasped. She shook Asuka and Ryo, relieved to find them okay. "They're fine Yusho-san!"

"Yeah… don't worry Yusho… san…" Asuka assured her teacher.

"Don't worry…?" Leo said. "I guess you will worry soon. Battle!"

"Spirit Tech - Proud Solder, attack Entermate Revue Dancer!" The monster lunged forward and drove its sword through Yusho's only monster, slicing it into two. It then exploded and everyone connected by the anchor except Leo was shocked painfully again.

 **Yusho** : 3200 - 3100 [2]

"I set down two cards and end my turn. At this moment Proud Soldier's ATK returns to normal." The General of Academia ended his turn.

 **Spirit Tech - Proud Solider** ATK 900 - 1800

" _This duel is no longer a duel anymore…"_ Rin thought. _"It is… a torture!"_

" _With the effect of Spirit Crystal monsters, Akaba Leo can destroy cards and inflict damage and due to the anchor it will cause an electric shock… What should I do… Maybe I should…"_ She was about to surrender herself.

"Don't think about it Rin…" Yusho muttered between breath intakes. "I… will find a way to get you and my students… out of here…" He fiercely looked at the conflicted blue-haired girl. "Don't ruin your life when the chance to escape is near…"

"Yusho…" Rin muttered in surprise.

"Yes Rin…" Asuka said as well. "Believe in him. We trust him with our life for a reason. He never abandons people…"

"He will win. I can promise that." Ryo reaffirmed even more.

"But how can you even win?" An Obelisk Force asked cockily. "The Professor is the strongest Duelist in Academia. You have no chance to escape! And say if you win somehow, how can you escape us-"

"SHUT UP!" The normally stoic Professor gave a roar at his suboraggates, scaring the shit out of them.

"Good. Now continue Yusho, try to squirm under my grasp if you can buddy."

"Watashi… no… turn." Yusho slowly started his turn due to the pain. "Draw!"

" _Good!"_ He gasped in his mind. Combining with the two cards he had

"Since I control no monsters, I special summon Entermate Sky Assistant!" Coming out of the light bubble was a female human monster. It wore a white shirt with short red skirts and long fishnet socks.

 **Entermate Sky Assistant** LIGHT/Magician/Effect/LV4/ **1700** /800

" _Oh… he got that monster…"_ Leo thought. _"Interesting…"_

"With its effect, I can add a "Magician" Continuous Magic Card to my hand." Yusho added one card. Leo did not bother to look at the card since he knew his friend's strategy pretty well. Yusho would try to bring out Entermate Sky Magician as soon as possible, also he would try to gather as much Continuous Magic Cards to help with its effects. Whatever the card was, he had counters to it. Besides, he had home advantage as well, Yusho would not recklessly try to find a way to rescue the three captives.

"And then I normal summon Entermate Sky Pupil!" A child wearing circus costume and holding two rings appeared.

 **Entermate Sky Pupil** LIGHT/Magician/Effect/LV3/ **800** /800

"Entermate Sky Pupil…?" Leo muttered. "Clearly you don't have Sky Magician in your hand do you?"

Without even looking at his hand, Yusho knew what Leo said was right. Because he had another plan in his mind now…

…

…

"Got caught?" Leo mocked. "That is your ace monster. If you cannot have it in your hand then you will lose the duel."

Yusho remained quiet for a while. This was surely a big gamble that he must try to get Rin and his students out safely.

"Battle!" He finally declared. "Entermate Sky Pupil, attack Spirit Crystal - Sylphid Core!" The monster flew up, ready to deliver a kick at the sphere.

"At this moment, since I control another "Entermate" monster, Sky Pupil can destroy Sylphid Core without battling!"

"Too reckless buddy!" Leo said before showing a card in his hand. "Spirit Tech - Calvary's effect activates! By discarding it, Sky Pupil's effect is negated and it is destroyed!" A group of soldiers came out from Leo's side of field and tried to destroy the kid.

"Too bad I did not activate any set cards. Your Magician's Left Hand or Right Hand you have added earlier is now useless Yusho!"

"Is that really so?" Yusho smirked, surprising everyone.

"What?!"

"Sky Assistant's effect!" Yusho countered. "I immediately activate Magician's Monocle form my hand!" The card materialized. A small circular glass appeared and blasted at Leo's reinforcements, destroying it.

"Yusho-sensei!" Asuka smiled, so did Ryo and Rin.

"Got caught off guard Leo." Yusho confidently said.

Leo ticked his teeth. "So you have added Magician's Monocle earlier. Good thinking in predicting buddy. But don't forget I still have two set cards!"

He waved his hand, a card flipped up. "Trap Card, Spirit Tech - Attack Break! The attack is negated and you take 800 damage!" Sylphid Core absorbed the energy of the trap and created a small hurricane at Sky Pupil, hitting it.

"Dammit!" Ryo gasped.

"Yusho-sensei!"

Suddenly fire surrounded the hurricane, neutralizing it.

Leo looked on in shock, as did the Obelisk Force. "What the… what did you do Yusho?"

"It's simple…" Yusho said. Leo looked at his right and realized what he meant. A male monster wielding a fire ring appeared.

 **Entermate Fire Dancer** LIGHT/Magician/Effect/LV4/ **1600** /1200

"Nice!" Rin said.

"When a card effect is activated, I can special summon Entermate Fire Dancer. It negates the resolution of that card effect and destroy it." The monster threw its ring life a boomerang at the trap, making it disintegrate. It then swiftly caught the ring back.

"Then I can special summon another "Entermate" monster from my Deck!" Yusho said. He pulled out a card.

"Sa, everyone… It's high time I entertained all of you!" Yusho hammed up. Leo readied himself.

"Ladies and Gentlemen!" Yusho did a welcome pose. Since Academia controlled the Real Solid Vision, he could not make the lightning focus on him like usual, but this was enough to distract them. Some Obelisk Force widened their mouths in bewilderment even though they were trained not to. They found Yusho's behavior ridiculous.

"Yusho-sensei!" Ryo muttered, so did Asuka. The latter instantly got reminded of that day, when she was rescued from the guards by the one and only Sakaki Yusho.

"Today, I am to bring all of you to the world of Entertainment Dueling! The Dueling I am proud to be its creator! Thanks to the combined efforts of my entrusted magician and interesting cards over here, I can happily announce to all of you that I am about to bring out the main star of the show today!"

Leo did not respond, he was too familiar to this scene. He briefly remembered that time though.

"With the effect of Entermate Fire Dancer, I will special summon Entermate Sky Magician!" Yusho slapped down the card, an elegant monster appeared. The large set of wings behind its back was the main focus of this monster, besides, it also wore a white suit with a black spade shape on the front, four reddish pink diamond orbs on the shoulder plates and on its long teal scarf tied on its hips. In addition, it held four magician rings tied together.

 **Entermate Sky Magician** LIGHT/Magician/Effect/LV7/ **2500** /2000

Yusho's signature monster then descended, allowing its master to climb on one of the rings.

"Sa! Feel the elegance of the main star!" The monster flew around the field, raining down sparking dust, lightning up the dark tunnel. Inspired by this, other monsters also joined in. Sky Pupil danced around as well, Fire Dancer conjured several balls from the ring and did the ball rider trick and Sky Assistant danced beautifully. All the time, Yusho was smiling powerfully, as if returning to his former job back in his hometown Maiami City. Everyone was in awe at the beautiful scene, the scene they had probably only watched for the first time, even Leo admired this as well since he had forgotten it for quite a while.

What they did not know though was Yusho was secretly doing something with his left hand, as if he was moving his fingers against his palm while pressing the muscle below the thumb. Ryo and Asuka knew what he wanted to do since the teacher gave them a quick look to tell them what he would do.

Yusho continued doing circus trick for a short while, waiting for the right moment to stop.

A little bit…

A little longer… hope Akaba Leo would not find out…

Just nearly there…

Nearly there…

"AHHH!"

Leo suddenly yanked the Duel Anchor, making him lose balance and fall off.

"YUSHO-SENSEI!" The former Honor Student and Hell Kaiser yelled in distress.

Luckily, Sky Assistant and Sky Pupil caught him at the right moment, preventing him from hitting the bank.

"You asshole Akaba Leo!" Rin yelled. She broke free from Obelisk Force's grasp and attempted to punch Leo, only for him to throw her backwards with enough force so that two masked mooks behind would catch her.

"Dammit you bitch!" One of them growled while wiping his face. He delivered a punch.

"STOP!" Leo roared, scaring them again.

"Do it again and I will BATHE you and your family with your BLOOD!" This completely scared the masked son of bitches, Yusho, Asuka, Ryo and Rin cringed, they never saw Akaba Leo this angry and ruthless before.

Leo turned to Yusho, who got back again. "What are you doing Yusho? Buying yourself some time to catch us off guard? To allow Asuka and Ryo to try to do something stupid?"

"This is not going to work!" Leo said, his deep voice become heavier.

"It will…" Yusho smirked, earning a bewildered look from Leo.

"What?"

"It has already worked…!" Right after that, multiple energy beams fired in the tunnel from the entrance. Everyone crouched down for cover, three Obelisk Force quickly protected Leo. Yusho's monsters covered him, Rin and his students.

"Raise your hand now!" Yusho quickly yelled. He, Asuka and Ryo raised their Duel Disks high enough and pulled their Duel Disks so that the anchor was also raised as well. Yusho raised his left hand up, the beams concentrated at the energy anchor, breaking it after several shots.

Ryo grabbed Rin and together with Asuka regrouped with Yusho. They exchanged looks with the Professor before running off.

"Let's go!" They then began to run out of the cave.

"Stop them!" The Obelisk Force gave chase.

Yusho pulled his left fist close, revealing the ship that he hid earlier was coming closer to the cave. It had four Solid Vision cannons on the front that continued firing at the ceiling, causing debris to fall down, forcing Obelisk Force to fall back.

"Jump to the ship now!" Yusho, Asuka, Ryo and Rin quickly got in the ship. Ryo took control of it and began to drive back. Asuka pulled a different lever that made the cannons lower themselves, continued shooting at the cave. They hit the boats, destroying them.

"All right get out get out!" Ryo quickly turned the ship around and sped up, escaping Academia.

In the tunnel, Leo ordered his men. "Get a chopper in the air! Now!"

After a short while, a helicopter took off, giving chase to the boat.

"Ah great! A helicopter!" Ryo said. It started firing at the boat.

"What do we do now?!" Rin frantically asked.

"Let me do it!" Yusho quickly slapped down a card, summoning his trusty monster. "Handle it, Sky Magician!"

The magician of the sky held the rings by one hand and threw it with strong force at the helicopter. The pilot managed to change direction at the right moment but the rings still hit the blades, making it spin out of control. The soldiers hurriedly opened the doors and jumped down to the sea below. The helicopter fell down near them but luckily they were not harmed.

When they surfaced, the only thing they could see was that the ship was ver far away.

"HQ come in!" One of them reported.

"We have failed to capture them…"

* * *

"Finally, we're out…" Rin muttered, half-happy and half-worry. "We need to hide soon, Academia may be out looking for us."

"Don't worry, we are going to there." Asuka assured the girl. "All of the evidence of us were gone when we blew up the control room. The heat signatures will not help much, also expect me and Ryo, you two did not have any records in the residents database of Domino City or larger, the entire Fusion dimension."

The ship drove through the rivers of the floating city, reminiscent to that of Venice. One strange thing was no one knew how this city was formed, how the hell an Eastern country like Japan had built a city like this. Asuka heard that researchers had been trying to find out why a part of Domino City became a floating one but up to now there was still no result. Whatever that was the residents were content with the city they were living on. This special feature earned Domino City a reputation of "The Second Venice", allowing tourism to grow greatly, earning them a lot of money and fame in the process. Currently, it was early morning but there were several people already outside admiring the sunrise. Yusho, Ryo and Asuka had removed their diving suits to avoid suspicion

"It's beautiful…" Rin commented. Spending the first 16 years of her life in the slums prevented her from going very much. Even though she was now in a strange land, far away from home, far away from Yugo and her friends, she secretly thanked her predicament for allowing her to travel, giving her a chance to open her eyes to the large world that she never got a chance to explore earlier in her life.

"It is…" Ryo agreed. "This city is like Venice. We don't know how this place is like this, but we're fine with that. Ain't Japan in your dimension like this Rin?"

"No." Rin quickly answered. "It's horribly bad. The society is competition-based. The winner gets everything, the loser loses everything."

"Sounds like a bad place to live." Yusho said. "In all of the dimensions that I have traveled, I never went to the Synchro Dimension. I hope I get to go to that dimension someday… Maybe that place was not as annihilated as Xyz or secretly chaotic like Fusion I thought…" And Rin's words shattered his view completely.

"Sorry. I did not mean to." Rin apologized. "Maybe we all should not have known about the four dimensions…"

"Maybe…" Asuka said. "I have not been to Standard, Xyz or Synchro. It seems that only Standard is good enough."

"Yeah." Yusho muttered. "But not for me."

Rin wondered, noticing Yusho trailing off. "What do you mean?"

"To stop this war, I traveled between dimensions three years ago, leaving my poor wife and kid at home. It was even during the most important match in my life as well… How can I be so idiotic…" At this, tears began to form in the Entertainment Dueling pioneer's eyes.

Everyone remained silent. Each one of them in the ship had some sort of dark past that they either feared to face or return to again.

They eventually went inside the tunnel, the one that people would usually find in action films.

"We are getting close."

The ship stopped after taking a left turn. They got off the ship and climbed to the step. Several teenagers were standing there waiting for them.

"Yusho-sensei!"

"Good to see you back!"

"Thank you everyone." Yusho smiled back.

"Hello Asuka, Ryo! Nice to see you two as well!"

"Thanks." Ryo said.

"Is this the girl?" The male student pointed at Rin.

"Yes. I am the person your teacher and students want to rescue. Thank you all very much."

"No problem." He answered. "What is your name?"

"My name's Rin." She told them her name. "So you are Academia's former students."

"Yes we are. We disagree with the Professor's doings in the Xyz dimensions and have escaped. Thanks to teacher Yusho here we have managed to help a lot more escape and form a Duel School underground as you can see."

"What? A Duel School?!"

"Yes. The name of the school is You Show Duel School. Names after teacher Yusho's school in the Standard Dimension."

"All right everyone." Ryo said. "The ship was damaged during the mission. I need you two to fix it. We do not have many here. The girl Rin here needs to rest after this day."

"Got it!"

Rin looked at the students one last time before joining with Yusho, Ryo and Asuka to the door.

" _Well… I guess I will stay here for a while…"_

* * *

 **Fanfic OC Cards**

 **Odd-Eyes Freezing Dragon**

DARK/Dragon/Xyz/Effect/R8/3000/2800

3 Level 8 monsters

If this card has an "Odd-Eyes" Xyz monster as a material, it gains these effects:

* If this card is Xyz Summoned using an "Odd-Eyes" Xyz monster you control as any of its materials: All other face-up cards currently on the field have their effects negated, and if you do, this card gains 300 ATK for each. These changes last until the end of this turn. Once per turn, if this card battles an opponent's monster, during damage calculation (Quick Effect): You can detach 1 Xyz Material from this card; this card gains ATK equal to the ATK of the opponent's monster it is battling, during that damage calculation only.

 **Synchronize Magician**

DARK/Magician/Pendulum/Tuner/Effect/LV3/Scale 5/700/1400

 **Pendulum Effect:** "Entermate", "Magician" or "Odd-Eyes" Synchro monsters cannot be destroyed by your opponent's card effects. You can target 1 "Entermate", "Magician" or "Odd-Eyes" card in your Pendulum Zone: destroy it, and if you do, place this card in that Pendulum Zone. At the end of the Battle Phase: You can draw cards equal to the number of monsters a Synchro monster you control destroyed by battle this turn. You can target 1 Synchro monster you control; gain LP equal to its original ATK. You can only activate each effect of "Synchronize Magician" once per turn.

 **Monster Effect:** Cannot be used as Synchro Material, except for the Synchro Summon of an "Entermate", Magician or Dragon Synchro Monster. If this card is in your GY or face-up in the Extra Deck, during your turn, expect the turn this card was sent to the GY or face-up to the Extra Deck: You can banish 1 "Entermate", "Magician" or "Odd-Eyes" from your GY or face-up from your Extra Deck; Special Summon this card, and if you do, you can make this card's Level becomes 1, but banish it when it leaves the field. You can only activate this effect of "Synchronize Magician" once per turn.

 **Resonate Magician**

DARK/Magician/Pendulum/Effect/LV6/Scale 2/2100/1400

 **Pendulum Effect:** "Entermate", "Magician" or "Odd-Eyes" Synchro monsters cannot be targeted by your opponent's card effects, also they cannot be destroyed by battle. All Synchro monsters you control gains 1000 ATK. You can target 1 "Entermate", "Magician" or "Odd-Eyes" card in your Pendulum Zone: destroy it, and if you do, place this card in that Pendulum Zone. You can return 1 "Entermate", "Magician" or "Odd-Eyes" monster you control to the hand, then target 1 card your opponent controls; it has its effect negated until the end of this turn. You can only activate each effect of "Resonate Magician" once per turn.

 **Monster Effect:** You can target 1 other "Entermate", "Magician" or "Odd-Eyes" monster you control; you cannot Summon or Special Summon monsters from the Extra Deck for the rest of this turn, except Dragon Synchro monsters, also treat it as a Level 1 Tuner monster, but banish this card when it leaves the field. You can only activate this effect of "Resonate Magician" once per turn.

 **DD Worm**

DARK/Demon/Effect/LV7/0/2400

When your opponent declares a direct attack: You can banish 1 "DD" monster from your GY; Special Summon this card in Attack Position, and if you do, this card's ATK becomes the same as the banished monster, also it cannot be destroyed by battle this turn. When your opponent declares an attack on a "DD" monster you control: You can banish this card; gain LP equal to the attacking monster's ATK. You can only use each effect of "DD" Worm once per turn, and only once that turn.

 **Entermate Sky Assistant**

LIGHT/Magician/Effect/LV4/1700/800

If you control no monsters, you can Special Summon this card (from your hand or GY). You can only Special Summon "Entermate Sky Assistant" once per turn this way. When this card is Normal or Special Summoned: You can add 1 "Entermate" monster or 1 "Magician" Continuous Magic Card from your Deck to your hand. During either player's turn: You can activate 1 "Magician" Continuous Magic Card from your hand. You can only use each effect of "Entermate Sky Assistant" once per turn.

 **Entermate Fire Dancer**

LIGHT/Magician/Effect/LV4/1600/1200

When your opponent activates a card effect: You can Special Summon this card from your hand, and if you do, negate the resolution of that card effect, and if you do, or if it did not have an effect, destroy that card. When this card is Special Summoned: You can Special Summon 1 "Entermate" monster from your Deck. You can only activate each effect of "Entermate Fire Dancer" once per turn.

 **Magician's Monocle**

Negate the effect of your opponent's first monster or effect that resolves each turn while you control a Magician-Type monster, and if you do, or if it did not have an effect, destroy that card. If you control a Level 5 or higher "Entermate" monster, you can activate this card from your hand. If this card is sent to the GY: You can add 1 "Magician" Continuous Magic Card from your Deck to your hand.

 **Spirit Tech - Calvary**

LIGHT/Machine/Tuner/Effect/LV3/1300/300

When a card or effect is activated that includes any of these effects (Quick Effect): You can discard this card; negate that effect, and if you do, destroy it.

* Inflicts damage to you.

* Negate a "Spirit" card's effects or effect activation.

* Destroy a "Spirit" card you control.

During the End Phase, if this effect was activated this turn (and was not negated): You can Special Summon this card. You can only use each effect of "Ash Blossom & Joyous Spring" once per turn.

 **Spirit Tech - Proud Soldier**

LIGHT/Machine/Effect/LV4/1800/300

You can send 1 "Spirit Crystal" or "Spirit Tech" monster from your hand to the GY: Special Summon this card (from your hand). You can only Special Summon "Spirit Tech - Proud Soldier" once per turn this way. Once per turn: You can halve this card's ATK, then target 1 "Spirit Crystal" monster you control; it can activate its effects twice per turn. This ATK change last until the End Phase. You can only activate each effect of "Spirit Tech - Proud Soldier" once per turn.

 **I changed Odd-Eyes Meteorburst Dragon's effect so that it can still attack the turn it activates its effect.**

* * *

 **Yo! The duel is over! Yuya still has a long way to go even with all the upgrade the anime never gave to him (I originally wanted to include Ritual Summon in here but I decided it was a waste of brainstorm without much practical result). And now Rin has escaped! She will surely have more screen time (oh sorry, page-time). Yuya is clearly a hypocrite here, referring Ruri and Ryoga by their last name but not in front of them (anyone got a suggestion for Rin, Selena, Yuto, Yugo and Yuri's family name?).**

 **In my opinion, Odd-Eyes Freezing Dragon shows Yuya's character development pretty well, do you guys notice that?**

 **I always wanted Yugo's name joke to be played seriously, not played for laughs, and the outburst with Selena was one of them. That scene was inspired from 2001's The Fast and the Furious by the way. Tell me if you want me to do it more.**

 **Several things I will clarify: First off Yuto will KEEP Odd-Eyes Rebellion Dragon, Yuya does not hold it or Dark Rebellion Xyz Dragon, which means Yuya will not have a Rank 4 monster (we will see about it though). Secondly, Yuya's Deck will focus on Rank/Level 7 monsters like in real life. Finally, as for other Supreme King Dragon (Odd-Eyes Wing Dragon and Odd-Eyes Venom Dragon), I will change their effects to fit in this story.**

 **Please remember about the city of the Fusion Dimension, it will play a role later.**

 **And now for the massive twist:**

* * *

 **Next Chapter Preview**

 **Broken Will**

Unable to accept the predicament, Yuya closes himself off and continues treating people horribly. Sawatari Shingo decides to help him the hard way…

 **This is matrixnis, out!**


	36. Scale 36

**Welcome back everyone!**

 **I guess you wonder how the spoiled child of the Mayor Sawatari Shingo will knock some sense to Yuya's mess-up head, well today you have the answer! Just be ready for extreme but logical and realistic OOC moments.**

 **I realized this rivalry has a lot of potential that Konami destroyed utterly for their legendary characters, which is why you will see them duel in this chapter.**

 **And some rambling before the chapter: Konami, this story The Tainted Sidelines is of MY proprety is not your propaganda tool to promote Crow Hogan and Jack Atlas's cards to the point that you destroyed Gongenzaka, Sawatari, Yuzu, Shun, Selena and Yugo during your FREAKING Friendship Cup! This story is owned by me matrixnis not your COMPANY! This story contains realistic subjects, character development and equality to both genders. If you deliberately do not give female characters proper treatment then don't include them in your story. Don't bring in because of fanservice like legs (all of them), revealing clothes (Mai), big boobs (Asuka, Aki, Blue Angel), nice ass or nice hips (Merag). Kotori, Yuzu, Ruri, Rin, Selena and Aoi are examples of girls with just average features that you have done but their potentials are destroyed by your greed.**

* * *

 **Chapter 36: Broken Will**

* * *

"Time?"

"1345 hours."

Shun and Yuto exchanged words. Typical war questions. It was hard to believe this was the usual conversation they had.

"By the way, can you explain why you are not carded?"

"What?!" Yuto gasped. "I uh… I don't know."

"Everyone's wondering the same thing." Selena pressed.

"I really don't know okay? Leave it for the other day."

Right after that however, Yuto noticed Shun was giving him an abnormally bright smile, and he also held his and Ruri's shoulders very tightly as well.

"Shun?!" Yuto wondered.

"Don't tell me that…!" Ruri realized why. Everyone had heard what Yuma said when he was about to card Yuto.

"Brother stop!" She tried to pry his hand off, but Shun kept pressing, nearly made her gasp.

"We will have a lot of things to talk about." Shun said, also too sweetly for a serious and no-nonsense person like him. "Both of you. Especially you Yuto." He now whispered dangerously. "We all really have to thank Yuma since somehow you are not carded and he has said everything I should have known a long time ago."

Yuto worriedly looked at Shun, and then Ruri who sighed, giving him a look that said "We are in a huge mess now…"

Yugo took notice of this, and without even looking at them (knowing how an outsider he was) he warned. "You two are in big trouble, Yuto, Ruri…"

"I definitely agree." Yuzu gave Ruri a "wish you luck" look. The purple-haired girl sighed once again.

"Giving him and your sister "the talk" later Kurosaki." Sawatari slightly chuckled. "Nakajima told us to go back to the Center Court. Let's go." Sawatari said.

"Center Court?" Selena asked.

"What does he want us to do?" Gongenzaka wanted to know.

"There's something important I guess…" Yuya thought. "For that President son of the bitch of course…" Yuzu looked on in worry, not saying anything. Yuya had changed too much.

"Yeah…" Sawatari confirmed. "Get ready for some spotlight in a propaganda…"

"Propaganda…" Ruri humorlessly chuckled.

"Are we heroes now…?" Aki also whispered as well.

"I am to you right?" Yusei joked, earning a playful punch from the red-haired girl.

* * *

At the LDS Center Court, the end of the 1 vs 16 round in the Maiami Championship was filled with cheering, colorful lightning and most of all, the announcement from Nico Smiley who was standing in the spotlight aimed at him.

"After the 24-hour long Battle Royale, the current winners are returning to LDS Center Court right now! Please give them a huge applause!"

Many more colorful spotlights appeared, everyone cheering for the winners.

When they did come to the stadium though, the cheering became quieter, smaller and fewer, and eventually they all stopped after just ten seconds, leaving the complete silence behind.

From right to left: Mieru, Sawatari, Dennis, Tsukikage, Gongenzaka, Kurosaki Shun. Nothing particular besides Mieru and Sawatari. But the rest…

Yuya, Yuzu, Yuto, Ruri, Yugo, Selena, Yusei, Aki.

Except the usual former two, the rest was completely new to the eyes of the people in the stadium.

"What the hell?" One person wondered.

"Who the hell are they?"

"Why do they look like Yuya and Yuzu so much?!"

"Hey! Is that Sawatari, the son of the Mayor?!"

"Did he pride LDS to participate?"

"That spoiled brat?!"

"But who the hell are those four?! Yuya and Yuzu have twins?!"

"What the hell is going on?"

The protests became louder and louder, making the stadium nothing more than a sound-polluted space.

"As expected…" Yuya whispered disinterestedly.

Some assholes did not control their emotions, they stormed to the field and attempted to attack Yuto, Ruri, Yugo and Selena with garbage or glass bottles. Shun quickly covered Ruri, Yugo countered them back effortlessly along with Yuto and Selena.

"Back the hell off!" Yugo yelled. Security guards quickly ran in to stop the brawl, dragging the hunigans out.

"Everyone calm down!" The screen suddenly turned on, Himika was on the screen.

"That's the old and annoying bitch of a mother…" Yuya also whispered when he saw her, earning very harsh looks from Yuzu, Gongenzaka and especially Sawatari who found him to be disgusting. Not that he minded.

"Please calm down and let me explain the whole situation. First off those four people who look like Sakaki Yuya and Hiragi Yuzu are not related to them, they are not twins either. They just share the same faces for some reason, not strange for the wide world. What I want to announce is: ever since this noon, the Maiami Championship, will have to be halted."

This of course caused several uproars from the audience, along with bewildered looks on their faces, particularly Yoko and Shuzo. The news was being broadcasted across many LDS branched all over the world, including America, England, Paris, Russia, Singapore and many more.

"The reason the Championship has to be halted is because while the Battle Royale is going on, a hostile force has attacked our world. It's hard to imagine an invasion from the other dimension I know, but it is the truth. They want to attack our world in this dimension and have sent a squad to here. They use Duel Monsters as weapons, using monsters summoned by Real Solid Vision to attack. The reason we stopped streaming the Battle Royale is to not turn Maiami City… no, the entire world into chaos. Please understand.

The crowd began to wonder.

"What is other dimension?"

"Invasion?"

"Using Duel Monsters as weapons?"

"It's hard to believe~"

"If you still not believe this, please watch this footage, even only a small part is enough."

The screen then turned into an Obelisk Force member carding Knight of Duels, some girls covered their eyes in fear as they useless bitches would usually do unlike Ruri who did not even flinch, some parents covered their children's eyes for the sake of innocence.

"Wh-What is that?!"

"Into a card in mere seconds!"

"Don't tell me the reason Hokuto disappeared is because…" Yaiba guessed.

"He's turned into a card like that?!"

"It's true." Himika continued. "That's what Academia does. Defeat opponent through Duels and heartlessly turn them into cards!"

"If you lose in Duel, you will turn into a card?" Yusho said. "It's bullshit!"

"No…" Yoko said. "It's real."

"What?! It's real?!" The kids asked her.

"Eh." Was all she said along with a nod.

"But people, please don't worry. Those ruthless invaders have been countered by brave Duelists in the Battle Royale."

The footage then turned into Kurosaki Shun bombing Obelisk Force with Revolution Falcon, Gongenzaka, Sawatari, Selena and Tsukikage. People began to cheer for them.

"Fantastic!"

"The enemy is gone!"

What shocked the You Show trio was the clip of Yuya and Sora dueling. After that several more were shown: Darkness, Yuzu, Yuma, Yuri, Yugo, Ryoga, Yuto and Ruri dueling. Ryoga being carded was shown, shocking the audience and angering Yuto, Shun and Ruri even more. Shun nearly wanted to grab Yugo's shirt but Ruri forced him back.

Yuto however noted that his fail carding was not shown. _"Reiji deleted that…?"_

Himika then started speaking again, happy at the cheering. "They are the heroes who have defended Maiami City! I have bestowed them as Lance Defense Soldiers or Lancers to honor that deed!"

Many people began cheering "Lancers" repeatedly with Sawatari waving in return. Yoko and Yusho were shocked that their respective child was becoming popular in a very strange way. Their very suddenly-turned-to-heroes though were definitely not interested in this.

"Are they… cheering… for real?!" Yuzu felt drowned in this huge applause.

" _Hm… They do not know war is, they are just blinded by this propaganda… such idiotic people that should not even exist…"_ Yuto thought bitterly.

Ruri and Selena froze, not sure how to react to this. The former hated them for blindly cheering them without any real understanding of war victims. She knew people like her were only useful in war, not in normal life. The latter realized this was the first time she had gained any recognition of her hard work.

"How nice seeing people being brainwashed easily…" Yugo chuckled.

"Gotta agree with that…" Yusei for once definitely said yes. Aki knew why, it had happened once back in her hometown three years ago by Roget, changing her life completely for way worse.

"Countering the enemy… Is Sora the enemy?!" Shuzo asked Yoko.

"Yes. Ruri had told me everything."

"Ruri?"

"Ruri-neechan?"

"She along with the boy who look like Yuya over there are from another dimension."

Himika proceeded. "Thanks to the effort of Lancers, the threat is now pushed back, but we do not know when they will attack again. To prepare for that, we now need to have the will to protect ourselves! I hope everyone will improve your Dueling skills!"

The screen then changed to an LDS commercial, which included the word "LANCERS". "We LDS will handle the responsibility of learning place and course! Any of you can potentially be the next Lancers!"

"The next generation is us?"

"Joining in Lancers…"

Reiji then suddenly announced, his face appeared on screen. "The world is changing. The peace you enjoyed till yesterday is now the past, now realize we are in war."

"Leo Duel School in the entire world, LDS, will be known from today as Lance Defense Soldiers. We will stand in the front lines!"

"And I, Akaba Reiji, will also fight the battle with the Lancers in here!"

"Lancers are the knights in horses, they use spears to pierce the enemy. We will eradicate all of the enemy! I promise that to all the world!"

At this, the entire audience burst out in approval. They completely cheered the Lancers and roared loudly.

"Huh…"

Yuya suddenly smirked.

"Huhuhuh…"

He smiled strangely.

"HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAAAAAA!"

The mad smile stopped everyone in the stadium completely. 100% silence occurred.

"Yu…Yuya…?" Yoko became worried for her son.

"Yuya…?" Yuzu looked at her friend worriedly.

He went to Nico Smiley and swiftly took the microphone.

"Lancers?! Are you kidding me Akaba Reiji?!" He said.

"When you play us in your hand, you control us, you force us to do what we don't want to do and let your students die without any remorse at all?!"

The audience was left in wonder.

"What the?"

"What is he saying?"

"What I want to say is: Lancers are not the way you think. You think the team is made up of very skilled duelists that can trust each other and work with each other without any hard feelings? NO! We are just a bunch of misfits who are not deserved to be called heroes! For example, the purple-haired girl over there Kurosaki Ruri is from another dimension, she lied to me, my best friend Yuzu and others just to get a home to stay! She's a bitch in sheep clothing!" He said while pointing at Ruri, who looked down in shame and shock.

Shuzo froze completely.

"What?! Ruri… Is he right Yoko?"

"Is he right about Ruri-neechan Yoko-san?" Ayu frantically asked.

Yoko sadly nodded. _"What the hell are you doing Yuya…?"_

"The duelist over there is her brother. His name is not Shirogami Taka but actually Kurosaki Shun, who was the culprit of multiple attacks on LDS that you may have heard off! He had carded a lot of people! Students, teachers! They are just normal people and he basically killed them!"

With this, uproars could be heard, Shun and Ruri's name being yelled in massive disapproval. Everyone in the center of the stadium looked at Yuya in pure shock and disgust, except Dennis who chuckled in his mind and Nico giving a not-knowing-what-is-going-on look. Yuto, Yugo and Shun nearly lunged at Yuya if not for the girls keeping them in check.

"Another girl who looks like Yuzu over there is Selena. She is from Academia and she is the reason why Hokuto disappeared!"

"And your beloved President of LDS Akaba Reiji and his mother Akaba Himika know everything about the Academia invasion, and they let teenagers die for it!"

Now everyone whose name Yuya mentioned was in the hate group of the people in the stadium now. Nakajima, Himika and Reiji panicked, security guards tried their best to keep the raging audience in check. They never thought Yuya would destroy their plan in an instant like that.

"Akaba Reiji says he will stop the war between the dimensions, but the way he does it is unacceptable!"

"Everything you know, everything LDS spoils in your head, everything is freaking WRONG!" Yuya roared, the audience roared back in approval.

"DO YOU WANT TO BE LANCERS ANYMORE?! DO YOU WANT TO-"

"Huh?" Yuya gasped when he noticed someone grabbing the collar of his orange shirt. Before he got to see who he was sent flying for several meters with a dent on the right cheek.

"THAT'S ENOUGH!" A familiar voice spoke up loudly, Yuya instantly realized it lacked the usual snark and high-pitch it usually had, but a loud roar from the top of the lungs.

"Sa… Sawatari…?!" He gasped that person's name in shock.

"Sawatari?!" Yaiba and Masumi gasped.

"That's enough! Are you freaking stupid? You are too blinded by your own idiocy you arrogant piece of shit!"

Yuya froze.

"Do you realize why they have to do it? They are from a war zone, a place they should never have been! They are forced to do what you call murder to survive against Academia! Selena does not know the real image of Academia and she quickly apologize. She is just 16 Yuya, just like most of us. Mistreated, misunderstood."

"Everyone present here wants to fight Academia for their own reasons. And so does Akaba Reiji. In war you must be willing to get your hands dirty to survive. Do you know why I join Lancers?" Sawatari asked Yuya.

The Entertainment Duelist brushed off the right cheek. "I don't know… to fill your large ego like you have always wanted?"

"Wrong…" He punched Yuya again. "Last night Yuma and Darkness attacked LDS, they also attacked my father…"

"What? Your father?" Yuzu asked, Sawatari nodded sadly. She covered her mouth. "No way…"

"The Mayor of Maiami City was assaulted by Academia?!" One person in the seat asked.

"They attacked LDS?!"

"Right. The front entrance is a mess right now." Sawatari confirmed. "My father got his legs and his ribs broken… He might need a full year to recover…" He said bitterly, closing his eyes.

"Sawatari…" Yuya whispered.

"That's why I want to fight Academia. To avenge my father! And you? What are you fighting for? You want to bring smiles to people right?"

"Yet you are such a mess right now… Where's Sakaki Yuya? Where is the Sakaki Yuya I get to know? Where is the proud son of Sakaki Yusho, the Entertainment Duelist pioneer I always look up to?!"

"Where the hell is he?!" He yelled.

"I…" Yuya mumbled. _"Am I… Am I… lost?! What am I doing?! What the hell is wrong with me…? Am I really lost? Is what Sawatari say true?"_

"If you cannot bring that person out, I will force you to! Reiji!"

Sawatari looked at the screen. "Make an Action Field for us right now!"

"What?! You are going to duel him Sawatari?!" Gongenzaka said in shock.

"You crazy?!" Yuya asked.

"I have always been, and this time I am sure I want to do it for a reason…" He replied. "Get up, we will duel. Don't plan on escaping this duel, I am sick of your moody head!"

He turned to Yuzu and Gongenzaka. "I know as close friends, you two would never do this to him. But I can…"

Yuya looked at the determined Sawatari Shingo, his bangs covering his eyes. No longer was the arrogant kid who wanted to be in the spotlight anymore, he was now a caring and understanding person. He admitted Sawatari had changed a lot, and in a good way, all thanks to that unforgettable duel where they enjoyed a lot and entertained everyone.

"All right…" He got up, understanding what he wanted to do. Yuya threw the microphone to Smiley. "Nico Smiley, commentate the duel…"

Nico looked at Yuya and Sawatari in shock. "Are you two… seriously?!"

"We are…" Sawatari replied simply, not above a whisper.

"Good…" Nico agreed and ran to his usual spot. The rest of the Lancers stood near the entrance to give the duel some room.

"What the hell is today? Is there a thunderstorm happening soon?" Gongenzaka said sarcastically.

"I hope not…" Yuzu smiled nervously. "Everyone's been affected by the invasion…"

"Not all of them…" Yuto said.

At the control room, Reiji kept silent but he admitted he found Sawatari's dedication interesting. At least the annoying kid of the Mayor had learnt how to be more responsible, and this did put a small but warm smile on his face.

" _Ironic that the spoiled kid is now teaching the well-taught one…"_

"Action Field, On!" Nico announced. "Field Magic, Ruined Castle of the Sunset activate!" Right after the reveal, the card stopped spinning and shone up brightly. The Real Solid Vision machine below the field activated, transforming first the ground where Yuya and Sawatari stood, and then the entire field into a ruined wasteland in sunset with only a partially destroyed castle on the other side of the field. The crowd instantly realized this was the field they had fought earlier.

"This field…!" Yuzu realized.

"Is the field Yuya and Sawatari dueled last time!" Ruri said.

"He wants to settle things with Yuya in this same field." Gongenzaka noted. "And Akaba Reiji knew it well…"

"Sawatari is serious." Yuzu noted.

"A far cry from what I used to know from a rich kid…" Ruri also agreed.

"Let's go!" Sawatari said. "Duelists locked in battle!"

"Kicking against the earth and dancing in the air alongside their Monsters!" Yuya chanted.

"They storm through the field!" Both Yuya and Sawatari said.

"Behold! The ultimate evolution of Dueling!" Nico then proceeded.

"ACTION…"

" **DUEL!"**

 **Sakaki Yuya** : 4000 [5]

 **Sawatari Shingo** : 4000 [5]

Nico snapped his fingers, Action Cards scattered around the field.

* * *

"I hate to have a rematch with you like this, but your head needs a lesson!" The son of the Mayor declared. "Ore no turn."

"From my hand, I normal summon Abyss Actor - Sassy Rookie!" A monster wearing dark blue wig, a mask with a large left eye, grey tank top and pants appeared.

 **Abyss Actor - Sassy Rookie** DARK/Demon/Pendulum/Effect/LV4/Scale 2/ **1700** /1000

"Abyss Actor?" Yuto noted. "Last time he used Yosenju, not this."

"He must have changed his Deck…" Ruri predicted.

Sawatari looked at his Deck, remembering how he got it…

…

…

 _After his duel with Yuya, Sawatari's Yosenju deck got confiscated by Akaba Reiji to mass-produce Pendulum Cards. Taking advantage of this and being the son of the Mayor, Sawatari created a concept for his new Deck and requested the President of LDS to make his Deck real. It was not really that hard to create them._

" _Demon-Type monsters… You sure you not make them this to make me create a deck for you?" Akaba Reiji asked while looking at the card-creating machine, noticing the similar type between his Deck and Sawatari's planned one._

" _Whatever you say…"_

…

…

"Two cards set. Turn end." Sawatari finished his turn. "Sa! Come here Sakaki Yuya! The inventor of Pendulum Summon!"

"Only a 1700 ATK monster and two set cards…" Yuya inspected. "You think this is going to stop me? Neo New Sawatari?"

"Charge in if you can." He simply answered.

Yuya suddenly heard a voice in his head. _"A voice… from a… magician…"_ Yuya thought, hearing the voice and vaguely seeing the shadow of the monster. _"Are you… calling me to pull you out…?"_ As if to respond, the top card of Yuya's Deck and Extra Deck lit up dimly.

" _Is that…"_ Yuya touched that card.

"Ore no turn, draw!" Yuya drew his card. _"It's here! Wait for me, I will get you out in an instant!"_

"First off, Magic Card, Pendulum Call activate! By discarding Skullcrobat Joker, I add two "Magician" monsters to my hand!" Yuya discarded his searcher and grabbed two cards from his Deck.

"Hoh… You threw away your main monster?" Sawatari mocked. "Since a Pendulum monster was sent to the hand, it cannot go to the Extra Deck…"

"What is he doing?" Yusei wondered.

"You will find out soon Sawatari. I, using the Scale 1 Entermate Gumgumouton and Scale 5 Wisdom-Eye Magician, Pendulum Scale setting!"

"Oh! Contestant Sakaki Yuya is going for a Pendulum Summon!" Nico commented.

"Wisdom-Eye Magician's Pendulum effect activates! It destroys itself!" The monster disintegrated, earning bewildered looks from the audience and Nico.

"He destroys his own Pendulum monster?"

"Then I can place the Scale 8 Creation Magician from my Deck in its place!" He slapped it down, the monster in white and orange robes rose up. The audience went through a surprise, they cheered.

"Swing, Pendulum of the Soul! Draw an arc across the nether!" Yuya chanted, the large pendulum pendant similar to his own swung through the Scales.

"Pendulum Shōkan! Appear now, my monsters!" Two monsters descended from the portal.

"Level 4! Wisdom-Eye Magician! And Level 4! Dragonvein Magician!" Along with Wisdom-Eye, a new magician showed up. It had long dirty orange hair, it wore a white trenchcoat and it wielded a two-edged light blue spear.

 **Wisdom-Eye Magician** DARK/Magician/Pendulum/Effect/LV4/Scale 5/ **1500** /1500

 **Dragonvein Magician** DARK/Magician/Pendulum/LV4/Scale 1/ **1800** /900

"Get ready Sawatari!" Yuya declared, seeing the new monster clearly in his eyes now. "I, using the Level 4 Wisdom-Eye Magician and Dragonvein Magician, Overlay!"

" _Dark Rebellion…?"_ Sawatari thought.

"Xyz Shōkan! Appear now! Rank 4!" From the Overlay Network, a magician resembling a cross between Stargazer and Timegazer appeared. It wore a blue coat, a blue cape and it wielded a staff like Stargazer, but it also carried a circular ring on its left hand like Timegazer Magician.

"Startime Magician!"

 **Startime Magician** DARK/Magician/Xyz/Effect/R4/ **2400** /1200

"Otto! This is completely unexpected! Instead of Dark Rebellion Xyz Dragon, Sakaki Yuya has summoned a new Rank 4 Xyz monster!" Nico yelled excitedly, not knowing the full story.

"This is…" Yuzu gasped.

"A Rank 4 Xyz monster!" Ruri finished.

"Startime Magician's monster effect activates!" Yuya raised his hand on the monster whose one Overlay Unit disintegrated. "By detaching an Overlay Unit, I can add back Skullcrobat Joker to my hand!" The card pulled out from the graveyard slot and Yuya took it.

"I got it…" Sawatari said. "You sent that monster to the grave just to add it back to your hand, not a bad strategy…"

"Now I normal summon it!" Yuya slapped down the card he added earlier, the joker in black robes returned.

 **Entermate Skullcrobat Joker** DARK/Magician/Pendulum/Effect/LV4/Scale 1/ **1800** /300

" _Sawatari had changed his Deck… does it involve battling?!"_ Yuya thought while trying to decide to add a card. He finally went with one monster. "With Joker's effect, I add Entermate Dog to my hand."

"Battle!" Yuya started his Battle Phase. "Startime Magician, attack Abyss Actor - Sassy Rookie!"

"Once per turn, Sassy Rookie cannot be destroyed by battle!" Sawatari revealed.

"But you will still take the damage!" The blast affected Sawatari a bit, but otherwise he was still standing fine.

 **Sawatari** : 4000 - 3300 [2]

"Sassy Rookie can only prevents being destroyed by battle once! Go now Skullcrobat Joker!" The monster obeyed, it lunged forward and delivered a kick at Sawatari's only monster.

"Trap, activate!" Sawatari simply swung his hand, the set card flipped up. "Abyss Script - Miraculous Escape! This card negates your monster's attack!" Sassy Rookie delivered a punch to Joker, knocking it back. "Then I can add an "Abyss Actor" card from the Deck to my hand."

Nico commented through his microphone. "Contestant Sawatari Shingo has stopped Sakaki Yuya's attack! And he also adds another card to his hand."

"Just the first turn and they have already heated the battle." Shun said.

"They are serious." Yuzu commented.

"But Yuya is really strong. He had won against Sawatari twice." Ruri said.

"We can't know for sure this time." Gongenzaka said cautiously.

" _So he has predicted I would attack, so he set down that card to negate it and also add another card at the same time…"_ Yuya thought. "Turn end."

"Ore no turn, draw!" Sawatari drew his card. "I, using the Scale 0 Abyss Actor - Mellow Madonna and Scale 8 Funky Comedian, Pendulum Scale Setting!"

"Scale 0 Pendulum card?!" Yuya gasped.

"What? You found it surprising?" Sawatari said in a mocking tone. "Shock to find it coming from the Pendulum Summon founder! You don't have any way to Pendulum Summon a Level 1 monster somehow? Or are you too lost in your hatred towards others that you cannot think that far?"

Yuya became angry at his mockery but what he said was true. He was too consumed in his hatred towards Ruri and Ryoga that he forgot his own way of thinking.

"Pendulum Summon is not unique to you anymore, and everyone is finding a way to improve it. And you are falling back in your prejudicial mood? Too stupid Yuya! Now I can summon Level 1 to 7 monsters at the same time! But before that, I activate Mellow Madonna's Pendulum effect!" The monster shone up, energy running from the tube it floated in.

"By paying 1000 LP, I add Abyss Actor - Big Star to my hand." As soon as Sawatari added the card, a wave of purple swirl splashed him.

 **Sawatari** : 3300 - 2300 [3]

"Pendulum Shōkan!" He slapped down three cards to the blade, three monsters appeared and took form.

"Appear now! Abyss Actor - Big Star!"

"Next up, Comic Relief!" A short and fat monster came down, it had pink skin, it wore a conical hat, large glasses and dungarees.

"And finally, Pretty Heroine!" A female monster with green hair, long bangs, white and purple suit.

 **Abyss Actor - Big Star** DARK/Demon/Pendulum/Effect/LV7/Scale 3/ **2500** /1800

 **Abyss Actor - Comic Relief** DARK/Demon/Pendulum/Effect/LV3/Scale 8/ **1000** /2000

 **Abyss Actor - Pretty Heroine** DARK/Demon/Pendulum/Effect/LV4/Scale / **1500** /1000

"Following Sakaki Yuya's Pendulum Summon, Sawatari also performs a Pendulum Summon!" Nico said. "This is it everyone! The battle between Pendulum users!" Now the crowd was cheering again, pleading Nico and the Lancers greatly.

"Get ready loser!" Sawatari said in a mocking but much more serious tone. "This turn I will defeat you!"

"Sawatari Shingo is provoking Sakaki Yuya!"

"That confident kid…" Yaiba and Masumi muttered.

"Big Star's monster effect activates! I add Abyss Script - Fantasy Magic to my hand and activate it with Big Star as the target!" A book materialized and Big Star read it. It then transformed itself so that it wore a trenchcoat, mimicking whoever it read on the script.

"And then Funky Comedian's Pendulum effect! By tributing Sassy Rookie…" The monster turned into yellow dust, Big Star then absorbed it. "Its 1700 ATK is added to Big Star!"

 **Abyss Actor - Big Star** ATK 2500 - 4200

"4200 ATK?!" Yuzu noted in surprise.

"And that is not all…" Selena commented.

"Battle! Big Star, attack Startime Magician!"

"Startime Magician's monster effect! I sent a Pendulum monster from my Deck to the grave to prevent its destruction!" Dragonpit Magician, a magician with white hair, black and silver coat and a staff with a circular front end appeared ghostly, knocking the ball energy Big Star created off.

 **Yuya** : 4000 - 2200 [3]

"Good! My monster is saved!"

"Idiot!" Sawatari cut him off.

"What?"

"Thanks to Fantasy Magic, Startime Magician is returned to the hand if it is not destroyed during the battle!" Sawatari revealed, shocking Yuya as the monster disintegrated and its dust flew into Yuya's Extra Deck.

"Dammit!" Yuya reluctantly put back the monster to the Extra Deck.

"That's why!" Yuzu realized.

"Right. The real plan was to bounce Startime Magician back to the Extra Deck. Sawatari is clearly good." Gongenzaka had to comment his plan. "Basically, he made Yuya's effort of bringing it out useless."

"Since Startime Magician is an Xyz monster, it must return to the Extra Deck." Sawatari said. "And now Pretty Heroine's monster effect! Skullcrobat Joker loses ATK equal to the battle damage!"

"No!" Yuya yelled as Skullcrobat Joker glowed red, losing power.

 **Entermate Skullcrobat Joker** ATK 1800 - 0

"Now Skullcrobat Joker's ATK is 0…"

"The total ATK of Sawatari's remaining monsters are 3200, so if he attacks…"

"Yuya will lose!" Yoko said.

"NO! Don't lose Yuya!" Yuzu pleaded.

"I hope this loss will help you realize your mistake Sakaki Yuya." Sawatari said to Yuya. "Battle! Pretty Heroine, attack Skullcrobat Joker!"

Yuya began to run for an Action Card. He finally found one stuck in a hole in a wall. He quickly activated it.

"Action Magic, Evasion!" Joker flash-stepped, avoiding the attack. "The attack is negated!"

"Tsk! But I still have Comic Relief! Go now!" Sawatari quickly ordered the attack to stop Yuya from getting an Action Card. At the same time, he also ran for an Action Card.

"Entermate Gumgumouton's Pendulum effect activates!" Yuya said. "Skullcrobat Joker cannot be destroyed in this battle!" Thanks to it, Yuya only took 1000 damage and the resulting wind blast was not very strong.

 **Yuya** : 2200 - 1200 [3]

"Sawatari has inflicted 2800 damage to Sakaki Yuya! He is in a bad condition!" Nico said.

"Is this all you got Sakaki Yuya?" Sawatari talked. "I do not think you would nearly lose this easy!"

"Of course I am not!" Yuya replied and slapped down a card, a colorful dog jumped out.

 **Entermate Dog** LIGHT/Beast/Pendulum/Effect/LV1/Scale 9/ **0** /0

"At the end of the Battle Phase, I can summon this card and regain all of the damage!"

 **Sakaki Yuya** : 1200 - 4000 [2]

"Also Entermate Dog's ATK is raised by the same amount!"

 **Entermate Dog** ATK 0 - 2800

"Not bad at all." Sawatari complimented. "That's the card you added earlier through Skullcrobat Joker's monster effect. I guess you still have a head."

"Stop that nonsense Sawatari!" Yuya said.

"I end my turn here. Come at me if you can Sakaki Yuya."

 **Abyss Actor - Big Star** ATK 4200 - 2500

"Ore no turn, draw!" Yuya drew his card.

"At this moment!" Sawatari interrupted. "Comic Relief's monster effect activates!"

"What?!"

"I give control of it to you during the Standby Phase." Comic Relief waved hello at Yuya as it hovered to his field.

"What the hell is this?!" Nico commented. "For some reason Sawatari has given control of his monster to Sakaki Yuya!"

"What is he planning?" Gongenzaka wondered.

"He clearly did that on purpose!" Aki said.

"Why did you give me your monster Sawatari?" Yuya asked.

"Huh! You will know it very soon…" He then yelled. "Here is the surprise everyone has been waiting for! When Comic Relief switches control, its original owner, which is me, can destroy a set card of my choice!"

"What?! Destroy your own Set cards?!" Yuya gasped. The audience wondered the same thing.

"Right. My only set card will be destroyed." Right after that, Sawatari's set card is destroyed.

"Abyss Script - Opening Ceremony…" Yuzu muttered.

"This card has a second effect that only activates when it is destroyed by my opponent while being set!" Sawatari revealed. "Yuya, since you now control Comic Relief, it technically means that you destroy my set card. If this Set card is destroyed this way…" The top cards of his Deck shone up.

"I can draw until I have five cards in my hand!" He drew five cards in a swift motion confidently, dust sparking.

Yuya, the Lancers, Nico, Masumi, Yaiba and the audience were left in complete shock. The technique Sawatari used was completely unexpected and strong.

"What the…" Yuya mumbled, still in huge surprise.

"He set his card just to be destroyed…" Yuzu said.

"But all by his own cards…" Gongenzaka said.

"And he gets to draw 5 for that?!" Shun for once seemed legitimately surprised by this play.

Sawatari smiled excitedly for being able to catch everyone off-guard by his new Deck. "Pendulum decks lose hand advantage very quick so I created a way to draw as many cards as possible, and in the most entertaining way possible."

"That's very awesome!" Nico finally commentated again. "Sawatari Shingo has used his own cards to destroy a set card, and he used that for his advantage!"

"Sawatari is very good!" The audience now cheered for Sawatari, who waved back in return. Yuya's mood sank further. Yuzu whispered Yuya's name worryingly, who had put back his goggles to hide his trembling eyes.

"Harsh?" Sawatari mocked. "That's how life is Sakaki Yuya. The awful thing you may see in front of you, you may not know that it is just a front to cover deep issues underneath."

"It's unrelated." Yuya shot back.

"It's related. It's just like what Ruri and her comrades does to you." At this Yuya eyed up at him. "They did something bad to you, but they had no choice, just like Akaba Reiji. They also apologized to you and if you still remember, Shark was carded. If you cannot get past that, you are nothing but a jerk, which is what you are now. You cannot forgive them for the better."

Yuya remained silent, thinking about what he said.

"Forgiveness is the only solution to happiness Yuya."

Silence sank in, besides some whispering from the audience about what Sawatari was saying.

"I am not sure about this anymore Sawatari…" Yuya finally talked. "All of my life I have been mistreated because of my father… I tried to make friends and be friendly to others to forget it somewhat… But what she and Shun did to me destroyed me… And what Reiji did as well…" Everyone became silent, feeling sympathy for Yuya's predicament, especially the audience who once despised him.

"Then try again." Sawatari said. "We all need to try again, just like what I did before…"

He trailed off, remembering his dark times.

"Seeing you like this makes me remember my own times Yuya. You know that I only live with my father right?"

"He only lives with his father?" Ruri wondered. "It's true I never saw his mother, he does not even mention her once…" She trailed off, thinking about a bad scenario…

Yuzu suddenly realized. "Six years ago, there was a divorce that caused a lot of scandal, and that is…"

"Right." Sawatari confirmed. "Mayor Sawatari and his wife. My father was not a Mayor at that time yet." He smiled sadly.

"Sawatari…" Yuya mumbled sympathetically. He realized Sawatari's situation was much worse than his.

"I came to hate them a lot. I hate my mother for abandoning me and my father for leaving her. For the last five years, we have still not talked to each other much…"

"Back then I was just 10 years old, I did not know much. I hated the world and became some kind of bully to forget the pain of losing my mother."

"But last year I eventually understood things more. My father is a hard-working man, but he always tries his best to spend as much time with me and my mother as possible. However my mother cheated with another man, and it caused the eventual divorce."

Silence occurred as Sawatari stopped speaking, trying to keep his emotion in check.

"One more thing, even though I understood it, my shame and hatred towards my family still remains strong which is why I still acted like a school bully, but finally thanks to you Yuya and your Entertainment Dueling, I managed to get over it. Thanks to you, I learn to be kind to my father and others, I finally forgive my father."

Yuya felt something strange in his heart. Strange, but warm at the same time. For the first time someone thanked him sincerely for his trying at Entertainment Dueling, the legacy his father left to him.

"What I am trying to tell you is: you need to understand people. Don't let your emotion judge your feelings towards others, and in turn destroy yourself and what makes you you. I took five long years to learn that lesson. I don't know if the same could apply to you, I don't know you long enough unlike Yuzu and Gongenzaka, but I hope you may rethink about how you treat Ruri, Yuto and others."

"And if you still cling to your stupid thinking, beat me in this duel first." He finished saying, leaving Yuya to think about it.

Yuya kept silence for a while.

…

…

…

" _Sawatari's… right…"_

" _I have treated Ruri, Shun, Selena and Yuto horribly, I do not think it through enough, and even after I saw Yuto's memories about what happened to him and his comrades, I was still very stubborn and moody…"_

" _Am I very idiotic… right Dad?"_ Yuya berated himself, smiling as if to confirm it. _"I am sorry, Dad, Yuzu, Ruri… everyone."_

"You're right Sawatari." Yuya finally spoke. "I was stubborn back then, but now I will not be like that anymore!"

Sawatari smiled proudly. Yuzu, Gongenzaka, Ruri, Yuto and Yugo smiled as well.

"Ladies and Gentlemen!" Yuya did his catchphrase, cheering the audience. "I am sorry for the bad guy role I played earlier, and as an apology for the stupid act, I will deliver all of you an entertaining duel!" With this, the crowd cheered Yuya again.

The pendant appeared between the Scales again, swinging the eternal swing. "Let's duel again! Swing one more time, Pendulum of the Soul! Draw an arc across the nether! Pendulum Shōkan!"

"Appear now! Level 6, Resonate Magician!"

 **Resonate Magician** DARK/Magician/Pendulum/Effect/LV6/Scale 2/ **2100** /1400

" _If I inflict battle damage to Sawatari, Pretty Heroine's monster effect will reduce my monster's ATK. He might protect it somehow if I attack it, maybe from an Action Card or something else. If so…"_

"Resonate Magician's monster effect activates!" The suit of the monster glowed up. "Skullcrobat Joker is treated as a Level 1 Tuner monster, but it will be banished when it leaves the field."

"The hell?!" Sawatari whispered in shock.

 **Skullcrobat Joker** LV4 - LV1 Tuner Monster

"He changed Skullcrobat Joker to a Tuner?!" Yugo said.

"Which means…" Aki thought for only one obvious thing.

"I, using the Level 6 Resonate Magician and Level 1 Skullcrobat Joker, Tuning!" The joker turned into a green ring that swept through the magician, turning it into six sparkling stars.

"Come out from the raging galaxy, and rain down justice to the worthy!" A stream of light erupted. "Synchro Shōkan! Appear now Level 7!" A new dragon flew out from the rings. It had blue skin, some red armor on its claws and body, it had red and blue eyes. Right after coming out, a meteor exploded, sending debris flying everywhere and flame burning.

"Odd-Eyes Meteorburst Dragon!"

 **Odd-Eyes Meteorburst Dragon** FIRE/Dragon/Synchro/Effect/LV7/ **2500** /2000

"This is…!" Sawatari mumbled.

"The Synchro monster Yuya summoned during his duel with Akaba Reiji!"

"Otto! Contestant Sakaki Yuya has performed a Synchro Summon to a new dragon! Odd-Eyes Meteorburst Dragon~~~~" Nico commented. The audience cheered.

"Odd-Eyes Meteorburst Dragon's monster effect activates! From the Pendulum Scale, Creation Magician is Special Summoned!"

 **Creation Magician** DARK/Magician/Pendulum/Effect/LV4/Scale 8/ **500** /1500

"And then Creation Magician's effect! Its ATK becomes the same as Entermate Dog!" The female monster got a yellow aura.

 **Creation Magician** ATK 500 - 2800

"Yoss! Now Yuya got a monster with 2500 ATK and two 2800 ATK monsters!" Gongenzaka noted.

"If you want to beat me on one turn Sawatari, I will reply back to you with this!" Sawatari smiled cockily.

"Battle! Entermate Dog, attack Abyss Actor - Big Star!" The dog pounded the demonic actor, making it disintegrate.

 **Sawatari** : 2300 - 2000 [5]

"Since Odd-Eyes Meteorburst Dragon prevents you from activating monster effect during the Battle Phase, Pretty Heroine's effect does not work this time!" Yuya reminded Sawatari.

"Good! Now he just needs to attack with his remaining two monsters!"

"Creation Magician, attack Pretty Heroine!" The archer magician readied its bow. It then fired an arrow at the cute monster, destroying it again. Sawatari got inside the temple to avoid much of the blast.

 **Sawatari** : 2000 - 700 [5]

"After the attack from Creation Magician, Sawatari only has 700 LP left!" Nico did his usual job.

"No use hiding Sawatari! Just one more attack and it will be over!" Ignoring Yuya's words, Sawatari kept running. He found an Action Card between the wood pillars.

"This is the end! Meteorburst Dragon!" The dragon jumped up.

"Meteor Impact!" Multiple meteors materialized and flew at the temple. It collapsed and broke down completely, seemingly trapping Sawatari inside.

Everyone looked at the ruins cautiously, trying to see if there was any difference.

"Hey! Where are you looking!" The cocky voice of Sawatari could be heard and where he stood took everyone by surprise again:

Behind Sakaki Yuya!

 **Sawatari** : 700 [6]

"What?!" Yuya exclaimed in surprise. "How did you… uh!" He realized Big Star and Sassy Rookie were still standing.

"What the hell?! How could those monster still alive? They were destroyed earlier?!" Yuzu wondered. Sawatari answered by pulling out a card. "It is…!"

"Right. I banish Abyss Script - Miraculous Escape to negate the direct attack and summon the destroyed monsters back from the Extra Deck. Their effects are negated though."

"Otto! Using a trap in the grave, Sawatari Shingo has escaped his defeat!" Nico commented. The crowd cheered madly. "And it seemed that he had also grabbed an Action Card as well!"

"He has an Action Card in his hand, but he did not use it, instead he banished Miraculous Escape…" Yugo inspected.

"Does that Action Card not suitable in that attack? Or something else?" Yuto tried to predict. He had to admit this seemingly spoiled brat was a good duelist, he nearly defeated him back in the warehouse. And surely this guy had some unpredictable moves as well.

"Miraculous Escape allows you to draw a card as well." Sawatari said, Yuya drew one card after that. "If you cannot do anything anymore, please end your turn Yuya."

"I switch Comic Relief to Defense Position." The monster crouched down. "Then I will set down a card. Turn end." Yuya finished his second turn.

 **Creation Magician** ATK 2800 - 500

"Ore no turn, draw!"

"Now is the chance to activate this card! Action Magic, Break Ruin activate!" Sawatari activated the Action Card he got earlier.

"What? Break Ruin?!"

"Yep. You know Action Duels well, you should know what does this card do right?" Instantly the six cards in Sawatari's hand glowed purple before shooting out a stream at Yuya.

The Entertainment Duelist quickly ran below the drain-ditch, looking for an Action Card again.

"Please find one Yuya!" Yuzu said to her best friend.

He eventually found one below the ground and activated it while doing cartwheel to avoid the blast.

"Action Magic Acceleration!" The stream missed the target at the right moment, saving Yuya from 1800 effect damage.

"In danger of losing LP, Sakaki Yuya activated an Action Card that prevents it at the right time!" Nico commented.

"Such Action Duels, Action Cards… interesting." Yusei whistiled.

"Right." Yuzu said. "The scattered cards can change the situation of the duel in any instant."

"Right now Yuya has Comic Relief in Defense, Meteorburst Dragon with 2500 ATK, Entermate Dog with 2800 ATK and Creation Magician with 500 ATK." Yuto commented.

" _If he uses Funky Comedian's Pendulum Effect to destroy Creation, I will still have LP remaining and my other monsters are stronger than his other monsters!"_ Yuya attempted to calm himself down.

"You think I would go for battle with Creation Magician don't you?" Sawatari suddenly said, Yuya was like being caught red-handed indicated by his shock face. "Too predictable Yuya! From my hand, Continuous Magic Abyss Script - Abyssal Entertainment activate! Twice per turn, I can release an "Abyss Actor" monster to set an Abyss Script Magic Card down from the grave!"

"The hell?"

"I released Big Star and Funky Comedian whose effects are negated…" The two monsters disintegrated. "To set Opening Ceremony and Fantasy Magic down on my field!" Sawatari took out two Magic cards from his grave slot and set it down.

"Shit… With Fantasy Magic, he can return Meteorburst back to the Extra Deck since it is not a monster effect…"

"But that would be boring… I want the ending to be lively! With the existing Pendulum Scales, Pendulum Shōkan!" Four monsters descended.

"Reborn from the Extra Deck! Abyss Actor - Big Star! Sassy Rookie! Pretty Heroine!"

"Finally from my hand, Abyss Actor - Wild Hope!"

 **Abyss Actor - Wild Hope** DARK/Demon/Pendulum/Effect/LV4/Scale 2/ **1600** /1200

"And then Reverse Card open! Abyss Script - Opening Ceremony!" Sawatari activated one of his set cards. "For each Abyss Actor monster I control, I gain 500 LP!"

 **Sawatari** : 700 - 2700 [4]

"From my hand, I activate Abyss Script - Rise of the Demon King! For each Abyss Actor monster I control, one card my opponent controls shall be destroyed!"

"What?!"

"He has 4 monsters so…"

"He can destroy four cards Yuya controls?!"

"I will not lose that quickly!" Yuya ran to the smaller temple on the right, looking for an Action Card.

"Useless!" Sawatari quickly acted. "Since I control a Level 7 Big Star, you cannot activate any effects in response!"

"No way!" Yuya gasped as he grabbed an Action Card.

" _Haizzz…"_ It would not do anything good right now. The card shot out four separate purple streams which destroyed Yuya's monsters, leaving only Gumgumouton remaining!

"This is not good! Contestant Sawatari has cleared Sakaki Yuya's field completely!" Nico commented at this massive field-clearing.

"Yuya only has 4000 LP!"

"And if he took the four monsters' attacks then…"

"He will lose this time!"

"Finally, I activate Funky Comedian's Pendulum effect!" Sassy Rookie disintegrated while Big Star absorbed its resulting yellow dust.

 **Abyss Actor - Big Star** ATK 2500 - 4200

"ATK… 4200!" Yuya said.

"Battle! Abyss Actor - Big Star, Sakaki Yuya direct attack!" Sawatari yelled at the top of his lungs, the actor created an energy sphere and blasted at the ground where Yuya was standing nearby, causing a huge explosion.

"Yuya!" Yuzu screamed.

"So sorry for you!" Yuya suddenly said.

"What?" Sawatari realized Yuya was still standing well and alive, with Meteorburst on the field!

"Odd-Eyes… Meteorburst Dragon?!"

 **Yuya** : 4000 - 1900 [3]

"Right. During the direct attack, I banish Entermate Dog to halve the battle damage, then I special summon an "Odd-Eyes" monster from the graveyard. Just like what you did earlier, but its effects are still intact."

"Hm." Sawatari chuckled. "Same trick huh?"

The crowd cheered.

The Lancers sighed in relief, especially Yuzu.

"He nearly gave us a shock there…" Yuzu muttered.

"Since we are still in the Battle Phase, you cannot activate Fantasy Magic, therefore you cannot spin Meteorburst. So, what are you going to do Sawatari?"

"I still have Action Cards!" Sawatari protested. He managed to find an Action Card on the ground not far. "It is!"

"No! Action Magic, Crush Action!" Yuya quickly answered, the card in Sawatari's hand disintegrated.

"Dammit…" Sawatari hissed. "I set down a card. Turn end…!"

 **Abyss Actor - Big Star** ATK 4200 - 2500

"Ore no turn…" Yuya touched his card. _"This draw will decide the duel…"_

"Draw!"

He looked at the card and gasped.

Yuya eyed at Sawatari, smiling. "It's here…"

"Don't tell me?!"

"From my hand, Magic Card, Duelist Advent activate!" The card materialized, showing the image of a pendant similar to Yuya's own swinging, leaving drawing arcs during its swings. "Since I have a card in the Pendulum Zone, I can add a card with "Pendulum" in its name."

"Add a "Pendulum" card?! Don't you say…!" Sawatari realized only one card Yuya would add right now.

"Right! I add Odd-Eyes Pendulum Dragon to my hand! And then Reverse Card open! Pendulum Reborn! Appear from the Extra Deck, Resonate Magician!" A portal opened on the ground, Resonate Magician rose up from it.

"Then, Field Magic Sky Iris activate! By destroying Gumgumouton, I add Odd-Eyes Fusion to my hand!" The only card in Yuya's Pendulum Zone waved goodbye before it disappeared. Yuya then showed the added card.

"You destroy a Pendulum card? How can you summon Odd-Eyes Pendu-" Yuzu suddenly remembered the card Yuya added earlier.

"Magic Card! Odd-Eyes Fusion activate!" A Fusion vortex appeared behind him. "I use monsters from my hand or field to perform a Fusion Summon for a Dragon monster!"

Yuya quickly looked at Yuto, Ruri and Shun to make sure they would not hate the thing he would do, and he was glad to find them approving with thumb-ups.

"The materials I will use are Odd-Eyes Pendulum Dragon and Resonate Magician!" Two monsters materialized, joining in the Fusion spiral.

"Wielder of mysterious powers, become the bright light in the eyes of the dragon! Yūgō Shōkan! Come forth! Arcane dragon wielder of ancient magic!"

"Rune-Eyes Pendulum Dragon!"

 **Rune-Eyes Pendulum Dragon** DARK/Dragon/Fusion/Effect/LV8/ **3000** /2500

"Rune… Rune-Eyes?!"

"Yes! With Rune-Eyes Yuya can win the duel!" Ruri quickly realized.

"Since I use the Level 6 Resonate Magician, Rune-Eyes can attack up to three times! Battle!" Yuya immediately declared the Battle Phase. Rune-Eyes charged energy on its disc, forming a triangle with teal blue outline.

"Rune-Eyes, attack Pretty Heroine! Rengeki no… Shiny Burst!" One orb on Rune-Eyes Pendulum Dragon's disc shot out a blue energy stream, hitting Pretty Heroine in an instant, the stream also hit one of the wood pillars of the temple behind Sawatari.

"With this attack, Sawatari Shingo will only have 1200 LP!" Nico said. "And Rune-Eyes still have two more attacks, will this be the end of Sawatari-eh?" Suddenly, a physical object resembling a crescent moon flew down from the sky, hitting Rune-Eyes' head and creating multiple fireworks. Rune-Eyes roared and shone up before turning into a face-down card in Defense Position.

"Rune-Eyes!" Yuya yelled in dismay. "What happened?!" He turned to Sawatari and was shocked at the sight of a shining card.

"Is that…" He muttered. "Book of Moon?!"

"Right." Sawatari confirmed. "This card targets a monster on the field and changes it to face-down Defense Position."

"No way…!" Yuzu tried to deny the truth, but it was no use.

"With this, you cannot use Rune-Eyes to attack me anymore Yuya."

"Tsk… But I still have Meteorburst! Go now, Odd-Eyes Meteorburst Dragon, attack Abyss Actor - Pretty Heroine!" The dragon conjured meteors behind it, ready to send it at the female heroine.

Sawatari ran to the last temple behind him to try to find an Action Card. At the same time however, Yuya ran down to the drain-ditch near the downed temple again, trying to get an Action Card.

"It's here! Action Magic, Bi-Attack!"

"What?!" Sawatari gasped in shock, stopping running.

"Meteorburst Dragon's ATK is doubled!" Fire formed behind Meteorburst into fiery wings, creating a blast that knocked Sawatari down.

 **Odd-Eyes Meteorburst Dragon** ATK 2500 - 5000

"Yoss! Meteorburst's ATK is 5000!" Gongenzaka said.

Yuto chimed in. "With this, Sawatari will take 3500 damage!"

"This is the end! Meteor Impact!" The dragon sent the meteors at Pretty Heroine, it screamed before being exploded, creating a thick smoke.

"Once again, Sakaki Yuya has answered Sawatari's resistance with an Action Card Bi-Attack. Is Sawatari going to survive this, or will he lose?" Nico commented excitedly.

Yuya smiled, looking at the thick smoke.

"I won…"

…

…

KURIKURI!

"Eh?!"

"What the?!"

"What is that?!" The smoke cleared, revealing a cute rounded monster with grey fur all over its body, two adorable eyes, small clawed hands and feet. It jumped up and down before it disappeared.

 **Sawatari** : 2700 [0]

"During damage calculation." Sawatari explained. "I discarded Kuriboh in my hand to avoid that 3500 battle damage. Also before that I chained Action Magic Dawn of Prime to negate Meteorburst's effects." Yuya noticed the shining image of that card next to Sawatari.

"Dammit…"

"So sorry for you Sakaki Yuya. What are you going to do now?"

Yuya had no other choice but to set down a card. "One card set, turn end…"

"Don't be sad, you managed to force me to use all of my hand just to survive this turn, be proud of yourself." Sawatari assured him. "But this turn I will not be that easy anymore!"

"Ore no turn…"

"Draw!" Sawatari proceeded with his turn. _"Hm… not a monster with enough ATK to boost another with Funky Comedian, but I have another way to win…"_

"With the existing Pendulum Scale, Pendulum Shōkan!"

"Reborn from the Extra Deck, Sassy Rookie!"

" _Sassy Rookie's ATK is 1700, not enough to boost attack points to beat my LP. What is he going to do?"_ Yuya thought with a smile in the last sentence.

"Everyone!" Sawatari suddenly said. "Please look my field for a moment shall we? We have the Level 7 Abyss Actor - Big Star, Level 4 Wild Hope…"

"And Level 4 Sassy Rookie!"

"Two Level 4 monsters!" One audience said.

"Is Sawatari going to… No way!" Yuto suddenly noticed.

"Right. I, using the Level 4 Abyss Actor - Wild Hope and Sassy Rookie, Overlay!" The two demonic actors turned into purple swirls of energy and crashed down to the Overlay Network.

"Savior of the fantasy, come out to the world and protect the peace it deserves! Xyz Shōkan!"

"Appear now Rank 4!" From the Overlay Network, a new monster came out. It had black skin, one big eye, brown hair, it wore a skintight blue suit with the letters "AA" on the front, white stripes. It also wore a cape on its back as well.

"Abyss Actor - Action Hero!"

 **Abyss Actor - Action Hero** DARK/Demon/Xyz/Effect/R4/ **2400** /1200

"This is…"

"An Abyss Actor Xyz monster!" Yuya said the obvious.

"Of all the expectations, Sawatari Shingo summons a new Abyss Actor Xyz monster!" Nico said. The crowd had a thing to cheer again.

"Let's go Sakaki Yuya! When this card is Xyz Summoned, I can add an Abyss Script card from my graveyard to my hand." Sawatari pulled out Opening Ceremony and activated it.

 **Sawatari** : 2700 - 3700 [1]

"And now Abyss Actor - Action Hero's monster effect activates!" An Overlay Unit disintegrated. "By detaching an Overlay Unit, I attach Big Star to it and increase its ATK!" Big Star turned into an Overlay Unit and hovered around Action Hero.

 **Abyss Actor - Action Hero** ATK 2400 - 4900

"4900 ATK!"

"If it attacks, Yuya will lose!"

"It will not happen that easy!" Yuya defended himself with his set card. Trap Card, Misdirection Wing activate!" Multiple white feather wings flew out, hitting Sawatari's Action Hero. "In this turn, your card effects and activation are negated and Meteorburst gains 800 ATK!"

"If a card effect is activated, I can detach an Overlay Unit from Action Hero to negate and destroy it!" Sawatari quickly countered. Action Hero punched an Overlay Unit and used its power to destroy the image of Misdirection Wing.

"No!" Yuya yelled.

"Now the duel will be over! Battle!" Sawatari declared. "Abyss Actor - Action Hero, attack Odd-Eyes Meteorburst Dragon!" The monster ran towards Meteorburst, Yuya's dragon fired a stream at it but Action Hero resisted, continued charging.

"Abyss Hero Punch!" Action Hero delivered a megaton punch at the face of Meteorburst Dragon. It yelled painfully before exploding, knocking Yuya back in defeat.

 **Yuya** : 1900 - 0 [0]

"The duel is finished! The winner of this Duel is Sawatari Shingo!" Nico announced the winner, who smiled proudly at himself. The Action Field disintegrated, the stadium returned to normal. Everyone at the seats yelled, expect the You Show squad who felt sad for Yuya's loss.

"No way…" Yuzu muttered.

"Yuya lost the duel…" Gongenzaka said sadly.

"Don't think too hard about it." Yuto said.

"Look at Yuya Yuzu. He's smiling again, thanks to Sawatari." Ruri told the pink-haired girl.

Sawatari gave Yuya a helping hand, which he accepted. "I won now."

"Uh." Yuya smiled back. "But I will reclaim it next time. Thank you for reminding me of who I am and what I need to do Sawatari. Hope your father will recover soon."

"Thank you Yuya." They shook hands, the crowd clapped their hands at this display of sportsmanship. The rest of the Lancer also did it.

They went to their friends who smiled back at them.

"That was a good duel Yuya, Sawatari!" Yugo said to them.

"It is." Yuya replied. "And Yuto, Ruri, Shun." He turned to the Xyz survivors.

He looked at them for a moment, as if to say sorry through the eyes, before saying.

"I want to talk to all of you tonight. At the park. Got it?"

"Got it." Yuto answered.

"It's nice right Ruri?" Yuzu told the purple-haired girl. "You are free of your guilt now!"

"Yeah…" Ruri nervously smiled back.

"But can you leave us for some time Yuya?" Shun requested, he then pressed Yuto and Ruri's shoulders again. "I need to have some time with my sister… and my best friend…"

Yuto and Ruri sweatdropped.

"Stop it Shun. You want to let the audience know that you are jealous because your sister wants something normal for her well-being?" Yugo joked.

"You…!" Shun gasped, slightly embarrassed. The Lancers smiled hugely.

Well, at least the storm is over before another one…

* * *

 **Fanfic OC Cards**

 **Abyss Actor - Action Hero**

DARK/Demon/Xyz/Effect/R4/2400/1200

2 Level 4 "Abyss Actor" monsters.

If this card is Xyz Summoned: You can add 1 "Abyss Script" Magic Card from your GY to your hand. You can detach 1 material from this card: attach 1 "Abyss Actor" monster you control or face-up from your Extra Deck to it as an material, and if you do, it gains ATK equal to its original ATK until the end of this turn. When your opponent activates a card effect: You can detach 1 material from this card; negate the activation, and if you do, destroy it. If this card is destroyed by battle or an opponent's card effect: You can add 1 "Abyss Actor" monster from your GY to your hand. You can only use each effect of "Abyss Actor - Action Hero" once per turn.

* * *

 **Phew! Wish I could have finished this sooner but I am busy with a lot of nonsenses. And I will now hide for a while to avoid outburst form you guys because of my doing of Sawatari's characterization and winning against Yuya (seriously this guy never wins solo). But to be honest, divorce affects kids very badly, and I kind of see that in Sawatari despite the anime treats him as nothing more of a comic relief.**

 **One thing I hate about ARC-V is Yuya never finds out Shun and Selena have carded people. A person like him would never willingly work with those two so I created this situation.**

 **For some reason, Konami denies Abyss Actor an Extra Deck monster so I created one for him. Since of the Lancers' Standard members, Yuzu uses Fusion and Gongenzaka uses Synchro I decided to make him use Xyz. And does anyone catch Yugi there with Kuriboh?**

 **I got a request: During the beginning of the Synchro arc, I would like to have Yusei, Aki and Yugo duel against three members of Lancers in order to make them get used to Riding Duel (yeah I know it's a spoiler there). Which three Lancers do you want me to do?**

* * *

 **Next Chapter Preview**

 **The Precious Time before The New Journey.**

The Lancers, Academia and You Show Duel School in the Fusion Dimension have a peaceful day before the new storm comes in. It seems the Synchro Dimension is the new goal to all sides…

 **This is matrixnis, out!**


	37. Scale 37

**Hello everyone! I am glad you all liked the last chapter with an important win that Sawatari deserved!**

 **Sorry for the long delay, I have started a new life as a university student and oh my god… it is very tiring. I tried to write as much as possible but life doesn't agree so this chapter was late. Sorry about that.**

 **This chapter will be a refreshed one before the storm.**

 **Let's get started now!**

* * *

 **Chapter 37: The Precious Time before the New Journey**

* * *

"What the hell has happened here…?"

Was Yuri's shocked question when he, Yuma, Darkness and Sora returned to tunnel of Academia. Instead of the usual silence this fortress gave off, it was filled with many students wearing protective gear while fixing the partially destroyed tunnel. Debris lied down everywhere, across the walkways and the water.

Darkness grabbed an Osiris Red and asked him.

"Do you know what happened here?"

The student mumbled, shocked by the elite's sudden appearance.

"Dark…Darkness-sama…?" He noticed Yuma, Yuri and Sora were also there behind Darkness. "Sora-sama? Yuri-sama and Yuma-sama?"

"Tell me! I have no time!" He yanked the collar of his red shirt, pulling him closer to his face.

"Ah-ah-yes!"

"Calm down Darkness-sama." Sora eased the tension down. "What the hell happened here?"

"Sora-sama, while you four and the Obelisk Force were in Standard, three people ambushed the fortress and took the hostage away."

"What?! Ambush? Hostage?!" Yuri said out loud. He frantically approached him. "Who? What do you mean hostage?"

"I am sorry Yuri-sama… the hostage was gone with them. They escaped our grasp…"

"Damn you!" Yuri punched him in anger. "It's just three people and a weak girl! Why couldn't you handle them?"

"But they are not ordinary ones…"

"Ordinary ones?!" Yuma wondered. He pried Yuri and Darkness's hands off the student. "Who are they?"

"They are…" He hesitated to answer before eventually doing it. "An adult named Yusho or some kind-"

"Yusho?! Sakaki Yusho?!" Yuma gasped at the name.

"You know him?" Darkness asked.

"Yep. He was our former teacher at Clover Branch in Heartland." Yuma explained. "Rumors said he dueled you and escaped for some reason."

"We attacked his hideout and I dueled but he escaped in front of my eyes." Darkness said, remembering the time he and Yusho confronted and dueled each other. "He used the dimension travel program… reluctantly."

"What do you mean?" Yuri asked.

"We were dueling at Heartland back then. He was injured. But suddenly a Resistance helped him and decided to teleport him out of this dimension." Darkness said with a frown look, failing to card him to help accelerate the Arc Area Project.

"All right, who's the other two?" Yuma asked the student.

"One of them is…" He worriedly looked at Darkness before continuing. "Former Honor Student Tenjoin Asuka."

"Little bratty sister…" Darkness mumbled emotionlessly, his frowned face did not help much.

"The final one is… Hell Kaiser Ryo."

Yuri became angry at being reminded of his failure. Besides the Professor, Yuri, Darkness, Sora and other high-ranking members of Academia, no one knew about this.

"Hell Kaiser?!" Yuma gritted his teeth in shock. "Your spy at Resistance?!"

"Spy?" Sora wondered.

"Ever since Professor "recruited" me, I learned a lot about how this place works! He planted a spy in many Resistance bases, then that spy waits until the right moment, which Academia will send forces to wipe it out at the most unexpected times! And that spy is-"

"Marufuji Ryo!" Darkness suddenly raised his voice. "My former friend! A traitor to Academia along with his younger brother! Just like you puny shit Yuma!" He stood close to him, eyes full with intent on killing the former Resistance soldier.

"Remember why you are here! We can cut off the deal anytime and let your mother-"

"SHUT THE HELL UP!" Yuma delivered a punch to Darkness' face, knocking off the mask he was wearing. "Don't ever mention her in front of me again!"

"You piece of shit!" Darkness cursed and he got up, ready to trade a few punches with Yuma.

"Sir, please stop!" The Osiris Red student tried to stop him but Darkness flung him down to the river. He also knocked several more workers out while they also tried to stop him and continued approaching Yuma.

"You two! Stop!" Yuri stood between Yuma and Darkness. Yuri held back Yuma and pushed Darkness away forcefully. "Stay back!"

"Yuri?!" Darkness voiced his surprise at Yuri's act. "You are helping the freaking traitor?!"

"He has a reason to be, just like your friend Ryo." Yuri said with uncharacteristically calmness and smother, shocking Yuma and Sora and of course, Darkness. "For a close relative, unlike your sister Asuka!"

"You…!" Darkness became shocked but Sora quickly held him back, not wanting to have a big and unnecessary fight at the tunnel. He grabbed the mask and wore it back on his face.

Another student helped the Osiris Red up and got out of the tunnel. "Keep doing what you're doing." He told the rest of the workers.

"And by the way." That student told the higher-ups. "The Professor wants to see you as soon as you return."

"Professor? What is this?" Sora asked. "Whatever…"

"Let's go." Yuri said. They all come but clearly Darkness was hesitant to do it.

"Why did you help me back there Yuri?" Yuma whispered to him.

"…I…" Yuri did not know what to say to him.

"Don't know…"

During the way to the Professor's room, they saw what Yusho, Asuka, Ryo and Rin did to the place. Several ceilings were destroyed, and so did the control room. Luckily those were the only places that were affected. When they got to the ground level, it was completely fine besides the darkened puddle of blood near the stairs of the West Tower which was covered. There were several Ra Yellow students guarding there thanks to the infiltration.

"What is this?" Sora asked a Ra Yellow nearby.

"Diana felt off the towel and die." He reported simply and straightforwardly like a real soldier.

"That's it?"

"Yes sir."

"Professor should not have hired that bitch…" Darkness mumbled. "Her parents do not know that his friend recruited her to be a guard instead of being a teacher here. Academia really knows how to use its influence to hide its truth to the rest of the world."

"The Fusion and Synchro Dimension to be exact." Yuma corrected him in a mocking tone.

"Stop saying!" Darkness ordered in an annoyed tone.

"We're basically in the same rank, so you cannot order me."

Darkness attempted to start a fight with Yuma again but Sora and Yuri solved it quickly by forcing Darkness back.

"Stop this nonsense!" Was Yuri's only order.

They remained silent as they walked into the fortress. Later they were at the Professor's room. Large, dark, mostly empty with only a throne and several pillars were the only words to describe this room. Yuma, Sora, Yuri and Darkness all bowed down in front of the Professor.

"Professor." They said respectfully.

"Good to see all of you back, get up." He calmly said, showing nothing but calm in his face. They all knew one thing though that he was angry at their failure, especially Yuri who was sweating in nervousness.

"As far as I can see, the campaign was a complete failure. We could not capture back Selena, also you failed to capture Hiragi Yuzu and Kurosaki Ruri."

"I ah… I am sorry Professor. It's my failure…" Yuri replied with slight hesitation, as if he feared what the Professor would do if he said so.

"Don't worry, I don't blame you. At least we now know that my dear son Akaba Reiji had formed a group of duelist to fight against us. Besides as you can see, this place was under attack when you were in Standard."

"They are really good…" Yuri mumbled. "And how could Hell Kaiser Ryo survived the carding Professor? I carded him!"

"Sakaki Yusho." Was Leo's simple reply.

"Sakaki Yusho…" Yuri said, gritting his teeth in anger. "That son of a bitch…!"

"I know how much you want to make him pay for your failure, but I do not allow you to do it. He is my former friend, no one can harm him but me." Leo said firmly, his baritone voice made Yuri as nervous as always. "If any one of you dares to hurt him without me knowing, I will punish you. Got it?"

They all bowed. "Yes Professor."

Leo then turned to Darkness. "Fubuki."

He looked up at him.

"Your work is done here. Now go back to Heartland."

"Roger that." He complied and got out of his room to go to the transportation room located at the basement. As he turned around, he gave a dangerous glare at Yuma, who said nothing and remained calm.

After Darkness was out of the room, the Professor gestured the rest to stand up.

"That's it for today. You are dismissed. Take a rest, we will hold a meeting about our enemy tomorrow. We have a lot of things to do today."

"Yes Professor!" Yuri, Yuma and Sora bowed before leaving the room. After going across a corner, Sora parted ways and went to his room, leaving Yuri and Yuma behind.

"We need to talk about something." Yuma whispered to the psychotic soldier.

"About what?"

"Why wasn't Yuto carded when I tried to?"

Yuri recalled the moment. Honestly he did not know how Yuto could survive being carded like that. After a duelist lost, his or her Duel Disk which acted like a shield will stop working, making that dueslit vulnerable to the carding process. That was what happened to Yuto, but somehow he survived it which bothered them greatly. Darkness and Sora were not there to witness it and they did not need to know, neither did the Professor. This would be their secret for a while.

"I really don't know." Yuri replied.

"And that is not the only strange thing. You need to remember that you share the same faces as the other three boys."

"Yuya, Yuto and Yugo." He chuckled at Yugo's name, remembering what he did with his emotions. Yuma gave him a glare.

"Selena-ah sorry, Ruri also shares the same faces as Yuzu, Rin and her. This is definitely not coincidental and the Professor does not open anything about it, even for us." Yuma pointed out.

They stood there saying nothing, thinking about the strange things happened today, the secret Professor hid them. Eventually they could not hold it anymore.

Yuri sighed. "Maybe I need to take a day off, resting. You take care your mother, she may need you now."

"Uh… fine." Yuma said awkwardly and walked off.

Suddenly he stopped. "Yuri?" He said, not turning around.

"Yeah?"

"I want you to be honest."

Seconds passed, only silence.

"Why are you nice to me now even though you want to kill me earlier?"

Yuri froze, not knowing what to say.

His inner conflict rose up.

On one hand, he swore to himself that he would only care about himself after that moment, three years ago…

When the only person who treated him like a real friend and life partner betrayed him.

On the other hand, he still could not get rid of their images, their warm ones.

Barrett… his only father figure…

Selena…

…

His former friend…

And now Yuma as well, though it would be more because of his predicament…

" _What's wrong with me…?"_ Yuri asked, hoping anyone who could read his mind help him find an answer.

But there was no one since he did not say a thing.

" _Huh… Stupid Yuri…"_

He finally managed to answer.

"Your mother…"

Yuri finally returned to his room, leaving Yuma wonder for a bit, before he eventually went to his mother's room as well…

* * *

"You are injured. Let me get you help." Asuka said, and without giving Rin a second to voice her refusal she escorted her. They went across a corner before getting into a room.

"We're here." Asuka said as she knocked the door.

Seconds later, a male voice could be heard. "Who's there?"

"It's Asuka. We got a patient to help." She said.

"All right. Come in."

Asuka opened the door. There was a person dressed in a white longcoat like that of a doctor sitting at the desk at the right corner of the room opposite the door.

"Hello Asuka. Good thing that you're back. Where's the patient?"

"She's right next to me." Asuka stepped to the sides, allowing the doctor to see Rin. She had brushed all over her faces, arms, hands and legs from the torture and escape.

"Is this the girl you, Ryo and Yusho-sensei freed from Academia?"

"Yes."

He greeted Rin. "Hello. What is your name?"

"My name is Rin." Rin answered.

"Rin. Nice to see you. Don't worry, we are not here to hurt you, we are here to help you, protect you from Academia."

"Thank you…" She whispered warmly, for now she was sure she would be fine after all the nightmare.

"Rin, come to the doctor, you need help." Asuka told her, and Rin accepted. He did a full check-up on her, it took quite a while with all of the usual tasks that Rin found it surprising since she never had one before, which surprised the doctor and Asuka.

"I uh I… I am sorry, I never go through a damn long process like this-" She frantically explained very nervously.

"It's fine." Asuka reassured her. She did not say anything more because she knew why Rin never had a medical check-up like this: being an orphan. Luckily, the doctor understood it as well.

"Here are your medicines. Take it according to the instructions I give you and you will be fine." He handed Rin the bag of medicine and two pieces of paper.

"Thank you." Rin thanked him politely. She and Asuka got off the room.

Asuka then guided her to the shower room to get Rin to clean herself up nicely before taking a rest. Rin was touched by this as she rarely got a proper shower back in Synchro.

"Thanks a lot Asuka-san."

"No problem." Asuka said back and got clothes for her. She took the basket then she went to the locker nearby and opened it. She took a long, thoughtful and solemn look on the only clothes inside it.

A sleeveless white shirt and a pink skirt, along with a white belt and a pink pad…

" _Brother…"_

…

…

This was Asuka's clothes that her brother brought for her when she was younger. He brought it as a birthday present to her. At first she disliked it due to getting another skirt to wear on, but after her brother went to Academia to learn Dueling there she missed him a lot, so she decided to wear it to remember him before eventually enrolling in the school as well.

Or rather, a military base that Professor had corrupted which she never saw it that way until six months ago.

She was taught to be a trained soldier and eventually she got to the rank of Honor Student, which gained her a lot of fame. Her beauty also helped it a lot. With this, she was excited to be on the front lines to fight alongside his brother, who was sent there before her as the leader of the Academia base in Xyz. But then a female Osiris Red student confessed what Academia really did, she also told her that her brother Tenjoin Fubuki was too brainwashed by Academia's teaching that he could not be swayed anymore. Too shocked by this, Asuka decided to leave with her on a speedboat at night. But as they were about to get ashore the security guards that Academia hired spotted them and carded the poor Osiris Red on sight. To her luck, Sakaki Yusho was there to rescue her. From there she became his number one student and along with Ryo they helped many other students disillusioned with the Professor's teaching escape and form a Duel School underground, where they were taught to bring smiles with their Dueling instead of horror. To be honest Yusho, Asuka or Ryo did not completely know if this would work 100% or not and surely it would not work on her brother, but it worked out pretty well for others so far.

Asuka snapped out of her trance when Rin spoke up.

"Asuka-san?"

"Ah…yes?"

"Can you please tell me more about how you escaped?"

"Uh, yeah. I think I should… and maybe Ryo as well."

She then proceeded to tell her everything about her wanting to be in the front lines, realizing the real image of Academia and escaping, exactly what she recalled earlier.

"To be honest, I never realized you were captured." Asuka told Rin. "This is probably some kind of top secret in there, only few members know this. But after what happened today, a lot will know."

"It may be good I think. Many students will realize more about Academia and escape." Rin guessed.

"Not too much. Their teachings are surprisingly effective and if you try to escape, security guards can card you on sight. I was lucky to be here."

"Card on sight…" Rin slightly gasped, finding it similar to the situation of her hometown. She sighed deeply. "Haizz… They surely do not even care about the lives of the students don't they? They are their pawns to battle in their place after all."

"Pawns are expendable, they have many pawns to spare. That's how Academia sees us." Asuka said bitterly. "Unless you are truly devoted to it like a cultist. That's what happened to my brother."

"You have a brother?" Rin voiced her surprise.

"Yes. His name is Tenjoin Fubuki, or Darkness as he calls himself. He joined Academia before I did, which by then he was appointed as the Commander of the Academia force in the Xyz dimension. He told me that he was fighting for a glorious purpose, uniting the four dimension. I did not think much about it back then and I thought Academia was doing the right thing, so I tried my best during my stay at Academia to prove my skills to the Professor to be able to stand in the front lines. But then I found out what Academia really did and hated it, I tried to warn my brother about it but their teaching brainwashed him, he told me he hated me for not sharing the same beliefs about Academia, he even threatened to card me as well…" Asuka told the story with sadness slowly became more evident during the later part.

"So you escaped on your own." Rin concluded.

"That's right. And the rest is story. I love my brother, but I don't think I would be able to bring him back to who he used to be, a loving brother…"

"During the time like this." Rin tried to lighten Asuka's mood. "It's best to hope. You cannot bring him back now, but you can hope. Hope that you can talk through him one day, hope that your brother will understand you one day. Thanks to hope, I was able to survive the competitive society with Yugo and others back in City."

"I hope so." Asuka said, forcing a smile.

Rin peaked out of the rug of the shower room. "Thank you Asuka-san. Hope you can bring your brother back."

"No problem. Here's your clothes."

Rin took the basket and was surprised to see it had pink on it.

"Oh! Pink! It's my favorite color! How do you know Asuka-san?"

"I honestly don't know. But I do think a girl living in a harsh condition like you wouldn't like pink!"

"I like the pink color. Appearance can be deceiving you know." Rin wore the clothes and got out.

"It's beautiful! It fits you a lot Rin!" Asuka complimented Rin on her new clothes.

"Thanks a lot Asuka-san. I wonder one thing, is this… your clothes?"

"Yes." Asuka confirmed. "My brother brought this as a birthday present for me. I was not really a big fan of pink skirt at that time but I respected him. I used to wear it when he joined Academia."

"It's nice." Rin said. "I never got a birthday present, I don't even know my birthday either…"

The room became silent as Asuka and Rin stopped talking, neither knowing what to say. Finally,

"Alright. You had a harsh day, let's take a rest shall we?"

"Uh… fine. And sorry about that Asuka-san."

"No need to, I don't mind. Really…" Asuka reassured the blue-haired girl. She then escorted Rin to a guest room which she said Yusho had reserved for her the moment he got information about her.

"He planned that far ahead?" Rin said with surprise.

"Yes. Once he plans something, he will do his best to finish it, and the aftermath as well. He's kind, caring and understanding."

Asuka used a key to open the door to Rin's room. Since they were underground, the room was dark. Asuka solved it by turning the light on.

A pretty large room with decent space, a large bed on the right corner, a desk besides it and a closet on another corner. There was also a bathroom on another end as well.

"It's nice! And clean!" Rin exclaimed.

"Glad you like it. We are not sure if this suits you or not." Asuka said.

"You, Ryo-san and Yusho-san has already done a lot to me, I owe you for life. You don't need to say that!"

"We help people in need. Now take a rest."

"Thank you." Rin replied. Asuka handed her the key and walked off the room. Rin took a long time admiring the room. It was way better than the one she had in the orphanage which was small, dark and had leak spots all over. She mentally thanked Yusho, Ryo and Asuka a lot for freeing her and giving her a comfortable room to recover. She realized she would need to repay them somehow so she shut down her plan of escaping.

After applying the paste tube on her skin and rubbing it, Rin turned on the ceiling fan, turned off the lights and went to a deep sleep.

" _Thank you a lot, Yusho-san, Ryo-san and Asuka-san. I will never forget what you did for me. And Yusei, Aki, Yugo…"_

" _I will see you soon…"_

She closed her eyes, losing herself in a deep sleep.

* * *

After the duel between Sakaki Yuya and Sawatari Shingo, everyone took a rest while Reiji went back to work. According to Nakajima, Reiji would be creating new Pendulum cards for the Lancers, which bothered Shun at first since he did not want to work with someone else but he eventually did with the persuasion from his sister Ruri. Aki, Yugo, Yusei and Selena went to LDS and stayed in rooms where Reiji had reserved for, Selena and Yuzu had traded their clothes back. Gongenzaka was now practicing Dueling with his father to gain his approval to be a Lancer and Sawatari was taking care of his father whose assistant was now in his place. As for the Synchro people, they kept their D-Wheels at the underground garage where an LDS worker said he would check on it to see how it worked Shun, Yuto and Ruri decided to tell the truth to everyone involved, namely Shuzo, Yoko and the kids after Reiji had neutralized the nano substance in her body.

Yuya first got into the house to see Yoko. She froze when she saw him and Yuya did as well. Tears began to form in her eyes and without wasting any more precious seconds she ran to Yuya and hugged him tightly. Yuya hugged her back just as strong and cried as well.

"Yuya…! Yuya my boy! You are finally here! I have finally found you…!" Yoko mumbled between hiccups.

"It's fine mother! I am glad you are fine!" Yuya said back, tears running down from his face and into Yoko's shirt. Shuzo looked on warmly, smiling.

"Where have you been Yuya? Do you know how worried I was? You stupid! You're too stupid Yuya! You scared me a lot in those days!" She berated Yuya with pure caring. Beneath those words were the sweetness only a mother could give to a person, and Yuya knew it very well.

"I am sorry mom, I know I have failed you. I made you worry but I am sure I will not do it again."

They remained silent for a while, not separating from one another before they eventually did, returning to the real, harsh world.

"All right mom, let me go."

After separating himself from Yoko, Yuya looked at Shuzo.

"Ruri is waiting outside as you want to. I will call her in. And please, don't be too harsh on her."

At the door of the Hiragi residence, Ruri signaled Shun and Yuto to stay outside, she would only get inside with Yuya and Yuzu.

"I know you two want to accompany me, but I need to do this alone."

"We cannot let you do this Ruri!" Shun protested.

"I must be the only one to go in there. I lied to Yuzu's father, I need to apologize him, Yoko-obasan and the kids as well." Ruri insisted.

"We will help her, don't worry Kurosaki, Yuto." Yuzu told him. "And Kurosaki, please don't hurt Yuto." Yuto awkwardly looked at her before sweatdropping at the sight of the angry Kurosaki Shun.

"Stop brother! Don't embarrass me in front of them!" Ruri sighed. At this time, Yuya opened the door and waved a hand to them.

"Come on, let's get inside! Yuto and Kurosaki stay outside, you are not involved in this."

Ruri and Yuzu then got inside. They saw Shuzo already standing in the hallway and were slightly startled.

"Father?" Yuzu nervously said.

Shuzo took a long look at the teenagers, especially the purple-haired girl.

"Everyone. Get inside. We are going to have a long talk. Yoko has already dealt with the kids, she's inside right now."

Without further awkward eye contacts they got into the living room. True to Shuzo's words, Yoko was sitting in seiza looking at them seriously.

"Sit down." Shuzo said and sat in the seiza position as well.

Yuya, Yuzu and Ruri reluctantly do the same, especially Ruri who sat the rightmost, opposite to the adults.

"You know why we are here." Shuzo started. "We need to get things straight. First off Ruri."

"Yes Shuzo-san?" Ruri said.

"You are not from here, or rather, this dimension as you may paint it. Why did not you tell us earlier?"

Ruri looked at him nervously, not sure about what to say. Yuzu gave her a look of comfort, urging her to say.

"Yes I am not from here." Ruri finally answered, trying her best to keep dignity. "I did not tell you and anyone else earlier… because I did not what else to do back then. I escape a capture attempt and got into this dimension. I was alone in here, I know no one in here, I did not know what to do, then I met Yuya, and Yuzu…"

"From there you lied to me and my daughter." Shuzo said, still as calm as ever but there was visible rage and disgust in his voice. "Why did you hide it from us Ruri?! You could have told us way earlier! If you had done that, we could not have had a strange situation like this!"

"I wanted to say everything to all of you ever since I met you, but I knew I couldn't." Ruri explained. "I cannot say that I am from a warzone in a different dimension to you, you might think I was crazy and you might force me out, which I could not risk to…" She looked down, not seeing anyone.

"Ruri…" Yuzu called her friend's name in sadness. "Father, please stop! Ruri could not hold herself any longe-"

"Don't!" Ruri suddenly said, also suddenly became serious. "I can say it all, don't worry about me. I must say it all."

Yuya gave a look of understanding. "Got it."

"Thanks." Ruri nodded a thank-you to Yuya. She then looked at Shuzo and Yoko again. "I am not sure if this helps at all, but I swear I thought about what I did to all of you every day. I always felt guilty, sometimes I could not sleep well at night. Since Reiji prevented me from seeing Yuto and Shun, I only have Ryoga to help me, but I know it would not be enough." At the name of Ryoga, Yuzu and Yuya closed their eyes sadly.

"Ryoga?" Yoko noticed. "What happened to him?"

"He is in a card that Yuto holds." Yuya said.

"I'm… sorry…" Yoko apologized.

"Don't feel too hard about it Yoko-obasan, we lose comrades every day." Ruri said in a thing-that-happens-everyday voice. "I should be the one. At that night Yugo dueled Yuya because of a misunderstanding. His friend Rin was kidnapped by the one who also wanted to kidnap me, Yuri. He shares the same face as Yuya, Yuto and Yugo." With all of the same face thing, this did not surprise Yoko and Shuzo anymore.

"Yuya lost, and suddenly his body was gone, his mind got inside Yuto." Ruri said nervously, knowing how shocked Yoko and Shuzo would become.

"What?! My son was inside Yuto all the time?!" Yoko said out loud in shock.

Yuya nodded at her mother. "Yes. It happened mother, Shuzo-san. I don't know why, just like how Yuto was not carded by Yuma."

Yoko managed to remain calm, not pressing any further. "So that's what happened…" She sighed. "What strange would happen soon…"

"Then somehow I got separated." Yuya continued. "Since a lot of people know already, I do not hide this. Don't worry about this mother, Shuzo-san, just know I am fine now, okay?"

"We'll do… for now…" Shuzo muttered. "Continue Ruri."

"Uh… yeah." Ruri said. "After that, Yuto lost consciousness, Yuzu and I carried him to Yoko-san to get him help."

"So my daughter knows about this too." Shuzo eyed at his daughter, who slightly jotted back. "People are hiding things from me!"

"No one wants to do it dad!" Yuzu said. "But things were too much back then."

"After that Yuto disguided himself as Yuya, which is why he acted strangely as you may have seen."

"Yuto's masquerading as Yuya?!" Shuzo gasped. "So that's why…! I saw his behavior to be very off… I should have realized this sooner! You and Yuto and Shun played us all! Where is Yuto?!"

"Please don't bring him in." Yuya talked Shuzo off. "Please keep this between us!"

"That's everything that had happened ever since I came here that I hid from all of you. I know this mistake is very big, I caused everyone involved misery…" Ruri sadly whispered. "I am ready for any punishment you may give me Shuzo-san, Yoko-obasan, Yuya and Yuzu…"

"Ruri! Don't say that!" Yuzu said to Ruri with concern. Being girls were already a big disadvantage, Yuzu knew it very well, and she tried her best to talk Ruri off this, but it did not seem to work.

"Shuzo-san…" Yuya said. "Please, don't be too harsh on her… She's a war victim…"

"Stop Yuya." Shuzo said firmly, scaring Yuya and Yuzu. Yoko tried to say something but she realized she couldn't. The rage on his face was enough to shut her up.

"I never thought I could be manipulated like this! By a FREAKING GIRL WHO LOOKS LIKE MY DAUGHTER!" He roared, everyone jotted back.

Shun and Yuto could hear the outburst and became worried.

"Shit! Ruri!" Shun gasped worriedly. "I need to get inside!"

"Stay here Shun!" Yuto grabbed his arm, stopping him from charging. "Learn some manners! This place is peaceful, not a warzone where you could storm in and card anyone in there!"

Shun's face hardened, he knew what Yuto said was right. "So you tell me I have no other choice but to let my dear sister be in misery like that?!"

"Yes. We should be lucky he does not call us in, otherwise things could get much worse!" Yuto calmly explained. Shun eventually gave in with a deep sigh.

" _Ruri… please try your best…"_ Shun could only hope for her.

"I hate you a lot Ruri. I regretted bringing you into my house!" Shuzo said harsh words at Ruri, who sadly looked down in shame. "I should never have done that! Even worse you and Yuzu share the same face! Every time I see you, I see Yuzu in you! I care about you just as much as my daughter you know that?! I cannot believe a lookalike of my daughter could have done such a thing!"

"Shuzo-san!" Yoko said.

Shuzo kept silence for a while, no one dared to talk anymore.

Yuya, Yuzu and Yoko felt worried inside.

Ruri desperately tried to keep her stream of emotion in check.

Shuzo breathed heavily before regaining normal breath again.

"But I understand why you had to do it Ruri."

"What?!" Ruri gasped.

"I understand why you had to do it, I understand you never wanted to do it to us in first place. If I were you I would do it as well. After all you are from a war zone, you have seen horrible stuffs which we never imagine. I am surprised that you still managed to be nice and kind to others, you are even against carding them as Yoko said."

Ruri looked at Shuzo in shock, unable to believe what she was saying.

"Sawatari is right, only forgiveness can truly bring happiness to people, of course it does not apply in war." He said these words carefully and with complete understanding.

"So… what you are saying is…" Ruri muttered. Yuya, Yuzu and Yoko looked on hopefully.

"I forgive you for what you have done to us. You cannot be blamed for what you have done." Shuzo finally said with a warm smile.

Ruri felt extremely happy inside. For all she had done, she could not imagine she had been forgiven. She bowed multiple times, saying thanks to Shuzo repeatedly.

"Don't do it Ruri! Just get up!" Shuzo said slightly uncomfortably. Why do girls express her emotion way more than boys, even though it can be very awkward? "Please stop it!"

"I don't know what to say at this Shuzo-san! You are very nice to me that I don't know how to repay!"

"Then don't do it again okay? I don't like lying." Shuzo calmed her down.

"I guess…" Ruri said gently. "Thank you… a lot… Shuzo-san, Yoko-san… I will not do it again."

"See Ruri?" Yuzu smiled at the purple-haired girl, holding her shoulders. "Things will be fine."

"Yeah…"

"Now you don't have to worry about that anymore Ruri." Yuya said to her.

"The same cannot be said to Shun though." Shuzo became serious again. "He caused more damage to others than you or Yuto. He carded several innocent people, ruining the lives of their family members. I can forgive you, but I cannot forgive him, traumatized by war or not. Remember that."

Ruri could only remain silent. She could not deny what her brother had done, even her boyfriend Yuto could not stop him from basically murdering LDS workers.

"I will talk to my brother about this." Ruri promised.

"And one more thing."

"What Shuzo-san?"

"Hope your relationship with Yuto can stay long and well!" Shuzo teased, lightening the mood.

"I will try… Shuzo-san." Ruri told him embarrassingly, the rest kept themselves from laughing at the spot.

"Okay, everything is done here, you can go with Yuto and your brother." Yoko told Ruri.

"Thank you. Goodbye Yoko-san, Shuzo-san." Ruri said goodbye and went outside.

"Remember to go back here for dinner!" Yuzu told her.

After Ruri went outside, Yuya turned to Shuzo.

"I'm glad you forgive her Shuzo-san. I would have done the same thing sooner. She's gone through a lot of things and I did not understand it. Now I have to pay the price with the carding of Shark…" He muttered bitterly. "Staying inside Yuto's mind messed me up greatly, to the point I nearly forgot my father and his ideals…"

"At least you got it back, thanks to Sawatari." His mother confronted him sweetly.

"Yeah, I own him a lot. You won't believe this mom, but I got a clue about father from Yuto!" Yuya revealed.

"What?! Sakaki Yusho?!" Shuzo gasped in shock. "Is it true Yuya?!"

"Yes Shuzo-sensei. Turned out my dad traveled between dimensions, and from Reiji's words, he's probably trying to stop Akaba Leo."

"Is Akaba Leo the former President of LDS who mysteriously disappeared years ago?" Yuzu asked to be sure.

"Yep." Yuya answered. "My father is in the other dimension, probably Xyz or somewhere else. I know you may not like this mom, but I need to join Lancers to find him."

"You know I am not going to let you do that Yuya!" The mother tried to stop him.

"But I have to mom! Mom, Shuzo-sensei, I know your dueling skills, but it will not be enough to fight Academia. I am the best person to do the job even though I never wanted to. Let me do it mom, please understand…" He said in a pleading tone.

Yoko knew what her son said was right. She was proud his son had matured a lot recently, and even though she never wanted her son to do that dangerous dimension travel thing, she had to let him do it.

"Fine." Yoko agreed.

"I will join him as well." Yuzu spoke up. Reiji recruited me to be a Lancer, and Yuya needs someone to watch after to avoid him doing dangerous stunts!"

"And father!" Yuzu looked at Shuzo. "I know you don't want this like Yoko-obasan but I am a Lancer now, I have the responsibility to protect the four dimensions like Yuya. I will protect Yuya, Ruri, Masumi and others, I will help Yuya and others protect the peace this multiverse deserves! Besides, I now have an enemy I need to beat."

"Darkness right?" Yuya said.

"Uh!"

Shuzo looked at his daughter longingly and lovingly before eventually giving in. "I understand. Yuya, please protect her. You are the person closet to her."

"I will." Yuya reaffirmed.

* * *

"It's done Yuto, brother. Shuzo-san has forgiven me." Ruri told the guys, who smiled.

"Nice Ruri!" Shun congratulated. "I know it!"

"But he also told me he will not forgive you. For all what you have done to the people here." She switched her voice tone to serious mode.

Shun remained silent, remembering the atrocities he had done in this dimension. He did not know why, but from the inside he felt nearly nothing, he did not feel any guilt or shame. He realized that he had probably gone too far…

He looked at her, then Yuto, and finally spoke up.

"We need to talk."

…

…

Later they were at the café in the supermarket Yuto had gone in earlier, they had chosen a quiet spot to let this conversation go without any trouble from the outsiders. Shun was sitting right next to Ruri and Yuto sat opposite to them thanks to Shun warning him not to touch his sister.

Shun looked at his best friend seriously. "Okay you two are here now. Tell me honestly, and fully, how long have you two been in a relationship?"

Yuto took a deep breath. He knew he could not hide this forever from Shun anymore, he needed to come clean. He looked at Ruri, telling her it would be fine and he began.

"First off, yes, we have been in a relationship." Yuto said carefully, noting Shun's gasping. "The moment I got to meet your family and Ruri, I have been falling for her since." Yuto continued without a single cent of fear, Ruri felt very warm inside, realizing her boyfriend had started liking her the same time he liked her. Shun took notice of Ruri's expression and felt a pain in his chest.

"After a full year, we began dating. I don't know how you would feel, but I can promise you that we have not gone too far yet, I know my limit and I have always controlled myself. I never did anything that upset your sister Shun." To be honest, the time they nearly lost it was when they both lost control of themselves (they knew) and Yuzu stopped them fortunately. Nobody can control themselves 100% when they are alone and their instincts rise up.

"So you tell me that you have liked her since two years ago, right at the moment I introduced you to my family?" Shun asked Yuto just to be sure, the crossed arms began shaking, his hands formed into fists.

"Brother…" Ruri whispered worriedly. "Don't…"

"Not your turn to talk yet Ruri."

"Yes." Yuto simply answered.

Shame and disgust were visible on Kurosaki Shun's face, the former for realizing his best friend was dating his younger sister for full two years without him knowing, and the latter for not controlling Ruri tougher, making her fall in love when she was not old enough.

"How could you have done that…" Shun whispered dangerously. "How?"

"I don't know. Love just comes, it's natural Shun." Yuto tried, wrong way.

"Natural?!" Shun raised his voice. "Do you know who you are dating?! Ruri! My sister! She is just 14 back then and now 16! Just like you! You two are too young to be in a relationship!"

"We don't know how long this relationship would last, but we try our best not to upset each other every time. To be honest Shun, I'm always afraid about this, about this relationship. I fear I would eventually hurt you... your family… and Ruri…" Luckily for Yuto, Shun allowed him to say in full before he took the lead.

"Yuto…" Ruri felt sad for him, he had held this pain within himself for a long time, even in front of her he could not talk since he knew she would get hurt badly.

"If you know this, you shouldn't have dated her…" Shun gritted his teeth, his face full of anger.

"I only know this when I started dating her Shun." Yuto tried to explain. "Every men only knows this when they start dating a girl."

"Huh…" Shun chuckled. Ruri and Yuto froze, holding their breaths. They knew Shun would throw uncomfortable words at Yuto if he had this expression.

"Only know…? Lucky I do not have to know this up to now…" Shun said in a bitter voice, as if he was criticizing himself. "I never know you have done this far Yuto, I have let you in my inner circle too much…"

"Ruri." Shun suddenly turned to his dear sister.

"What brother?" Ruri nervously said back.

"What he said was completely right. I just want to know, do you like him back?"

Ruri hesitated before answering. "Yes…" She blushed slightly, Yuto felt warm from the inside.

Shun sighed deeply, shaking his head in denial. "What have I done…" He buried his face with his right hand.

"Brother, it's not your fault! It's mine! I did not listen to our parents and your teachings!" Ruri tried to say something to at least make Shun feel better.

"What brother am I to let my sister loose like this!" Shun berated himself openly this time, not hiding his disappointment anymore. "What brother am I!"

"Brother stop! I told you it's not your fault! It's my-"

"It's my fault Shun!" Yuto chimed in, stopping Shun and Ruri from antagonizing themselves any further. "I should never dated her Shun! I should never! Please stop hurting yourself Shun! I am responsible, not you or Ruri! I am!"

"Yuto…" Ruri whispered, she felt tried seeing her two important men in her life right now (her parents were carded) taking the blame.

They did not say anything for a while, opting to keep silence since they did not know what to talk right now. This moment seemed like eternity for them, they each saw their mistakes and saw the consequences at the same time. Yuto felt a massive pain inside his heart, his actions had caused two members of a family he got the privilege to know to feel bad about him and themselves, he now hated himself too much. He should have never started this relationship with Ruri, knowing how bad it would be, but he could not stop it somehow. What should he say to Shun and Ruri right now…?

"Shun…" Yuto tried to say something.

"Shun… I'm sorry…" He looked down, unable to look at them anymore. "I should never… done…"

"That…"

" _Shun… Yuto…"_ Ruri thought sadly. _"Why is a good relationship always destroyed by a girl…?"_ She should never thought about it for a single second…

Shun sighed deeply again before taking a sip of the coffee, trying to clear his head for a response. He knew he needed to finish this conversation in the best way possible to not hurt his sister any further, and Yuto as well even though he would not admit it.

"Yuto."

The boy in question nervously looked at him.

"Whatever is done, it is done…"

Ruri patiently saw Yuto and her brother, holding her breath since she was not sure how this talk would go.

"Ever since we started becoming friends, I never thought anything bad about you, and I should never do it anymore… I love Ruri a lot, I love her just as much as I love my parents, but I know we alone cannot take care of her and help her grow up at the same time. She needs another person to help her when we cannot do it. But I never thought that person was you."

Yuto and Ruri remained silent, not completely sure what Shun meant.

"During the war, my parents were carded by Yuma and Academia so Ruri only has me and you to protect her. I am always grateful for that, really. You keep her alive during the war, and when Ruri was gone, she has Shark, Yuya, Yuzu and Shuzo-san to protect her. Especially they gave her sanctuary and a reason to duel with smiles again which I sadly will never get a chance to say thank to. So…"

Shun looked at Yuto deep in his eyes, wanting him to promise one thing.

"I will not stop your relationship with Ruri anymore. Ruri trusts you and you do not disappoint her. I have no moral rights to stop you two."

"Shun…" Yuto and Ruri whispered. They were not sure how to react to this.

"From now on, I want you to promise me that you will always protect her, you will not hurt her feelings, never. You break her heart, I'll break your neck."

"I will." Yuto said, Shun and Ruri could clearly see heartiness in his voice. There was it, Shun was now sure his best friend will always make his sister smile when he could not. He could sigh in relief now, knowing part of his burden as an older brother had gone.

"Thank you brother." Ruri thanked Shun. "But I also have one thing in return that you must also promise."

"Go ahead Ruri."

Ruri paused, gathering all what she needed to say.

"You must not card innocent people anymore. Ever. You see what you have caused? Ryoga and I were in Reiji's mercy and we are all still in now, Yuya and his friends do not forgive you and they probably never will. I am still ashamed of it."

Shun simply answered. "I promise." A quick answer, too quick for all of the bad things he had caused for the carded victims and their families, but he had no choice.

* * *

The Synchro Lancers had changed into their usual clothes that they had brought along after taking probably the best bath they had ever had for a while (mainly for Yusei and Aki who were once from Tops). Reiji called Aki, Yusei and Yugo to his office to talk about their home place and what to do next (also their culture and D-Wheels), but Yugo was not there due to drinking his sorrows at a bar pretty far from LDS. Reiji planned to recruit the duelists from the Synchro dimension to fight Academia, so far he had three and it usually would be enough to go straight to the Fusion dimension. But another information from them caught his interest: the Security director Jean-Michel Roget.

Aki and Yusei knew one thing though: if they said it all, Reiji and the Lancers would not be willing to help them so they only mentioned Roget and his possible secret. And this was enough to force Reiji to derail his primary plan of going to Academia since Reiji thought if Academia managed to turn Synchro to their side then the Lancers and his plan overall would come to waste, the four dimensions will be at chaos for forever.

"Kurosaki Shun will not like this considering his personality." Reiji said.

"There is no choice if you want the long-term goal." Yusei persuaded.

"Lest you destroy this entire multiverse." Aki added.

Reiji adjusted his glasses, coming into a conclusion.

"We will hold a Lancers meeting tomorrow morning. I will send a message to others."

* * *

In Tsukumo Mirai's room (Yuma's mother), Yuma was helping his mother to sit up. He put a pillow on her back to help her lean back. The usually bright and caring mother was now very skinny due to cancer, not counting numerous coughs that she and Yuma had to endure. Even after many radiation therapies in Academia using probably the most advanced and revolutionary radiation machines that Akaba Leo personally created, Mirai's condition was still pretty bad, she still needed several more to become stable and who knew how many more she could endure. Yuma took a bowl of food and sat down besides Mirai to feed her.

"Eat this mom, it will make you feel better." Even though Yuma did not know how this sentence would help his mother, he still did because at least this could be one of the few things he could do. The mother understood this and said nothing. He put the spoon filled with food to his mother's mouth and she slowly ate it.

How could God be so cruel to Yuma and Mirai? That was the question Yuma asked himself every day since three years ago and he still did until now. At that time, Mirai was diagnosed with cancer which was a huge shock to Yuma's family and Yuma himself since he was only 13, too young for the hurtful truth. His family opted to hide this from their friends and relatives to help her continue her and her husband's job as world-renowned adventurers, they even bribed their private doctor to hide the truth from the world. However after nearly two and a half years, Mirai's condition worsened, she was unable to pursuit her job anymore, she was put in a special room in Heartland National Hospital to get treatment to her cancer. The family would visit her every day, Yuma and his father would take turns helping Mirai. Yuma knew the risk of letting others know about his mother's cancer so he hid this from his friends, no one knew about this expect him. Sadly during the Heartland Duel Tournament for several Duel School branches, the first day to be exact, Yuma's family got into a car accident that took the life of Kazuma. Since a tournament was going on, this was not reported. Soon after that, the invasion started…

As Yuma continued feeding her mother, he remembered how he got into here…

…

…

 _Yuma stayed in the hospital, taking care of her mother and fighting Academia at the same time. He asked the people in the hospital not to spread the news about his mother to the outside world in fear of Mirai being used as an advantage. One day they sent forces to attack the hospital, this attack destroyed most of the hospital and Yuma knew it, but he could not carry his mother to safety Yuma got surrounded by Obelisk Force and he leaned himself against the door to his mother's room. When they surrounded him and was about to duel him someone did an emergency call._

" _Professor?!" Said an Obelisk Force with blue gems on his face in an alarmed tone._

"Professor?!" _Yuma thought._

 _After some exchanges, he turned off his Duel Disk, the rest did the same._

" _What is this?! What do you want to do?!" Yuma demanded why in fear. He was now the only shield for his mother._

" _I know your mother is in that room."_

 _Yuma froze._ "They know…?" _He frantically thought._ "What should I do…?"

" _I don't know what you are talking about? No one is in here right now but me and you!" Yuma tried to divert their attention._

" _Don't lie. The Professor said so and his words are the truth." That Obelisk Force said._

 _Yuma paled, fearful for his and his mother's lives being sealed in cards. He readied his Duel Disk, ready to battle._

" _Don't try. You are alone, you cannot beat us six at the same time, and we are here to help."_

" _Help?!" Yuma chuckled. "You call this help when you were about to card me earlier? Stop this joke!"_

" _We really mean it. The Professor wants to help your mother."_

" _My mother…? You must be joking! Get the hell out, or I will force you to do it the hard way! The machines are dead because of your attack!"_

" _Stage four cancer will kill your mother real soon, unless you join us and take your mother to Academia. He has the machines that can help her."_

 _Yuma thought about this proposal. It was true that Yuma could not trust any of those Academia son of bitches, but he could not deny that his mother would die real soon if she could not get proper help._

" _Think about it, the Professor has created machines that can help stage four cancer. Don't let your mother die in vain."_

…

…

Did he need to be reminded this was an extremely dumb choice, but also the only one at the same time? He knew he had sold his soul to the devil, but in exchange his mother got helped and now she was much better than before the war. To be honest, he found the Professor really intelligent despite being the man who caused misery to his Heartland; he was able to create a machine that can treat stage four cancer patients and improve their health condition, therefore saving his mother's life. Now while Mirai's condition was still bad, it was much better than before.

"Thanks my son, I feel better now." Mirai told her sweet son warmly (devil to everyone else).

"It's good." Yuma softly told her back. Seeing her mother healthy and smiling at him again warmed him deeply, he might be able to forget the thing he did a bit. "With this, you will be fine soon."

Despite still smiling, Mirai was fighting not to shed tears every time, the tears for her condition, the sorrow for Yuma's predicament and the deep regret for her Heartland citizens. Yuma always tried to talk her out of it and she knew she could not press him. She knew he had done bad things to Heartland and to himself just to get her treatment, and there was no going back.

So at least what she could do is to keep herself positive to keep Yuma positive as well.

Thankfully Yuma understood, she was so proud of her son, only 16 but he was so mature, he knew what he did and he did not have second thoughts, all for her.

Which was why she felt ashamed of herself a lot, a Heartland citizen who was now getting help from her enemy…

"I'll get you some fruits. Hang on mom." Yuma told her mother before taking the bowl and getting out of the room.

He never got to the kitchen though because as soon as he got out of the room for quite a distance, he leaned himself against the wall and began openly sobbing.

For some reason, the Professor was standing right in front of him.

"Don't cry Yuma." He confronted him.

"Don't cry…?" Yuma faced him, pure hatred on his face. "You force me to join in your side, to allow my mother to get help! Not that I am grateful!"

"I lost my father, I lost my Heartland, I lost my friend, and now I may lose the only place I can belong to! I hate you for running my life! I hate you a lot!" Yuma muttered uncontrollably. He sobbed even more and eventually broke down.

The Professor did something Yuma never thought of before: he gave him a hug to confront him.

Yuma was surprised by this gesture. What did he want from him that he did this? Sympathy? Loyalty?

Or both?

Yuma tried to pull off the arms, but for some reason he could not pry them off, probably because he was still crying.

The Professor remained still, not fighting Yuma.

Yuma eventually stopped fighting and reluctantly hugging Leo back, accepting his act of caring him for a moment, and what he knew for the rest was nothing…

He let his emotions control him, crying louder and louder…

He hated the Professor, but he also owned him for helping his mother…

Yuri saw it all, he was standing near Mirai's room. He felt saddened for some reason he did not know, but he felt it. He looked at the resting Mirai, remembering his parents…

He realized Yuma was similar to him in many ways…

* * *

Rin got up, the light hitting her face was the first thing she saw. The long sleep clearly worked wonders, she felt much better now. She stretched her muscles and got out of bed, not forgetting to tidy it up nicely. That was what Aki taught her: you need to act feminine to fit with your gender, this is very important as you get older.

She got out of her guest room and walked around the underground school. The more she inspected the more she respected Yusho for managing to open a school below the ground, recruit escaping Academia students and evading Academia's sweeping all at the same time. As far as Rin saw, the school consisted off several rooms used for practicing Dueling, some more for teaching Dueling and basic school subjects. The students in here learned how to duel to bring smiles to others which they said was from Yusho's teachings.

" _Duel should not be used to separate people, it should be used to connect them…"_ Rin agreed completely with this ideal, even though what happened in City and Domino City was a complete opposite. She promised to herself she would spread this ideal across City one day, with Yugo, Yusei and Aki.

For some reason, probably by instinct, she found the room Yusho was staying. She opened the door and saw him there.

"Hello… Yusho-sensei…" Rin decided to change the honorifics to fit in this place more.

"Hi Rin. You're awake." Yusho greeted the girl. He got off his chair and approached him.

"Thank you for giving me a place to stay, I will never forget this."

"You're welcome. Seeing you are fine is good for me. For now, you will be staying here until you fully recover, in the meantime, you can do anything you want in here, just don't get outside, the security is tight out there."

"Thank you Yusho-sensei, I guess… I have no place to go now…" Rin muttered. "Where is Asuka-san and Ryo-san?"

"They are going outside to buy foods." Yusho answered.

"I wonder how you can fund this school." Rin wondered.

Yusho chuckled before answering her, in probably the largest sly smile ever.

"Credit card fraud."

Rin widened her eyes in shock, she did not think Yusho would use this dirty trick!

"What?! You mean you hack into credit cards?!" Even though she was from the slums, she did not the basic stuffs in the world, and credit cards was one of them.

"We are at war, methods do not matter." Yusho explained matter-of-factly.

"I see…" Rin said.

"And one more thing." Yusho suddenly said, slightly nervously. "I don't know why, but you do look like two girls I know."

"Me?! I look like another one?!" Rin gasped.

"What? You know this?"

"There is a girl in Academia named Selena, she and I have the same faces." Rin explained. "Who is the girls you know Yusho-sensei?"

"My friend's daughter. Her name is Hiragi Yuzu."

"Hiragi Yuzu…"

"She has pink hair in pigtails but her face looks exactly like you. And another one is a student in the Space branch in Xyz, Ruri. Kurosaki Ruri. She has long purple hair, she is from the Xyz dimension." Yusho showed Rin the images of Yuzu and Ruri.

"This is definitely not coincidental, there must be a reason why." Rin speculated. "And not only the girls, the boys as well."

"Boys?!" Yusho narrowed his eyes at this another detail. "What do you mean?"

"My childhood friend is a boy named Yugo. I was kidnapped by a boy named Yuri, and they share the same faces."

"Boys as well?!" Yusho voiced his surprise. "If what you say is correct, there will be two boys from Standard and Xyz who fit this criteria as well. One of them is…"

"Yuya. My son."

"Your son?"

"Yes Rin. There will be another boy like this as well."

"So in short, we have four boys who share the same faces, and four girls who do too." Rin recapped. "This is not normal, and probably Akaba Leo knows this, for some reason he sends Yuri to capture me, Ruri and probably Yuzu as well."

"Dammit… Akaba Leo…" Yusho cursed under his breath. "You are such a dick… Wait!"

"What Yusho-sensei?!" Rin asked.

"That's it! He corrupted Academia, which is Fusion. He invaded Heartland of Xyz, and from the files I gathered when I, Ryo and Asuka rescued you he sent people to attack Maimai City, Standard…"

Rin realized. "Then there would be no reasons he wouldn't attack City. The Synchro dimension. My hometown!"

"This is bad…" Yusho muttered.

"He's going to attack my home town and probably turn it into his side as well! We need to stop him!"

"But this is just speculation! How can we sure that Leo will invade the Synchro dimension?" Yusho pointed out one missing thing in their prediction.

"There was one person. The director of Security in my dimension."

"Who?"

"Jean-Michel… Roget." Rin told him.

"Jean-Michel Roget?!" Yusho exclaimed.

"Yes. Rumors said three years ago he just appeared in city and became the director of Security. He introduced something that City did not have that time…"

"And it is…" Yusho guessed.

"Real Solid Vision." Rin finished.

"Yeah… Real Solid Vision… that bastard stole the invention of Akaba Leo and became an overlord in there…"

"What?! Real Solid Vision was created by Akaba Leo?!" Rin said in shock.

"Yes." Yusho confirmed. "He's really intelligent. He knows a lot. He created Real Solid Vision in collaboration with me."

"You helped him?"

"I originally wanted to use it to popularize Action Dueling in Standard. I am the inventor of that. Akaba Leo shares that goal as well, but for some reason he is using it for war. Sad to see a friend like this…"

"You and Akaba Leo are friends?!" Rin realized Yusho and Leo had a big history with each other.

"Formerly. According to Ryo, Roget did not want to unite the four dimensions but he wanted to build his own empire to oppose Leo so he attacked Synchro." Yusho said.

"By turning it into his goldmine…" Rin guessed. "He's also capturing Psychic Duelists as well."

"Physic Duelists?"

"Duelists with the ability to make Solid Vision real, just like Real Solid Vision but they naturally have the ability to inflict real damage in duels. He started this campaign three years ago as soon as he took the throne. He said they are abomination that must be eradicated. But I know he still has a lot of Psychic Duelists at his disposal, he may be using them for his bad plan! Yusho-sensei, please get me to City! I need to protect my home town, the kids and my friends!"

"Sorry Rin, but I cannot." Yusho sadly denied.

"Why?! I can't be staying here when my friends and the kids are in danger every day from Roget! I need to go back there! I can be sure Roget is opposed to Academia, but what he does is unforgivable, and Academia may attack him and in turn City as well! Please! Yusho-sensei, bring me back there!"

"I cannot let you go alone, not even stop him! You are targeted by Academia, if you go there, Roget may capture you for his interests! You will be in danger! Don't forget I have my own students here to take care of! I cannot tell their parents or bring them back to their families because Academia will card them if they know!"

"Then what am I going to do?! I cannot be a useless person! I need to do something!"

Yusho sighed. This girl was really stubborn and strong. She was like Yuzu in that aspect, she would not stop doing what she aimed to.

"So how about this… I do have a plan in there, but it is very risky…" Yusho revealed. His face became grim at this mentioning.

"What plan Yusho-sensei? Please tell me!"

"It's not complete yet, and it is very dangerous…"

"Just tell me! I want to see my friends again!" She insisted.

"I don't know if this can even be called a plan or not. But here it is: I want to send Ryo to Synchro to warn them about Roget. If what you said was true, there would be several forces who oppose him, and since he attacked Standard, Reiji would form Lancers to go to Synchro as well."

"Lancers?! Reiji?"

"It is a team Reiji created to fight against Academia. He is the leader. He's Akaba Leo's son."

For all of the strange things happened today, Rin did not react to this revelation. She simply muttered this under her breath.

"I was called by Reiji as soon as he knew about this crazy plan of Akaba Leo. I am the first Lancer. I transported to Fusion to stop him, but I got to Xyz instead. Eventually the war happened and I was sent to this place. I knew at that time I was alone so I could not fight Academia, so I gathered as much allies as I can."

"I now have Ryo the best student in You Show, so I want to send him to Synchro to stop Roget and protect that dimension. And now since Leo attacked Standard, Reiji would form the Lancers to go to Synchro as well."

"So Ryo-san and I will go to Synchro and join the Lancers and stop Roget and Academia." Rin said.

"Right. But to do that, we need a dimensional transporter, which was not completed yet." Yusho said and guided Rin to the lower level, where as soon as Yusho put on the lights, a machine was revealed to Rin. It was the same model as the one she saw in Academia but it was not finished yet.

"I have a student who have some skills with machines. And now I have the materials from the rescue mission, this machine will be finished soon." Yusho said.

"So I will be back to City soon." Rin said with hope.

"You will. I promise. But it will take time. You can do some other things while we are finishing the machine. I promise you will be in your home soon." Yusho promised the blue-haired girl, touching her shoulders firmly.

"Thank you… Yusho-sensei." Rin thanked him back, looking at the machine optimistically, hoping for that reunion day which she was sure it would come real soon.

* * *

After talking things out, Yuto, Shun and Ruri went to LDS where Reiji had reserved three rooms for them, on the grounds that Shuzo or Yoko would not allow Shun to enter their homes. It was 10 pm and Yuzu was about to go to sleep, she was back in her sleeping clothes: a sleeveless light pink cotton shirt which was slightly see-through and dark blue shorts. Her Duel Disk suddenly rang, signaling someone was calling her.

Yuzu picked it up and received the call. "Hello, who's there?"

"Yuzu, come outside." Came a slightly roughed voice.

"Yugo?!" Yuzu recognized the voice. "Why are you calling me?"

"Just come outside, there is something I need to talk to you." He then cut off the call.

Yuzu wondered what Yugo would say to her, but she decided to go outside. She also secretly had one thing she wanted to talk to him.

The door opened, Yuzu came out. There was Yugo outside, his face slightly reddened, indicating…

"Yugo?! Are you… drunk?"

"Yeah… recover a bit… don't worry… I will not do anything-uh…" Yugo mumbled but suddenly stopped when he saw Yuzu in a rather revealing outfit. In this most of her legs and her "features" were revealed to him. Yugo suddenly felt something uncomfortable between his legs.

He desperately tried to control himself, not showing anything outside besides looking down. He learned that lesson when he peaked into the bathroom while Rin was… taking a bath…

Yuzu wondered what happened to Yugo and even though she would not admit it, she got an idea on what.

"You are drunk… because of Rin alright?"

"Yeah… You have Yuya, Yuto has Ruri, I… not so much…" Yugo muttered incoherently. "Anyway I want to…" He brought his hidden left hand forward and showed Yuzu something. "Return this to you."

Yuzu looked at that thing in complete shock. "What…? My… bracelet?!"

She took it and inspected it. "And it's complete! It is not broken?! How? I am sure you broke it!"

"Yep. After I recovered a bit from alcohol, I went back to the place used to be covered in ice and found this. It was complete, never broken for some reason and I swear I did not use superglue. Look, I know it's strange, and not even counting the risk of you seeing me drunk like this, I don't know…"

He slightly blushed before continuing. "If I could control myself…"

Yuzu felt self-conscious after Yugo said that. She subconsciously stood back a bit and held her hands up defensively. "Ah… please… don't say that in front of me."

"Sorry." Yugo apologized. "It seems that this bracelet teleports me and Yuto whenever we or Yuya are close. You may need to take it away somehow. That's it, I will go now."

Yugo walked off, slightly losing balance due to still being drunk but Yuzu stopped him.

"Yugo wait!"

"What?" He turned around.

"Let me call a taxi to help you get back to LDS, and I want you to help me with something."

"Help you what?"

Yuzu hesitated before she said…

"I want you to…"

* * *

The next morning, Yuya and Yuzu got up ready for this mission. They changed into their usual clothes expect Yuzu who wore long black pants instead of her usual dark red skirt thanks to an advice Yugo gave her last night. Yuzu also opted not to bring her bracelet for Yuya, Yuto and Yugo's sake.

Shuzo and Yoko adjusted their child's clothes and gave them the deepest hug they had ever given. They wished them luck.

"I will be fine mom, don't worry." Yuya assured Yoko.

"I can take care of myself, and I will protect Yuya and others." Yuzu firmly said.

Shuzo and Yoko saw them off, despite their smiles were still in their faces, behind it was worry.

LDS gave them a limousine for each and rode them to the building. They said nothing as they looked longingly at the city, they would be missing this place soon.

When they arrived, Nakajima took them and Gongenzaka who was already there to the top floor.

"You are not wearing your bracelet." Yuya whispered to Yuzu.

"It will separate you from Yuto and Yugo, so I do not bring it." Yuzu explained.

"Gongenzaka… your face…" Yuya said, noticing brushes and tapes on the large teenager's face.

"To show my resolve, I had a serious duel with my father last night." Gongenzaka explained. Yuya chuckled.

" _How strong…"_ Yuzu complimented in her mind.

Yuya opened the door to the meeting room, they saw Kurosaki Shun, Kurosaki Ruri, Yuto, Tsukikage, Selena, Sawatari Shingo, Dennis Macfield, Yugo, Izayoi Aki and Fudo Yusei were already there. Shun and Yuto were looking down the city, Selena was staring at the sky, Sawatari was calling his father's assistant, checking on his health, he took a night long to watch over him as indicated by his black eyes. Yugo glanced at Yuzu before looking away, holding two cards that he had asked Reiji to create.

"Hello everyone. I am late." Yuya greeted the Lancers.

"Oh Yuzu! Hello!" Ruri told Yuzu, who smiled back.

"You are all there?" Reiji spoke up. The Lancers all turned to see him on the spiral stairs. Reiji walked down.

"Huh! So the President has finally appeared." Sawatari said mockingly.

"All 13 Lancers are there and waiting for your orders, captain!" Dennis told Reiji excitedly.

"Not 13."

"Oh I am sorry, including you and it will be 14."

"15 to be short." Yuya looked up at Reiji. "Reira will come too." True to his words, Reira was staring down from above emotionlessly.

Shun gasped. "We're not taking a walk in the park! You bring that kid to fight Academia? He will be nothing more than a burden!"

"God damn you Reiji! You bring a kid to a warzone?!" Ruri gritted her teeth in anger.

"Reira's ability is comparable to all of you." Reiji calmly explained his choice. "He's not a burden."

"Comparing to me?" Sawatari said.

"Oh? The captain trusts you a lot, you must be awesome!" Dennis admired the kid. "How old are you?"

"He's clearly a primary school student!" Sawatari voiced. "He's only a kid, and you are to say he can be compared to Sawatari Shingo Reiji?" The kid frowned and turned away.

"Whatever it is, I do not accept him! Leave him home!" Yuto demanded.

"We are not going to Academia." Reiji revealed, shocking Shun, Yuto and Ruri.

"What?"

"The place we are going is the Synchro Dimension."

"Synchro Dimension? Not Fusion?!" Yuto wondered.

"Why? I don't care!" Shun protested. "We have 14 people, more than enough to attack Academia right away! Stop that bullshit plan and go to the Fusion Dimension now!"

"The Synchro Dimension as of now is still not invaded yet." Yusei suddenly began to talk.

"But we are sure that the director of Security in there Jean-Michel Roget is from Academia." Aki said, shocking the Lancers.

"What?! There is a mole of Academia in the Synchro Dimension?" Ruri gasped in shock.

"Yes." Yugo confirmed. "We believe that he's trying to colonize our home town to build a force just as strong as Academia using Psychic Duelists to invade Synchro and Standard and destroy Xyz completely, probably from Akaba Leo's orders."

"Psychic Duelists?" Selena wondered.

"Psychic Duelists are people who can cause real damage in duels, Izayoi Aki is an example." Yusei said seriously, Aki activated her Duel Disk and did something that caused the Real Solid Vision to deactivate.

"You deactivate Real Solid Vision?" Gongenzaka noted.

"See this." Aki summoned Dark Verger and ordered it to attack the piece of wood near the wall, which broke down completely.

The Lancers looked on in awe.

"Awesome…" Sawatari mumbled.

"So this is… Psychic Duelists…" Shun muttered.

"They are very powerful, and there are a lot of them in Synchro. Three years ago however, Roget declared a mass capture and eradication of Psychic Duelists, he called us abomination. Many are captured, and probably killed." Aki narrated, she could not hide her sadness and hatred when she told.

"No way…" Yuzu covered her mouth.

"The power of Psychic Duelists and Real Solid Vision actually can be combined together to create a very powerful force in Duels that is much stronger than what Academia could do." Reiji explained. "And if Roget has them in his disposal, he can either bring them to Academia to be used as Duel Soldiers by Professor or simply, to control the Synchro Dimension. If that happens, not only Xyz is in chaos, Synchro will be too, and Standard as well."

"Shit…" Yuya muttered. "So that's why…!"

Shun grunted, giving in to Reiji's plan, not saying anything anymore.

"So in short, my plan is to go to the Synchro Dimension and find a way to save that dimension from Roget. Is everyone disagree with my plan?" Reiji asked. "If you do, please raise your hands up."

No one did.

Shun, Yuto and Ruri were about to but they sighed, eventually not doing it.

"Nobody? Good." Reiji concluded. "Don't forget that Akaba Leo definitely has a plan to all of us, especially Yuzu, Ruri and Selena. Rin was captured by Academia and he will not stop until he captures you three. Storming in right now will simply feed him food for his plan."

Yuzu silently went to Yugo and he gave her the two cards she asked him to create. All of this was done without the rest knowing, even Reiji and Yuya.

"Thanks Yugo." Yuzu whispered. "This is what I want."

"No problem."

"And now…" Reiji clicked a button, the wall behind him suddenly slid, revealing a room whose lights were already on. Inside it was numerous tables and bookshelves filled with Duel Monsters cards.

"What is this?" Yugo asked.

"It's the room that I have reserved for all of you. In the table are Pendulum Cards I created for all of you categorized by name. Pick yours."

"Pendulum Cards… Interesting…" Aki smiled slyly.

"Now we can test those out!" Yusei said.

"Also in the bookshelves, there are generic cards that can go in any Decks if you want to. Pick whatever you want to improve your Deck and skill. One by one."

Reira came down and joined the group. The Lancers went to the room and picked the cards one by one. After this was done, Reiji guided them to the basement where Yugo, Aki and Yusei's D-Wheels were staying.

"Is this what you ride Yugo?" Yuzu asked.

"Yes. It is called a D-Wheel." Yugo told the group. "This is what we use to duel in City." He, Yusei and Aki climbed on their own D-Wheels.

Reiji gave each of the Lancers a special card and turned on his Duel Disk and clicked something. Everyone's Duel Disks beeped up.

"What is this?" Yuzu wondered.

"It's the one-shot dimension travel program, reverse-engineered from the one used in those of Xyz."

"Xyz?!" Shun gasped. "It was you right? Last night you stole my Duel Disk!"

Reiji chuckled humorously. It was fun playing with Shun's emotions for him. Yuto and Ruri both glared angrily at him.

"Allow me to continue, this program allows your Duel Disks to create an Action Field and perform an Action Duel. Pendulum Summon and Action Duels are our best weapons, I did that to allow you to freely use it to your advantage. Now, use the cards I gave to you."

They pulled out the card. Dimension Mover.

"The coordinates of the Synchro Dimension has been encoded into it. Place it in your Disk and wait for my command."

After they did, Reiji did the same and clicked the screen. The rest also did it.

"Transporting to the Synchro Dimension, activate!" The Lancers were engulfed in blue particles before disappearing completely from the garage.

They are now in the Synchro Dimension.

* * *

 **Nice! It's finally finished! Man, university took a big tool on my passion for writing.**

 **I originally wanted to have a duel here but I decided to save it for later since focusing on character is more of my cup of tea. And there you go! Ruri is forgiven, Yuto got Shun's trust and approval, Rin got some page-time!**

 **We are now close to the Synchro arc, and I can promise you it will be different from the anime. The part with Yuto, Shun and Ruri personally got me pretty hard, probably since I am a bit more emotional than others.**

 **I have a request: I need a list of handtraps that was around OCG/TCG during the Synchro arc. List them in review or PM (I recommend the latter).**

 **And now for probably the darkest preview ever in this story…**

* * *

 **Next Chapter Preview**

 **War Crime: Nothing is Exaggerated**

Continuing to act alone, Tenjo Kaito and Kamishiro Rio argue over the former's lone wolf tendencies, but a very inhuman act forces them to work together…

 **This is matrixnis, out!**


	38. Scale 38

**Welcome back everyone! Big thanks to Gentyman and maxtime for reviewing my last chapter, I am happy that what I wrote for Shuzo and Shun was realistic, honestly I was not so sure about this. Also thank you two for giving me advice for university life.**

 **To maxtime: I agree on the Yusei, Aki and Reiji part, that President needs to learn a lesson. The Yuma and Yuri part was since I noticed they did not get as much development as the others, but even I was shocked that it turned out perfectly. About the implying, you will know later.**

 **To Gentyman: A great pleasure to see your review as always. I think Shuzo rarely acts like an adult in the anime so I changed it since the beginning, and the previous chapter solidified it.**

 **I managed to control my hobbies and real life somewhat so I got more time to write this chapter! We are going to go to Heartland to see what is going on through the eyes of Kamishiro Rio and Tenjo Kaito, and…**

 **Warning: I am not kidding when I said this chapter would be very dark. Please do not read this chapter if you are uncomfortable with war crimes, even though this is just a very small piece of how horrible war can be.**

* * *

 **Chapter 38: War Crime: Nothing is Exaggerated**

* * *

" _Battle! Antique Gear Chaos Giant, attack Ragna Zero!" The Obelisk Force with blue gem on his mask ordered the large mechanical giant behind it. Chaos Giant curled its left hand into a fist and aimed it at the face of Rio's monster._

" _Crush of Darkness!"_

 _She looked on in horror, fearing for her own life._

"No… am I… over…?"

" _From the graveyard!" A voice on his left suddenly said. Wise, mature, deep. "I banish Daunting Stance to force you to only attack Abyss Dweller!"_

"… _Dad…?!" Rio gasped, seeing her father who gave her a sad smile._

" _Sorry my dear children, this is all what I can do to all of you…"_

" _Don't…"_

" _Don't say it dad!" Ryoga pleaded. "Don't!"_

" _Last words finished?" Blue heartlessly said. "You want to save your children, good act. Chaos Giant, attack the Defense Position Abyss Dweller!" The megaton punch from the giant's left hand hit the father's monster, destroying it._

" _At this moment, due to Antique Armageddon Gear, you take its ATK as damage!" The antique gun rose up and fired at Rio and Ryoga's father, making him yell loudly in defeat and knocking him down face-first, all combined with the laughter of Obelisk Force and the screaming of the Kamishiro siblings…_

"I'm sorry… my children… and you… my dear sweetheart…" _His final thoughts before the impact with the ground made him lose consciousness._

" _NOOOOO!" Ryoga yelled. He and Rio quickly ran to their father's side but Blue cruelly activated his Duel Disk, sealing him in a card. Rio and Ryoga stood still, in complete despair._

 _Blue took out the card and threw it at the remaining members of the Kamishiro family. Rio looked at it numbly._

 _The world just seemed to collapse in front of her, everything around her became blackened, they all disappeared. Her body trembling, her hands shaking, suddenly losing all of its strength to grab the card._

 _A single drop of tear hit the image of her father, blurring the image, the screaming one. Not the usual smile she found on his face anymore. Everything dropped down completely, then suddenly erupted with a single but powerful and sorrowful scream._

" _DADDDDDDDDD!"_

* * *

Rio jotted up, eyes widened in shock, she sweated all over her face and body, clearly visible on her white tank top. She realized she was having a nightmare, or rather, re-experiencing that fateful day when she was nearly defeated by Chaos Giant but her father sacrificed himself for her and her brother Ryoga.

" _Still pretty early…"_ It was only 5.

The girl regained normal breath, wiping the sweat off her face. If this was like normal she would take a bath immediately after waking up, but war stole everyone's normal routine away in addition to their morality. She tidied up the bed then wore her Clover branch white shirt and black pants (which Rio called her "battle clothes" as she would jokingly say to Ryoga). She took out the picture of her family.

" _I hope you are still alive… Yuto… Shun… and brother…"_ Little did she knew, only the former two survived now.

Taking the picture back to her pocket, Kamishiro Rio carefully got out of the room to avoid alerting the other girls and went to the kitchen. The morning-food-making job was the job she voluntarily took in the temple along with Yuto's mother, Allen and several others. She expected to see no one in there, but she was wrong.

"Akio-san?"

"Oh Rio, why are you here? You should not have woken up yet!" The woman greeted Rio, slightly surprised by the girl's unusual appearance.

"I uh…" Rio shuttered. "Just want to get up early, that's all."

Akio easily saw through the obvious lie Rio made but she did not press it, respecting Rio.

"That's it? Whatever…"

"We need to make food for the people here Akio-san." Rio changed the subject.

"Good for me."

Resources are rare in war, especially food, but as of now they were pretty redundant, all thanks to Resistance's counter attacks and ambushes on Academia's smaller bases across Heartland. One base in particular was taken down very brutally, in a way that would make outsiders think it was done by 20 something men, but in reality it was done by just one…

"Thanks to our comrades, we managed to have enough resources for a while." Akio commented.

"There is one more." Rio said. "But should he even wanna be called a comrade by us or not?"

Akio sighed, knowing what Rio meant.

"Yeah… Kaito…"

* * *

In an Academia base, the five Osiris Red students were making their last stand, each controlling one Antique Gear Soldier. Their opponent was everything but ordinary since he controlled five dragons. They crumbled in fear, knowing their fates were near.

"Battle! I order five Galaxy-Eyes Cipher Dragon to attack five Antique Gear Soldier!" His signature dragon and four copies all roared at the sky before firing five blasts.

"Semmetsu no Cipher Stream!"

Five explosions, five smokes that combined together to block the view.

Five seconds of loud screaming.

And just five seconds before five cards dropped down near Kaito's Duel Disk.

Kaito emotionlessly looked at them before turning around, seeing three people curling in fear behind him. His killer eyes clearly told them they were about to suffer the same fate as those son of bitches.

Or as they thought.

"Get to the Duel Temple, there is sanctuary there."

The three people, consisting of a father, who was covering his son and his wife, nervously nodded before running away.

" _Strange…"_ Kaito thought while seeing the family running. _"Academia cards people for some reason, but why are they keeping them alive? I need to find out…"_

He looked around, trying to find some place to do something…

* * *

"He's now wanted by Academia, all changed since that day." Rio muttered, taking the cabbage off the old table. "Those Academia dipshits! We should have known they always wanted to get rid of Eisuke-san! They even carded Haruto as well…"

"They went too far like they always have." Akio said as she took the knife to cut the leaves off the cabbage. "But they did not know what they did unleashed darkness from Kaito, turning him into someone they would fear forever." Several days after she, Rio and Allen settled in they heard news of a particular Resistance duelist that hunted down Academia members one by one, scaring them a lot. They were at first glad to hear this, but all stopped when they found out that person was Kaito.

"This may seem wrong to you and all of the people here, but we need to stop Kaito from carding Academia continuously as soon as possible." Rio pointed out the necessary.

"Haizz… can you sure that he will listen to you?" Akio hoped a yes would come out from Rio's mouth but as she expected, there was no answer from the sixteen-year-old girl with blue hair. "Don't you forget we tried to talk him out of it once, but he refused? Don't you forget he even tried to card YOU? Would you still be alive if we did not interfere?"

Rio knew what Akio said was right. Of all the people close to Kaito at Heartland right now, she was the closet, so she naturally thought she had the responsibility to talk to Kaito to make him become the loving person he used to be, the friend to all people, the ace of Clover branch. The scars from the carding of his father and his younger brother completely changed him though; Kaito did not listen, and when Rio tried further, he forced her to duel him and she nearly lost. Luckily, Akio and Allen managed to stop Kaito by force, after that, Kaito stormed off and they did not see him again.

"I know it Akio-san. Kaito has changed a lot, but there is still a chance for him. We need to bring him back somehow, or else he would not be able to look at his family anymore, after all what he has done." Rio reasoned, turning on the gas stove to cook.

"Easier said than done…" Akio mumbled. Next there was silence as they cooked cabbage and rice, getting breakfast ready for all of the people staying in here at the moment.

A knock on the door outside alerted them.

Rio and Akio stopped cooking, grabbing their Duel Disks behind their backs and placing them to their left hands. Usually they would employ guards outside but Academia seemed not to attack this place because they would not think Resistance would hide in such an open place like the temple. With those knockings though, the girls were wrong today.

"Is anyone there? We need help!" A male voice, weak but full of worry. He then knocked the door more.

Rio nervously looked at Akio, who nodded. They both slowly came out of the kitchen and began to walk to the door.

"How can we sure you are not Academia?"

"I have a wife and a daughter. Is that all?" He answered.

"Please let us in! Please…" A voice of a young girl spoke up. This was enough to convince Rio and Akio.

"Wait a second." Rio said and after that, the door opened. They all saw each other now.

"Get in." Rio waved her hand, the family quickly went in, guided by Akio. The girl inspected outside, making sure they were not followed before closing the door.

Akio opened the door of the room on the left and turned on the lights. A typical one in Japan.

"All of you take a rest for a while. We will serve breakfast later. Everything is in here, there is also a bathroom too in case."

"Thank you." The woman thanked Akio.

"No problem." The door then closed, leaving the family inside to rest after a harsh day. She wanted to ask how they got here but since they seemed tired and emotionally destroyed, Akio decided not to.

"How are they Akio-san?" Rio asked.

"Not very good, but they will soon. Come on, let's resume cooking." They returned to their usual routine.

* * *

"Everyone!" Rio clapped her hands, signaling the sleeping Resistance to wake up, many were just non-fighters though. "Breakfast!"

All of them quickly woke up, readied themselves quietly and patiently got out of their rooms. They sat in lines in the center room of the temple and took a tray of food each, waiting for having their food delivered. Only Yuto's mother, Rio and three Resistance female members served breakfast for the people in here though since Allen and other male ones took charge of guarding the temple right now.

Six months of war clearly took away a lot of things a Japanese got accustomed to, but the roots, they were still there: patience and order. No one broke the line to get their food first before others. Qualities no other countries' people managed to do, even in peace time.

For the family coming here just recently, Rio set three separate trays and brought them to those members herself. She took great care in the food, especially the one for the daughter.

"Thank you, we are grateful." The mother sincerely thanked Rio for giving her family a place to stay and food to eat. "We haven't eaten anything for several days." She resumed eating roughly and quickly, like her husband and her daughter.

Rio patiently waited until they are done eating. Looking at the family, she felt sad for herself: losing her mother first, then her father, and her brother was now gone in Standard for the mission. She could only hope Ryoga would turn out okay and she would see him again.

"Thank you for the food." The father thanked Rio again.

"You're welcome."

Rio took the trays and got out of the room. Later she and Akio got in, they gave the daughter toys to play with.

"Hey sweetie!" The mother reprimanded her.

"Just let her play, we don't feel anything hard." Akio reassured the mother.

"Hey sweet girl, there are kids about your age in here, would you like to play with them?" Rio told her in a sweet voice.

"Uh…" The girl hesitated. She looked at her parents who nodded.

"Thank mom, dad, thank you uh…" The girl stopped, not knowing Rio and Akio's names.

"My name's Rio, and her name is Akio." Rio told her.

"Thank you Rio-san, Akio-san." She went off the room and played with the kids outside.

What she never knew though was that after she got out, the mother sadly looked at her fading shadow, longingly. As if she hoped her kind daughter would be fine.

"What's wrong?" Rio spoke up, noting the mother's sadness.

"Since my daughter is out now, you want to say something to us right?" The father cut off.

"Uh-right." Akio answered. "We want to know how you got in here."

The father gave a look to his wife, wanting to gain her approval or something. She nodded back.

"Well…" He sighed, mixing with some sorrow in it. "We were prisoners in an Academia's base."

"Prisoners?" Rio gasped. "Why would they keep you three prisoners? They want to card all of us here for their "mission"!"

"At first we did not know why… we were one of the first people being captured… but then many more came." The woman regained her composure, narrating. "At first they captured unceremoniously, but then they mostly kept girls, young woman, mostly under 30…"

Rio and Akio froze, sweating cold sweat, getting a grasp of what Academia might have done to the family and others.

"One day they pulled out several girls, locked the rest in a warehouse. Then what we heard..."

"Were screaming, mad laughter, groaning, pleading to stop…" The husband said, grunting with every word.

"When they got back, they were crying, hugging their bodies, their clothes were ruined…"

"No way…" Akio muttered in shock.

"Then it went on and on, day by day, more girls and woman were brought out… my wife suffered the same fate as well. Whenever any men tried to stop them, they would beat them, and at worst…"

"They would place their Duel Disks on a part of his body and activate the blade, decapitating them…" The husband mumbled. "They took great joy doing this, they smiled cruelly and madly. I was the only lucky one who only lost my testicles…" He nearly sounded like he would cry. The wife, Akio and Rio on the other hand had already been crying in silence.

"Most of the men who were captured would lose hands or legs before being carded, and if they resisted too much those assholes will deem them unworthy of being carded and they will lose their heads. The worst part, they are mostly teenagers like you Rio."

"Those... those Academia heartless piece of ####!" Rio growled, unable to control her anger. "They have gone too far!"

"They are. And surely Akaba Leo loves to brainwash his students into being more animalistic." The husband bitterly said, looking down at where his middle leg used to be. "They have degraded themselves into sociopaths and sadistic murders. Before we were captured, we went to a church to stay for a night, and we saw innocent Heartland people with their necks slit and their eye pockets pulled out or stabbed…"

The teary wife hugged the husband, who hugged her back. Rio and Akio looked away, wiping their tears. This was not just a carding genocide anymore…

This is now a real war with atrocities all over the place…

What a Japanese never wanted to experience again anymore after Hiroshima and Nagasaki were now happening, not caused by America, but by their own Japanese citizen!

"Did…" Rio muttered. "Your… daughter…?"

"No. As we said, we were lucky enough." The mother quickly answered.

"I am sorry. But I want to ask one more question. Who helped you escape?"

"Well… He is…" The husband paused before saying.

"Tenjo Kaito."

"Kaito?!" Rio and Akio let out in shock. "You saw him?"

"Yes. He took out the base alone and freed us." The mother said. "We did not get a chance to thank him though."

"You know where the base is?" Rio pressed.

"The base? It's uh… three miles from here North-West."

"Thank you!" Rio quickly thanked them. "Akio-san, take care of them and the temple, I will go out looking for him!"

"Uh wait!" Akio tried to make her stop but she had ran back to her room, taking necessary equipment and running to the door.

"Rio! Stop! You're not getting out of here! You are alone and this is too reckless and dangerous!"

"She's right Rio!" Allen also agreed. "Stay in here, or I can go help you."

"I have to Allen, Akio-san!" Rio declared. "We need to bring him back! He's a Resistance and he's currently being wanted, he needs a place for safety! Besides we can calm down his bloodlust somehow! I am not going to let this chance loose this time."

"I am going to be fine Allen, you need to be here to protect the Temple." She turned to Allen.

Akio seriously looked at Rio, whose eyes she could read only one thing: Rio was serious this time.

"All right… but be home safe with Kaito."

"Good luck Rio, and don't dare going back here dead or without him." Allen wished her luck and gave her a handshake and a hug.

"I will." Rio promised and ran down the stairs, starting her mission.

* * *

Following the family's lead, Rio traveled to the location on foot, it took her nearly an hour to come to the place since she had to avoid Academia and the traps that both they and Resistance placed like WEDs, claymores, magnetic bombs, mines and so on. When she got into the base, what she could see was simply a huge mess. Nearly every barracks, road vehicles, helicopters were destroyed, only smoke flew up from them. Rio instantly realized deep circular holes everywhere, it could only be caused either by bombs or by monsters that attacked using large energy streams, combining with the family's descriptions, the answer was clear.

" _Galaxy-Eyes Cipher Dragon…"_

Another thing she found disturbed her greatly: on the warehouse on the right laid down some bras, and underpants, some were even in blood…

" _All female clothing…"_

Rio went to the warehouse used to be the control room and found a computer that miraculously was still working well. She checked the screen and found in there Kaito's info: his appearance, his deck, his monsters, his playstyle, family background.

"Rumor was right… You made quite a new name for you Kaito…" Rio chuckled, humorlessly. Before the war, her friend was the ace of Duel Monsters in high school, right now? A wanted criminal in name only. Professional Duelists like Rio knew how Kaito could be so strong: his experience, his will, and his Deck. Kaito used a Galaxy-Photon deck, focusing on summoning powerful Rank 4 and 8 monsters with a beatdown-disruption tactic; and with the addition of Cipher that he and his father Eisuke created, he could facilitate the control tactic much more efficiently. Few of his opponent could stand for more than two turns against him.

Finding nothing in there anymore, Rio turned off the computer, wiping any trace that she had been there and walked off the ruined warehouse.

Only to meet a Duel Disk on her neck…

Rio gasped, cold sweat all over, she looked to her right.

"Kaito?!"

She waved off his left hand, angrily talking to him.

"What do you think you're doing? Attacking Academia alone? Do you know how much we are worried about you?! You are now wanted! You could be killed anytime!"

"They are dipshits, weaklings. I can take them out alone. See the base? I did it." Kaito said matter-of-factly, seemingly not caring about the fact he was about to kill her earlier. "And why are you here?"

"To bring you back." She answered straight to the point.

"No need to. I wait here to ambush Academia, alone."

"You should stop acting alone Kaito, we need you back. Resistance needs you, we all need you." Rio tried the different approach after calming herself down.

"I don't need you, I don't need Resistance. All I see is I am alone, I will card Academia for carding my father and Haruto."

"You're losing yourself Kaito!" Rio raised her voice, she spoke the next words carefully. "You once told me, told all of us that no matter how bad the war is, we must keep ourselves together, we must keep our humanity, that's what makes us us! We are not Academia don't you remember? You even told us not to act like Shun and you once tried to talk him out of his anger, yet you are doing the exact same thing! And even worse than him!"

"That was before I went through the same thing as he did!" Kaito countered back. "Many comrades lost their lives during the attack Rio! Including my family! With my skills I can take on Academia alone, I don't need your help, I don't need Resistance's help! Get out of my way!"

"Not gonna happen!" Rio stopped Kaito. "I am tired seeing Shun and my brother arguing about this already, and I am not going to see you losing yourself again! You are my friend Kaito, no…"

"You are OUR friends!"

"Stop!" Kaito cut her off. "The moment my family was carded, you are not my friend anymore! Get out! Or I will force you out!" He clicked his Duel Disk, activating it.

"Well enough." Rio activated her own as well.

"I nearly won last time, how do you think you are going to reverse it now?" Kaito whispered dangerously.

"That was when I was not completely clear about bringing you back, but I am now!" Rio told Kaito, who remained still and cold-hearted. "Whatever you are thinking right now, whatever you consider us friends anymore, I am still considering you my friend! We all are! And with the will of us and the fallen, we will bring you back!"

"Friends…" Kaito shrugged. "Ridiculous…"

" _Don't you see how many of our friends die…?"_

 **DUEL!**

 **Tenjo Kaito** : 4000 [5]

 **Kamishiro Rio** : 4000 [5]

* * *

"I take the first turn!" Kaito suddenly declared, shocking Rio. He quickly drew five cards and was glad to find his necessary piece to establish his board, even though his face did not show it.

" _He's taking the first turn…? He's not using Cipher Dragon?"_

"From my hand, Magic Card Photon Sanctuary activate!" Kaito slid a card to his Duel Disk and right after the card was materialized, two small green spheres appeared and hovered in front of Kaito. "I special summon two Photon Tokens!"

2x **Photon Token** LIGHT/Thunder/LV4/2000/ **0**

"He's using Photon Sanctuary…" Rio muttered. "Don't tell me you are using…!"

"Right." Kaito simply agreed. "I release the two 2000 ATK Photon Tokens…" The spheres disintegrated. "To special summon this card!"

Kaito slapped down a card to the blade, light particles gathered in front of him, forming into a crescent spear.

"Galaxy lurking in the darkness…" He took the spear and threw it to the sky.

"Become the light of vengeance…" The word hope was replaced by revolution, and now vengeance, the thing Rio took notice instantly.

" _The chant… is full of anger…"_ The rough voice Kaito made indicated that to her.

"And my very servant!" The spear spun around, gathering more particles around it.

"The embodiment of light, now descend!" The light slowly took form, first the arms, then the legs, next the tail, and finally the head.

"Galaxy-Eyes Photon Dragon!"

 **BOOOOOMMMMMM!**

Suddenly, an explosion hit Kaito's ace monster, destroying it. The source was from the outside, probably a Solid Vision missile.

"What the…?!" Kaito gasped. Rio quickly noticed sounds of helicopters, cars, and multiple Chaos Giant flying pretty far from her left, but they were coming close.

"Take cover Kaito! They sent a team! We cannot take them!" Rio quickly grabbed Kaito and went to the warehouse earlier despite his protesting.

"Let me off Rio!"

"Quiet! You want us both to die?" She whispered since Academia was close. They took cover behind the shelves at the corner. Shortly after, Academia was in the base, inspecting it. They remained quiet as they heard them talking.

"He took it out alone."

"Dammit! That Kaito son of a bitch is insanely strong!"

"All the prisoners got escaped!"

"Shit. We lost some treasures to play."

" _Treasures? What are they talking about?"_ Kaito wondered. He noticed Rio was becoming slightly angry.

"Don't worry. We'll find some more to have fun."

"Hey you! Check the warehouse!"

" _Shit!"_ Rio cursed in her mind. She pulled Kaito and herself down more to try to hide them from view further. The Osiris Red got in, checking.

"Hm… nothing's here…?" He went to the computer.

"Shit!" Rio said under her breath.

"What?" Kaito asked.

"If he finds out it is hot, then…" Her heartbeat increased dramatically, and so did Kaito.

The Osiris Red placed his hand on the table, inspecting it.

" _Don't…!"_

Nothing happened, he went to check the screen.

" _DON'T!"_

" _NOOOO!"_

"Hey!"

" _What?!"_

"Don't waste time checking the warehouse, they would not be here right now!" A Ra Yellow told the low-ranking soldier.

"You're probably right…"

"Go out, scavenge somewhere else and go, and find other Xyz scums to have some fun."

The Osiris Red eventually got out, Kaito and Rio sighed in relief.

"Rio, what does he mean by… having some fun?" Kaito asked, still keeping the low voice. "What are they talking about?"

"You don't want to know." Rio shut him down, her voice slightly cracked.

"I need to know! I will go after them alone, stay out!"

"No! You will only become angrier!"

"I must know!" Kaito declared. He sighed. "Fine if you go with me, but don't stop me."

"I will go with you, but I will stop you."

"Huh!" Kaito chuckled. "Fine."

Kaito and Rio sneakily got out and got in the back of the large truck that was at the last of the convoy, hiding inside it. They kept silence as Academia got off their destroyed base. During the way, they heard some pretty unpleasant things that the drivers said. Kaito still could not believe it however.

"We're near their base. Get out." Rio and Kaito quietly jumped out of the truck and took cover behind the rocks far enough from the door. They peeked out to see them getting into the base. It was not as large as the last one but it was still large, housing several tents, warehouses, a control room and a large yard for vehicles.

"So this is their "another" base… a good place to card Academia…" Kaito whispered, earning a harsh look from Rio that said "don't even think about it."

"The base at the South-East was destroyed, we lost all the goods in there." A guard at the gate said.

"Don't be sad, we did capture prisoners from another Resistance base." Another guard told him.

"It's a good idea that we do not card them immediately, even though it is technically breaking the codes."

"Huh, you are just like the rest, just wait here, we will get turns eventually."

"But we could not do it now, inside they were already doing it."

Kaito got a bad feeling about this. He quickly took out binoculars and saw inside the base, Rio hesitated to pull out her own but she eventually did. At the far left corner, Academia personnel pulled out six young girls, three of them were his friends at the Clover branch. All of them were screaming, pleading the captors to stop but to no avail. One of the female soldier tried to stop them but she was knocked back.

"Shit! Our friends in Clover!" Kaito gasped. Rio sadly looked at him, and then the girls, but she knew she could not do anything for now.

"Don't you tell me what they do to them is…?" A simple nod from Rio told him all.

Kaito watched impatiently as six more Obelisk Force members took each one of the girls and went into the tents. The screaming was loud enough to resonate the entire base, Kaito shrieked.

"No!" He quickly got up but Rio pressed him down again.

"Don't you see what they are doing over there?!"

"I know!" Rio gritted. "But we cannot do anything now!"

Kaito closed his eyes and ears, looking away. He could not believe what he was seeing right now. He realized the reason they kept them alive was… to RAPE them!

They RAPE them!

They RAPE THEM!

THEY RAPE THEM!

Kaito repeated those words in his mind, losing himself in a trance.

Several minutes later the screaming stopped, each one of the girls were tossed out, naked and crying. Their clothes were also being thrown out carelessly as well.

"It's over." The guard at the gate sighed disappointingly.

"Get ready. A convoy is coming."

Three more trucks arrived, carrying more prisoners. An adult man resisted, trying to find a way to get him and others out but the driver stopped him.

"NO! Please don't hurt him!" A female voice, probably his wife.

"Here's a lesson to all of you: Don't try to escape or…" He placed his Duel Disk on his throat.

"No!"

He activated it, the head fell off instantly. Blood spattered everywhere, hitting the truck and the left part of his face. He nonchalantly wiped it.

"NOOOOOOO!"

Kaito and Rio jotted as if he was struck by static electricity, they looked away in disgust.

"Your fate will be much worse."

The wife tried to rush out but she was met with another inactivated Duel Disks to her own throat. She sobbed uncontrollably as she saw her husband's dead body. The rest of the prisoners hugged each other as they cried as well.

"Get rid of this body." The guard ordered. The killer grabbed the head and its former owner and dragged it to the place near Rio and Kaito, who quickly hid themselves.

He went pass the rocks and got to near some kind of hole and tossed the corpse down. After that he got back to the convoy and got in the base.

Kaito took off the binoculars, hands shaking in anger.

No, his body.

And his mind as well…

He went to the place where that son of the bitch disposed of the body earlier.

What Kaito and Rio saw froze them. They would get nightmares for the rest of their lives.

A large hole filled with numerous dead bodies, Duel Disks, dismembered body parts. Some of the bodies lose their heads or have their necks slit. And they swore they saw an infant among the corpses.

"No… no way…!" Kaito snapped, a piece of his heart broke as he felt it.

"They… kill people and dispose them in open space?!"

"Even an infant! This is…" Kaito muttered. "Unacceptable!"

"It is Kaito." Rio murmured, sobbing. "The family you saved earlier told me that…"

He dropped down, unable to accept the reality in front of his eyes. Rio touched his shoulder, trying her best to calm him down. Kaito muttered something, inaudible, losing himself in the boiling rage.

"Rio… I've decided…" His voice became a monotone.

"What?"

"I will eradicate this base! All of those inhuman son of bitches!" He glared at the base with anger visible on his face.

"For this once…" Rio muttered under her breath. "I will let you card them, and I will do it with you. They do not deserve to live." She fiercely looked at the base, eyes fill with murderous rage.

"Good enough…"

* * *

The two guards continued chatting, happily smiling at the chance of raping the prisoners. Suddenly, a monster appeared above them and swung its sword, cutting their heads off.

"Good job, Photon Thrasher." Kaito took off the card, making it disappear. They opened the door and silently went near a warehouse. "Don't forget the base is protected by the Real Solid Vision machine in the control room. Unless we destroy it, we cannot destroy the base."

"Magic Card, Photon Spear activate!" A luminous blade appeared and Kaito took it.

"Magic Card, Vision Blade activate." Rio armed herself with an ice blade, but it was just as sharp as any ordinary ones.

They went into tent by tent, warehouse by warehouse, place by place, silently killing any Academia personnel in the way. They were dispatched in cruel ways, fitting for the crimes they committed. Some of them were even killed in their sleep. Male or female, Kaito and Rio did not leave any of them free. Since this base was smaller than the last one, Rio and Kaito did not waste much time remembering the layout and the shifts. They silently went in the base like a gust of wind.

"There was one girl who tried to stop the raping, free her from this spree." Rio reminded Kaito.

"You're strangely humane in this Rio while you basically just killed several girls earlier. Besides we don't know if we can remember her face." He said as he grabbed an Obelisk Force and rammed his head in a piece of iron.

"I just don't want to kill innocent ones." She explained after she stabbed an Obelisk Force in his heart.

They continued massacring the base, dead bodies lay behind them like grass. When there were only two tents, the control room and the warehouse where the prisoners were held, Kaito changed the plan.

He removed Galaxy Spear, then he took out Galaxy-Eyes Photon Dragon and summoned it and Rio also did the same thing with Ragna Zero.

"Hametsu no Photon Stream!" Kaito declared loudly with all of the rage he could gather.

"Funeral Scythe!" Rio ordered her monster to attack.

The two Duel Monsters fired multiple energy streams at the remaining structures but the warehouse, destroying everything. The screaming and the yelling of Academia were heard, Kaito and Rio emotionlessly heard it. When the last members ran out of their hiding places to try to run away, Ragna Zero hovered downwards, arming her scythe. She swiftly went through them, the scythe got blood in it. After that, all of them dropped down.

Rio found a large truck and drove it near the warehouse.

"We're Resistance. Take cover, we are destroying the door." Kaito warned.

"Do it, Galaxy-Eyes Photon Dragon!" The dragon fired a blue stream at the door, obliterating it.

"The control room is down, blast the wall Kaito."

"Got it." Kaito ordered Photon Dragon to attack the wall near the corner, destroying it.

Rio and Kaito got in and saw the prisoners inside. Most of them are girls, they also noticed the three girls earlier who were back in their clothes.

"Kaito?" One of Kaito's friends said.

"Yes I am." Kaito told her in a calm and cold voice.

"Get out get out! Get in the bus!" Rio urged. They quickly got inside the truck.

"You know how to drive?" Rio asked a man.

"Yeah!"

"Drive the truck! Get out of here as soon as possible! I entrust our friends to you!"

"How about you?"

"We can take care of ourselves! Go!" Kaito told him. The man drove the truck and got out of the base.

Kaito and Rio went to the corpses of the Academia members they killed earlier. They noticed the female they saw through binoculars earlier who was in pain.

"Please… don't… kill me…" She pleaded.

Rio and Kaito looked at each other, thinking about what to do. Eventually.

"We are not going to kill you, but we will capture you." Rio told her, who simply looked own, accepting her fate.

Suddenly, a purple light absorbed the remaining soldier, turning her into a card. Rio and Kaito took fighting stances and looked forward.

They saw a man in black robes and a mask and two girls in similar clothes. The shorter one had white long hair while the older one had blonde hair. They were wearing Academia Duel Disks like the Obelisk Force squad behind them.

"Congratulations, you just cleared that mess for us!" The masked man said joyfully.

Rio and Kaito paled, knowing who they were.

"Darkness! And…"

"The Tyler Sisters…!"

* * *

 **See, I told you this chapter is not kidding at all. It was so dark and inhumane that Rio decided to lose some of her morality for a while to join force with Kaito.**

 **I know you guys would be mad that I denied Galaxy-Eyes Photon Dragon to appear officially in a duel, but it will soon I promise.**

* * *

 **Next Chapter Preview**

 **Trapped**

Ambushed by Darkness and the Tyler Sisters, Kaito and Rio must defend themselves against the high-ranking members of Academia. Would this be the end for them?

 **This is matrixnis, out!**


	39. Scale 39

**Welcome back everyone!**

 **Very sorry for the late update (again). I realized loss of motivation is associated with university life adjusting so I needed some time to regain it back. Thank you for reading and reviewing my story, and don't worry, I am not dead.**

 **I tried something different in this chapter which is also the reason why the update is late, hope you will like it.**

* * *

 **Chapter 39: Trapped**

* * *

"Are you…?!" Rio instantly realized. "Are you two Tag Duelists who use Amazoness Decks?!"

"Heh~ Finally someone who can remember our names~" The white-haired girl said in a playful voice. "I love those bases"

"A Resistance duelist… and the wanted figure Tenjo Kaito." The blonde mockingly waved her hand at Rio, and then Kaito.

"Are you two responsible for eradicating the Clover branch and many others Resistance bases?" Kaito questioned them coldly but beneath it was pure anger. There was no need for the girls to say, their mischievous faces said it all.

"Then you are going to DIE today!" Kaito roared. He attempted to activate his Duel Disk but Rio held his hand, stopping him.

"Hohohoh~ Such a hot-headed boy." The playful younger sister mocked Kaito again.

"Love to see that expression come from you, Tenjo Kaito-kun." The blonde played along as well.

"You bitches…!" Meanwhile Kaito could only grit his teeth. He had seen many Academia assholes taunting him and his comrades like that but beneath that façade they were all weak, but he was sure the Tyler Sisters were not foolish enough to anger him like that. He hated to admit it, but he needed to calm down now for his own sake and Rio's.

"I gotta say, I hate seeing our bases destroyed like this." Darkness stole the spotlight. "But since this one is degraded into a den which we do not accept, you two actually did us a favor, sadly we could not card them for the Arc Area Project though." He said as he madly shook the blood of the dead Academia solders nearby, rubbing their skin.

"But I think this will do…" Right after that, a sound of a truck approaching was heard, and judging from the direction…

"NO!" Kaito gasped.

"Don't tell me…" Rio realized.

The truck that left earlier was returning!

It made a sharp stop in front of Rio and Kaito, nearly hurting them before riding near Darkness, the Tyler Sisters and Academia troops.

The driver was replaced by an Obelisk Force, and another one in the passenger seat came out with him, reporting to the Commander.

"We intercepted the truck and brought it back to you, Darkness-sama."

"Good." He simply answered, the two masked soldiers stepped back. They forced the prisoners to get out and gagged their mouths, legs and arms, then they forced them to kneel.

"Damn you Darkness!" Rio spoke up. "They are not involved in this! Let them go!"

"They are always involved." The blonde said. "For the Project."

"How's this?" Darkness proposed. He quickly threw a Duel Anchor to Kaito's Duel Disk, locking him. The younger one of the Tyler Sisters also threw her Duel Anchor at Rio's Duel Disk. They then clicked the interface of the Duel Disks, causing more energy robes to appear from the middle of the anchor and bind the necks of the prisoners.

"What the hell is this?" Rio wondered.

"We will duel, according to gender. I will duel you Kaito."

"While we, the Tyler Sisters will duel you!" They said at the same time to Rio, causing the blue-haired girl to flinch slightly.

"But what about the anchors on the necks?!"

"Each time 1000 point is lost from LP, one of them will be carded." The blonde explained, shocking the two Resistance.

"What?! Each time… 1000 LP?!"

"And if you know Darkness-sama, not everybody kneeling over there will make it out." The prisoners looked on in horror, pleading Kaito and Rio to free them.

"Please! Please help us out!"

"Please Kaito! Rio!"

Kaito felt the burden on his shoulders again, the burden he was supposed to remove completely after resolving to work alone, trusting no one. He wanted to curse Rio for working with her, to cause another hostage situation like this, but he couldn't.

Right now he needed to save them, as much as possible.

"Kaito?"

No response.

"Kaito!"

He snapped out of his wrapped mind.

"What?"

"Focus! Don't let it consume you! Right now we need to save them! Our friends in there!"

"I don't need it from you…" Kaito answered distantly. He wiped the sweat on his face and activated his Duel Disk.

"Good boy." Darkness mocked. "Let's start the Hunting Game."

Rio worriedly looked at Kaito, hoping he would be fine. She turned to the Tyler Sisters and faced them, activating her own Duel Disk as well.

 **DUEL!**

 **Tenjo Kaito** : 4000 [5]

 **Darkness** : 4000 [5]

 **############################################**

 **Gloria Tyler** : 4000 [5]

 **Grace Tyler** : 4000 [5]

 **Kamishiro Rio** : 4000 [5]

* * *

"We have conducted a research on you. Your Deck, your cards and your playstyle are all in the files. You clearly have more advantage if you go second (he meant Galaxy-Eyes Cipher Dragon), so go first, or the prisoners will be carded!" Darkness declared.

"Going second or going first does not matter to me, it only means you are afraid of me." Kaito delivered his own mockery at him. "Since I control no monsters, I special summon Photon Thrasher!" Came out of nowhere was a glowing warrior with a big sword.

 **Photon Thrasher** LIGHT/Warrior/Effect/LV4/ **2100** /0

"2100 ATK…" Darkness said to himself.

"Then I equip Photon Orbital to it, making it gain 500 ATK!" A robot latched onto Photon Thrasher's back, the glow on its body shone up brighter.

 **Photon Thrasher** ATK 2100 - 2600

"First turn you cannot attack, what is the point?"

"Photon Orbital can send itself to the grave and I add this card to my hand." Orbial disappeared, Kaito showed the card and slapped it down. Another robot-like monster appeared.

 **Photon Advancer** LIGHT/Warrior/Effect/LV4/ **1000** /1000

"Photon Advancer can be special summoned if I control another Photon monsters, and it gains 1000 ATK!"

 **Photon Advancer** ATK 1000 - 2000

"I, using the Level 4 Photon Thrasher and Photon Advancer, Overlay!"

"Xyz Shōkan! Appear now! Rank 4! Radiant Photon Paladius!" A warrior in white armor appeared, wielding a lightsaber.

 **Radiant Photon Paladius** LIGHT/Warrior/Effect/R4/2000/ **1000**

"Defense Position…" Rio whispered. _"You're being careful Kaito…?"_

"I expect more from the so-called wanted figure." Darkness mumbled in a bored tone. Kaito easily saw through the façade. He did not say anything else besides setting a card down.

 **############################################**

"We allow you to take the first turn." Gloria, the older sibling told Rio.

"Wait there everyone, I will get you out." Rio promised, ignoring the sisters. She then took a card and slapped it down, a card materialized horizontally.

"I normal Set one monster, then." She slid one card in her Duel Disk. "I set down one card, turn end."

" _You're also holding back Rio?"_ Kaito glanced at Rio.

" _Outright putting my monsters in attack position will be suicide for them, I need to be careful…"_ Rio answered to Kaito in her mind.

"Playing careful, aren't you?" Grace said.

"But unfortunately, it will not help you a bit!" Gloria said as she drew her card. "Watashi no turn, draw!"

She showed two cards to Rio. "By revealing an "Amazoness" monster, I can special summon Amazoness Spy!" A female monster rose up from the ground. It had tan skin, slightly ragged long black hair, a dark blue cape on its back. It wore pretty revealingly with only a brown corset, beige shorts, brown orbs on its knees and tapes around its arms and lower legs. It also wielded a large knife on its right hand.

 **Amazoness Spy** EARTH/Warrior/Effect/LV3/ **800** /1200

"And now by releasing it." The female monster disintegrated, forming a new monster. It had a long red cape, blue hair, its clothes were more powerful than Spy but it was still revealing, showing its muscles. "Level 6 Amazoness Queen Advance Summon!"

 **Amazoness Queen** EARTH/Warrior/Effect/LV6/ **2400** /1800

"You want to avoid taking battle damage by setting that monster, but it will not work! Equip Magic Amazoness Spear!" The blade Amazoness Queen wielded turned into a long silver spear, it waved the spear to show its superior strength. "With this, Amazoness Queen can deal piercing damage."

Rio gritted her teeth, heads looking down, the bangs hiding her eyes. This worried the prisoners and Kaito so much.

"Battle!" Gloria declared her Battle Phase. "Amazoness Queen, attack the defense Set card!" The moment Amazoness Queen's spear nearly slashed the card, it flipped up, frost wing quickly appeared and a bird flew out, headbutting the spear.

 **Blizzard Prion** WATER/Bird Beast/Effect/LV4/1800/ **1600**

"Blizzard Prion's DEF is 1600, with this you will take 800 damage." Gloria confidently said.

"Is that really so?" Rio suddenly looked up at the Tyler Sisters.

"What?"

"Prion's effect transfer all battle damage to you!" She revealed, pointing her hand at them fiercely. The prion used its sharp legs to scratch the tan-skin warrior's face, hurting her slightly and affecting Gloria and Grace.

 **Gloria** : 4000 - 3200 [3]

 **Grace** : 4000 - 3200 [5]

"Also, Prion's effect makes Amazoness Queen lose 800 ATK!"

 **Amazoness Queen** ATK 2400 - 1600

"Yes! She has dealt first damage to them!" A prisoner said.

Kaito quickly gave a smile at Rio, complimenting her move before turning back to Darkness, serious again.

"Dammit…" Gloria let out her annoyance very slightly. She clicked her tongue. "I set down two cards, turn end!"

"Watashi no turn-what?" Rio suddenly heard screaming from Kaito.

"Kaito!" She realized he was sent flying back, but there was still more…

 **############################################**

"Ore no turn, draw!" Darkness calmly drew his card as there was no need to rush. He would be glad to see Kaito squirm under his plan very soon.

"Magic Card, One for One activate! By sending a card to the grave…" He slid a card to the Magic/Trap slot and took out a card from his Deck. "I special summon the Level 1 Black of Legend!"

 **Black of Legend** DARK/Dragon/Effect/LV1/0/ **0**

"Then by releasing it, I special summon Red-Eyes Black Dragon from my Deck!" The orb transformed itself into his signature black dragon with red eyes. It glared dangerously at Kaito and his monster.

 **Red-Eyes Black Dragon** DARK/Dragon/LV7/ **2400** /2000

"There it is…" Kaito whispered. "The freaking Commander's signature dragon… but it only has 2400 ATK and my monster is in Defense Position!"

"Let's change that definition shall we?" Darkness switched to a cold voice. "You think you can avoid battle damage and draw a card with Paladius' effect Kaito?" At this Kaito froze.

" _This guy… he knew all of the cards in my Deck…?!"_ The champion of Heartland felt fear again after a long time fighting.

"From my hand, I equip Red-Eyes Wyrm to Red-Eyes Black Dragon and it gains 1200 ATK." Red-Eyes Black Dragon grabbed a black wyrm using its legs and held it in its belly.

 **Red-Eyes Black Dragon** ATK 2400 - 3600

"Also, Red-Eyes can now deal piercing damage! Go now Red-Eyes!" Darkness quickly ordered his dragon to attack while Kaito did not get over the shock yet. It swung its tail right on the warrior's face, killing it in an instant, or rather, an explosion. Kaito was sent flying backwards.

 **Kaito** : 4000 - 1400 [3]

"Kaito!" Rio yelled her friend's name, but that was not all, two more people yelled painfully. She turned to see a man and a woman holding their throats and yelling. The anchors squeezed them very tightly until they nearly died from lack of oxygen, at that time they glowed up brightly. Seconds later they disappeared and from Darkness' Duel Disks, two cards flew out, baring the images of those two people earlier.

The remaining prisoners screamed in denial. Their lives were now in danger. Tear and fear were all of the things they thought about.

"No… no way…!" Rio covered her mouth, unable to say anything.

Kaito looked on, his pained face said it all. He failed…

 **############################################**

Rio quickly returned to her own duel. "Watashi no turn, draw!"

" _Good! It will work!"_ Rio slapped down another card. "Wait for me Kaito! I will help you soon! I normal summon Blizzard Falcon!" A bubble sphere broke, revealing a blue falcon with glass-like wings.

 **Blizzard Falcon** WATER/Bird Beast/Effect/LV4/ **1500** /1500

"And then Equip Magic Blizzard Sword on Blizzard Falcon, making it gain 800 ATK." The wings became sharper and now looked like two swords.

 **Blizzard Falcon** ATK 1500 - 2300

"2300 ATK is still not enough!" Grace reminded the girl.

"I do not aim for that. If Blizzard Falcon's ATK is different from its original value, it will deal 1500 damage to you!" The falcon roared, creating a spiral snow wind.

"Good move indeed." Gloria did not show any form of worry before activating her set card. "However, Trap activate! Amazoness Awareness!" The wind got absorbed into the card.

"This trap negates all effect damage inflicted to us." Gloria said.

"Dammit…" Rio sighed, but she was far from out of her moves, at least she could shave off some LP. "I, using the Level 4 Blizzard Prion and Blizzard Falcon, Overlay!" The Overlay Network opened, welcoming the two ice birds in it. A huge light erupted.

"Xyz Shōkan! Appear now Rank 4! Numbers 103!"

"What?! Numbers?" Gloria became surprised.

"Funeral Sub-Zero Maiden Ragna Zero!" From the Overlay Network, Rio's signature Numbers rose up.

 **No.103: Funeral Sub-Zero Maiden Ragna Zero** WATER/Angel/Xyz/Effect/R4/ **2400** /1200

"A Numbers monster!" A man said through his gag.

"Good!"

"Ragna Zero's monster effect activates! I can target Amazoness Queen whose ATK is different from its original value and destroy it! Guidance to Funeral!" Ragna Zero absorbed an Overlay Unit to its chest and swung its scythe twice, creating two energy discs.

"Amazoness Awareness' another effect! Amazoness monsters cannot be destroyed by card effects!" The discs stopped in front of Amazoness Queen and dropped down like flies.

"If so I battle! Ragna Zero, attack Amazoness Queen!" Rio's monster used its scythes to slash Amazoness Queen twice, creating an explosion.

 **Gloria** : 3200 - 1600 [1]

 **Grace** : 3200 - 1600 [5]

"Tsk… so that monster cannot be destroyed by battle…" Rio clicked her tongue.

Grace mumbled. "Not bad, really… but!" Suddenly, two more people got strangled by the anchors before turning into cards.

Rio asked in shock. "What the hell is happening?! Are you two cheating-"

"Not technically. They will be carded not by you losing LP, but us." Grace revealed, giving a slasher smile to threaten Rio.

Rio gasped, losing all of her reasoning right at that moment. "So you intentionally play weak to lose LP…! Damn you Tyler Sisters! Darkness!"

 **############################################**

"The duel is not finished yet, get up." Darkness ordered. His calm and confronting voice contrasted what he displayed earlier, as if he felt some sympathy from the unnecessary cardings. "Or are you hurting so much because you caused two people to be in cards that you cannot continue anymore?"

Kaito did not respond, instead losing in the screaming and the yelling of the carded victims. In a second, he swore to whoever he could prey to he had seen Eisuke and his sweet brother Haruto again, he had heard their futile pleading again.

He swore he would not let it happen again to anyone else ever since he worked alone, yet he had to see it again.

Could he continue with all of the haunted voices in his head?

"Kaito! Get up!"

Rio yelled, Kaito returned to the real world again.

"Forget it for now! We need to win and save them!"

Kaito slowly got up again.

"Don't pity me…" He whispered.

"When Paladius is destroyed, I can draw 1 card." Kaito touched the top card of his Deck.

"I think it is not going to happen though." Darkness interrupted. "During the Battle Phase, the monster equipped with Red-Eyes Wyrm can negate a card effect's activation." Red-Eyes Black Dragon roared and blasted a beam from its eyes, aiming at the ground near Kaito.

"I will not let you! Counter Trap, Cipher Wave activate!" Kaito activated his reverse card. "It negates the activation of a card effect and destroy it! With this Red-Eyes Black Dragon will be gone!" The trap turned into a spectrum, making the beam rebound.

"Tsk… if so I sent Red-Eyes Wyrm to the grave to protect Black Dragon!" The wyrm disappeared, along with the beam.

"Hoh… so you are still able to use Paladius' effect. I congratulate you." Darkness said sincerely, but whether there was still real sincerity or not was still up to the debate. "Hope you can do something useful with that card. I set down two cards and end my turn." Two cards materialized face-down before they disappeared.

"I am sorry, everyone…" Kaito regretfully looked at the prisoners, three of them were his friends.

"Don't worry about us Kaito, just beat Darkness in a duel!" One of them persuaded him but it did not work much, he was still in a lot of fear, visible in his eyes. Never before had they seen Kaito losing his composure like this.

"Ore no turn, draw!" Kaito started his turn. He had drawn a good card that he really needed it right now.

"From my hand, Continuous Magic Galaxy Transcendence activate!" The image of the card depicted the black galaxy with a full spectrum arching in a spiral shape, along with a lot of photon particles around it.

"What?! That card is not in the files!"

"You think I am foolish enough to show all of my arsenals during every battle? You think so?" Kaito said harshly. "I am not that STUPID! And for forcing me to play by your rules, I will KILL you in this turn!"

"Kaito…" Rio whispered, saddened by his boiling rage.

"With Galaxy Transcendence's effect, I send Galaxy Magician to the grave and add Cipher Recruiter to my hand. Next up another Continuous Magic Cipher Connection activate!"

"I normal summon Cipher Recruiter!" A humanoid machine with glowing body wearing an officer's uniform appeared. It also wore sunglasses to further empathize its superiority.

 **Cipher Recruiter** LIGHT/Machine/Effect/LV4/ **1800** /1000

"After summoning it, I can add another "Cipher" monster to hand, at the same time, Cipher Connection allows me to add another "Cipher" monster." Kaito took out two monsters with the same name.

"If I control a "Cipher" monster, I can special summon these two Cipher Wings!" Kaito swung his arm, slapping down the two cards he added earlier. The luminous wings appeared.

2x **Cipher Wing** LIGHT/Machine/Effect/LV4/ **1400** /1200

"I release one Cipher Wing." One set of wings disappeared. "And my other monsters' Levels will increase by 4."

 **Cipher Wing** LV4 - 8

 **Cipher Recruiter** LV4 - 8

"Finally, Level 8 Cipher Recruiter and Cipher Wing Overlay!" The two monsters turned into white energy and flew into the Overlay Network, causing a stream of light to appear.

"Galaxy shining in the darkness, Embody the demon of revenge and become my very servant! Xyz Shōkan! Descend! Rank 8! Galaxy-Eyes Cipher Dragon!"

 **Galaxy-Eyes Cipher Dragon** LIGHT/Dragon/Xyz/Effect/R8/ **3000** /2500

"Cipher Dragon… here it is… your ace monster…" Darkness muttered. He gave a slight smirk, excited for the challenge.

"Galaxy-Eyes Cipher Dragon's monster effect activates! By detaching an Overlay Unit, I can take control of Red-Eyes Black Dragon and treat its name as Galaxy-Eyes Cipher Dragon as well! Cipher Projection!" The dragon used its wings to hit an Overlay Unit, generating energy to blast low light at Darkness' monster, causing it to be wrapped in blue energy waves before turning into a copy of Cipher Dragon and switched field.

"Asshole… for carding innocent people, I will not forgive you Darkness! Get ready to repent for your sins!" The sheer rage from his catchphrase was enough to send shivers to every Academia members present except Darkness. "Continuous Magic Cipher Interfere activate! Battle!"

Cipher Dragon howled, charging its attack. The energy it gathered on its mouth finally unleashed.

 **Galaxy-Eyes Cipher Dragon** ATK 3000 - 6000

"Semmetsu no Cipher STREAM!"

Darkness stared at the stream as if he was dead just from looking at it, before suddenly declaring. "At this moment, I special summon Red-Eyes Shield Wing Dragon!" A small dragon appeared, intercepting the attack.

 **Red-Eyes Shield Wing Dragon** DARK/Dragon/Effect/LV1/100/ **100**

"What?!"

"The attack is negated, I gain LP equal to Cipher Dragon's ATK."

 **Darkness** : 4000 - 10000 [0]

"No way… 10000 LP…?!" Kaito gasped, unclear.

"And then, half of the amount I just gained will be dealt as damage!" The stream rebounded, aiming for Kaito.

"Kaito!" Rio yelled.

"Cipher Connection's other effect will protect me from effect damage!" He declared, the trap absorbed the stream and neutralized it.

"Hm… such futile tricks…" Darkness said. "You couldn't defeat me this turn and you nearly lost."

"Shut your dirty mouth up." Kaito simply threatened him. "The second Galaxy-Eyes Cipher Dragon, attack Red-Eyes Shield Wing Dragon!" The forceful copy mindlessly followed Kaito's order, blasting the fiery dragon away with a single attack.

"Red-Eyes Shield Wing Dragon's effect activates." Darkness said. "I add another Red-Eyes Black Dragon to my hand."

Kaito inspected the only card in his hand.

" _This card will decide my own fate in this duel… What would happen, if I…"_ Kaito shrunk into despair again. He did not know what was going on today, he was supposed to remain cold, distant, ruthless to fight Academia, yet they managed to break him today with his own people, including three of his friends. Deep inside Kaito still had a heart for others despite what he declared and today it came back to haunt him. He desperately looked at Rio's field, only to find her situation was just as bad. Rio was knocked down, the Tyler Sisters had managed to force Rio to card three more people…

 **############################################**

"Watashi no turn, draw!" Grace gracefully drew her card. "Magic Card, The Warrior Returning Alive activate! I add Amazoness Spy back from the grave."

"And then Magic Card…" Grace mocked the prisoners by showing them the card first. They tried their best to remain serene despite the nightmares associated with that card. "Fusion activate! I use Amazoness Spy and Pet Tiger."

"Wild beast of the jungle with vicious fangs! Obtain the eyes of the warrior who hunts down her prey! Be reborn as a savage beast and appear! Yūgō Shōkan! Emerge! Level 7! Amazoness Pet Liger!" A large tiger roared as it came out of the spiral. It had only one red eye, yellow fur, an armor around its neck and front body that also had spears on it, four circular-like armors on its legs.

 **Amazoness Pet Liger** EARTH/Beast/Fusion/Effect/LV7/ **2500** /2400

"From my hand, Quick-Play Magic Book of Moon activate!" The card quickly turned into a white bubble which formed around Ragna Zero, it then turned into a set card placed horizontally.

"Battle! Amazoness Queen, attack the Set Numbers 103 Ragna Zero!" The set card opened, revealing Ragna Zero.

"The effect of Blizzard Prion prevents Ragna Zero's battle destruction!"

"But you will still take the damage!"

 **Rio** : 4000 - 3600 [2]

"And now the effect of Amazoness Spear will activate! After damage calculation, it can destroy one card my opponent controls!"

"What?!"

"I destroy Ragna Zero!" Amazoness Queen slashed its spears at the maiden, destroying it.

"Ragna Zero!" Rio yelled in dismay as her monster was gone, she was now open for a direct attack.

"And now, Amazoness Pet Liger, direct attack!" The feral Fusion monster charged forward, its teeth clenching for the excitement of hunting its food.

"With its effect, it gains 500 ATK!"

 **Amazoness Pet Liger** ATK 2500 - 3000

Rio braced herself, covering her face with her hands. But it was not enough to withstand the impact of the attack of the liger, Rio got sent flying far away.

 **Rio** : 3600 - 600 [2]

Three prisoners screamed, and later, three more cards flew near her…

"I set down a card, turn end." Grace finished her cruel turn.

"With this, if you want to deal us damage, you must let them die."

"So, what are you going to do now, Rio?"

 **############################################**

" _No! Focus! Focus Kaito! You are better than this! There are people to save!"_ He swallowed his nerves, shaking his head to calm himself down. The images of the carded victims disappeared from his head, the clenching fists stopped shaking.

"Get up Rio, the duel is not over yet…" He encouraged her to continue without looking at her. Rio did not respond, still in shock from the impact and the carding.

" _Get up Rio… get up…"_

He needed to go back to his own duel. "I set down one card, turn end…" One card appeared before slowly disappearing.

"Ore no turn, draw!" Darkness gave Kaito no time to rest. "Get ready Kaito, this turn I will not leave you alive. Magic Card, Treasure Cards of the Ruby! I sent the second Red-Eyes Black Dragon from my hand to the grave to draw two cards." Darkness inspected his drawn cards. "Then I send the final Red-Eyes Black Dragon from my Deck to the grave."

"Then from my hand, I special summon Red-Eyes Doppel Dragon."

 **Red-Eyes Doppel Dragon** DARK/Dragon/Effect/LV1/0/ **0**

"A Level 1 monster… what is that bastard planning?"

"Wanna know? Then listen, after it is summoned this way, I can change its Level."

"Changing Level…"

"And I will choose Level 7."

 **Red-Eyes Doppel Dragon** LV1 - 7

"Two Level 7 monsters…!" Kaito gasped.

"Right. I, using the Level 7 Red-Eyes Black Dragon and Shield Wing Dragon…" He waved his hand up into a fist, every Heartland citizens looked on in shock.

"Overlay!" The two dragon joined in the Overlay Network, causing a huge stream of light to rise up.

"Xyz Shōkan! Appear now Rank 7!" He yelled in an imperial voice tone. "Red-Eyes Hellish Dragon!"

 **Red-Eyes Hellish Dragon** DARK/Dragon/Xyz/Effect/R7/ **2800** /2400

The roar of the Xyz dragon caused a big wind blast that nearly blew everyone else besides Darkness away. Rio also got back to her senses, she looked at it with pure hatred.

"What the hell… You Academia son of a bitch use an Xyz monster?! You disgusting piece of shit!" Rio accused him of using Xyz, a very shameful move.

"What's better to humiliate my enemy by using their own soul against them?" Darkness answered. "Don't tell me your will to fight is gone after seeing this dragon and you let the prisoners turn into cards."

"To hell with it!" Kaito spitefully said. "We will never surrender! Resistance will never do that!"

"Whatever, but you cannot save everyone in war remember that. Reverse card open! Red-Eyes Spirits!" One of Darkness' traps flipped up. "Reborn from the grave! Red-Eyes Black Dragon!" Another Red-Eyes rose up from the ground.

"Whatever you are doing, those two monsters do not have enough ATK to bypass my 3000 ATK Galaxy-Eyes Cipher Dragon!" Kaito reminded.

"By returning the final Red-Eyes Black Dragon to my Deck, I can add Black of Legend to my hand." Darkness took out two cards, shuffled one of them in. "And normal summon it!" The cocoon returned.

"Red-Eyes Hellish Dragon's monster effect activates! By detaching an Overlay Unit, I Release Black of Legend…" The black cocoon vanished. "And Galaxy-Eyes Cipher Dragon will be attached to it!"

"WHAT?!" Kaito gasped as he had to see his dragon being consumed in fire before being attached to Hellish Dragon like a fossil. "Cipher Dragon!"

"And its ATK is added to Hellish Dragon."

 **Red-Eyes Hellish Dragon** ATK 2800 - 5800

"Dammit! Now if Hellish Dragon attacks, he will lose!" Rio pointed out.

"That's why Darkness-sama is the Commander, he is really strong." Gloria said.

"I could finish you right then and there Kaito, but before that let's get you through another route shall we?" He revealed a card in his hand before sliding it to his Duel Disk. "Magic Card, Red-Eyes Gift activate! I target Red-Eyes Hellish Dragon and we both gain LP equal to its original ATK."

 **Darkness** : 10000 - 12800 [0]

 **Kaito** : 1400 - 4200 [0]

"Also, Cipher Connection's effects are negated this turn." The card became grey.

"You…" Kaito muttered. He knew what Darkness wanted to do. "You pathetic son of a bitch!"

"God damn you Darkness!" Rio cursed him.

"Battle! Red-Eyes Black Dragon, direct attack! Kokuendan!" A black sphere fired from its mouth.

"Continuous Trap activate!" Kaito acted.

"Destiny Break! When my opponent declares a direct attack, I draw a card, and if it is a monster card, the attack will be negated!"

"So you depend on luck this time."

Kaito quickly drew one card and inspected it. His face fell…

"Galaxy Expedition… Magic Card…" He reluctantly sent it to the grave and took the black sphere to his body. He yelled painfully.

"Kaito!" The prisoners and Rio yelled his name in dismay.

 **Kaito** : 4200 - 1800 [0]

Three more people turned into cards after nearly dying from suffocation.

"After an opponent's card effect resolves, Hellish Dragon inflicts 500 damage." Darkness simply said. Kaito got hit by another blast again.

 **Kaito** : 1800 - 1300 [0]

"This is the end. Red-Eyes Hellish Dragon, Kaito direct attack!"

Kaito stood still, compensating on what to do. If he used Destiny Break's effect, there would be a 50% chance he will survive, but one random people will be carded, but if he did not, everyone would…

Either way, his conscience would be doomed for forever…

"I…"

He muttered.

"I…"

"I activate Destiny Break's effect again!" He reluctantly drew another card, eyes closing, not wanting to look at the prisoners. He did not even look at his drawn card anymore, he just wished all of this would be over soon.

The fiery stream suddenly stopped in front of him.

The attack was stopped.

He had drawn a monster.

But…

 **Kaito** : 1300 - 800 [0]

A girl let out a painful yell, Kaito and Rio realized it was one of their friends. They helplessly looked at her.

"NOOO! Stop this you asshole!" Rio tearfully yelled at Academia. They did not respond, the soldiers behind them even started laughing hysterically.

"Kai… Kai…Kaito…" She whispered nearly lifelessly.

"Ko… Kotori…" At this Kaito got teary-eyed for real. His friend was turned into a card…

Kaito dropped down, hid tear hit the card, blurring the backing. Kaito glanced at it.

Galaxy-Eyes Photon Dragon…

Ironic…

His signature monster had come to save him like it did many times over, but this time he could not use it to save his broken soul…

"At the end of the Battle Phase, Destiny Break is destroyed and I summon the drawn monster with its effects negated." Kaito slapped down his card disinterestedly, catching the spear that appeared.

"Galaxy shining in darkness…" He did not have any will to chant anymore. He took the blade without even looking at it.

"Become the light of vengeance…"

"And my very servant…" He threw up the spear, it gathered light particles and slowly turned into his old but trusty monster.

"Appear now, Galaxy-Eyes Photon Dragon…"

 **Galaxy-Eyes Photon Dragon** LIGHT/Dragon/Effect/LV8/ **3000** /2500

"All of this just to get this stupid monster to the field, and sacrifice three people along the way?" Darkness heartlessly delivered poisonous words at Kaito, angering him further.

"Shut up you scum!" Rio defended Kaito. "You use a dirty trick on us two, we will kill you for that!"

"Young lady, watch your mouth." Grace playfully said.

"Watch your dirty hole slut! I will make all of you pay!"

"Turn end. Now, can you continue fighting Kaito?"

For the first time in a long time, Kaito was helpless. He could not gather all of his will to defeat Academia anymore, the haunted screams of the victims haunted him endlessly.

He did not find enough will to draw his next card.

"Kaito! Rio!"

An old man in the captured group told him.

"Continue! You two cannot fall down!"

"But… if we continue, you may be carded…"

"Just do it! This is war, there will be death and blood, and we are willing to die for you and others to live! Fight! Fight for us! Fight of Resistance! And fight for yourself!"

"You heard him Kaito, Rio?" Another young man said. "Don't care about us! Keep fighting! Especially you Rio! We are willing to die for the cause! Don't care about us, just keep fighting!"

"Just keep fighting and kill those maniac mother******!"

"Everyone…" They were right. This is war, there will be death and blood, and they are willing to be it. Kaito and Rio took a deep breath, steeling themselves up. They roared very loudly and faced their respective enemies.

"Get ready Darkness!"

"Tyler Sisters! I will kill you two for good today!"

Their enemies froze a bit by their strong resolve.

"Oretachi no turn…" They both declared. "DRAWWWWWW!"

 **############################################**

"First off, Magic Card Blizzard Draw activate! I discard a "Blizzard" monster to draw two cards."

" _It's here! The card brother gave to me!"_ Rio thought her brother (actually carded) had helped her. "And then, Resurrection of the Dead activate! Return to the field, Ragna Zero." Numbers 103 descended down from the sky.

"Then, Magic Card, Depth Eruption activate! Since there is a WATER monster on the field, all cards on the field will be destroyed!" A huge frost wind spun through the field, destroying everything.

"But right now, I will banish Amazoness Awareness to bring back Amazoness Queen!" Followed Rio's suit, Gloria managed to bring her monster back.

"Doesn't matter! Blizzard Sword's graveyard effect activates! I banish it, Blizzard Prion and Blizzard Falcon to set a "Rank-Up-Magic" card from the Deck!"

"What?! Setting a Rank-Up-Magic from the Deck?!" Gloria was taken by surprise.

"Also, return again, Ragna Zero!" Once again, her main Numbers monster showed up.

"Finally, Rank-Up-Magic Blizzard Force activate!" Rio clicked a button on her Duel Disk, the set card flipped up. "I, using the Rank 4 Ragna Zero, Overlay Network reconstructing!" Ragna Zero turned into dust and flew up to the Overlay Network, a huge explosion occurred.

"Chaos Xyz Change! Appear now Rank 5! Chaos Numbers 103!"

"Funeral Sub-Zero Maiden Ragna Infinity!"

 **CNo.103: Funeral Sub-Zero Maiden Ragna Infinity** LIGHT/Angel/Xyz/Effect/R5/ **2800** /2400

"Rank-Up into a new monster…"

"And a Chaos Numbers to boost!"

"But just with it you cannot take us out this turn!"

"There is still one more!" Rio activated her final card. "Magic Card, Zero Blade activate! Amazoness Queen loses 1000 ATK!"

 **Amazoness Queen** ATK 2400 - 1400

"When a monster's ATK changes, I can special summon Blizzard Parrow from my graveyard!" An icy parrow came out from below the ground, sending cold chill across the field.

 **Blizzard Parrow** WATER/Bird Beast/Effect/LV4/ **1600** /1000

"Then I can make Ragna Infinity gain 1000 ATK."

 **CNo.103: Funeral Sub-Zero Maiden Ragna Infinity** ATK 2800 - 3800

"With this, I can activate Ragna Infinty's monster effect! By detaching a Chaos Overlay Unit, the difference between Amazoness Queen's current and default ATK will be dealt as damage!"

"What?! This time it deals damage?" The maiden swung its red scythe, slashing the Tyler Sisters, causing them to bleed from their cheeks.

 **Gloria** : 3200 - 2200 [1]

 **Grace** : 3200 - 2200 [1]

The old man screamed in pain before being carded, Rio and Kaito shrugged it off and continued fighting.

"Then Amazoness Queen will be banished!" A vortex appeared behind Amazoness Queen and sucked it in.

"NO!" Gloria yelled.

Rio took a look at Darkness' field, she was glad to see Kaito had dealt large damage to that Commander son of a bitch, and to further fill her with hope, the Tyler Sisters also seemed to panic as well. "Now Amazoness Queen is gone for good, there is no monster on your field! Get ready to die for your sins!"

"Battle! Ragna Infinity, direct attack! Guidance to Purgatory!"

"At this moment!" Grace acted.

"What?!"

"Amazoness Guard's effect from hand activates! It is special summoned during a direct attack!" She slapped it down, a tribal female warrior with a helmet and a shield showed up.

 **Amazoness Guard** EARTH/Warrior/Effect/LV1/0/ **2100**

"Useless! It will not help you! Ragna Infinity, attack Amazoness Guard!" The scythe now found its way to the newly summoned monster and destroyed it.

"But it also triggers Amazoness Guard's effect! Ragna Infinity's ATK becomes 0!"

 **CNo.103: Funeral Sub-Zero Maiden Ragna Infinity** ATK 3800 - 0

" _Dammit! Ragna Infinity's ATK is now 0! If I order Blizzard Parrow to attack, they will still have 600 LP left, and two more people will be carded!"_

" _Please come soon…"_

" _Allen, Akio-san…!"_

Suddenly, a huge explosion occurred…

 **############################################**

"It's here Darkness, get ready to die!" Kaito warned. "I banish Cipher Wing and Cipher Recruiter to special summon Cipher Converter!"

 **Cipher Disruptor** LIGHT/Warrior/Effect/LV8/ **1800** /2800

"With this, all of your monster effects will be negated!" Hellish Dragon lost its colors.

 **Red-Eyes Hellish Dragon** ATK 5800 - 2800

"Also, Cipher Connection's effect allows me to add Cipher Copier to my hand. Now you cannot damage me anymore Darkness. I, using the Level 8 Galaxy-Eyes Photon Dragon and Cipher Disruptor, Overlay!"

"With these two monsters, Overlay Network constructing! Xyz Shōkan!"

A large and long sword appeared, Kaito furiously grabbed it and slammed it down at the center of the field. Huge lightning erupted from it.

"Appear! Galactic Ultimate Dragon, Numbers 62!"

"What?! Numbers?!"

"Darkness and light wandering in the universe. Sorrowful dragon who sleep in the interstice. Its power of creating opens the door of vengance! Galaxy-Eyes Prime Photon Dragon!" Galaxy-Eyes Photon Dragon turned transparent, absorbing every light around it, forming into a new dragon. It had four orbs on its two bright and large wings, its entire body continuously shone up radiantly. Two yellow Overlay Units orbited around it.

 **No.62: Galaxy-Eyes Prime Photon Dragon** LIGHT/Dragon/Xyz/Effect/R8/ **4000** /3000

"Prime Photon… at this time?!" Darkness said, slightly trembling.

"Finally from my hand, I normal summon Cipher Copier!"

 **Cipher Copier** LIGHT/Warrior/Effect/LV4/ **1700** /1000

"Its effect activates! I target Galaxy-Eyes Prime Photon Dragon and have it change its name to Prime Photon!"

"You change Cipher Copier's name?! Shit!"

"Yes, with the effect of Cipher Interfere, Prime Photon's ATK will be doubled. Battle! Galaxy-Eyes Prime Photon Dragon!" The radiant dragon flew up high, it then became invisible, only its orbs were seen glowing. They then formed into their original locations on the dragon which appeared at the same time.

"Attack Red-Eyes Black Dragon!" Prime Photon began to charge energy.

"At this moment, I activate Prime Photon's effect! By detaching an Overlay Unit, it gains 200 ATK for each Ranks on the field!" It absorbed one Overlay Unit into its wings, charging more energy to it.

"The total Ranks are… 15!" Darkness calculated.

"Which means it gains 3000 ATK!"

 **No.62: Galaxy-Eyes Prime Photon Dragon** ATK 4000 - 7000

"Also due to Cipher Interfere's effect, Prime Photon Dragon's ATK is doubled!"

 **No.62: Galaxy-Eyes Prime Photon Dragon** ATK 7000 - 14000

"ATK… 14000?!"

"Eternity Photon Stream!" The dragon released the energy in the form of a large spiral, it flew down quickly and hit Red-Eyes Black Dragon, destroying it in a huge explosion. Darkness screamed, unable to withstand the impact. He was then sent flying backwards, hitting Academia soldiers behind.

 **Darkness** : 12800 - 1200 [0]

 **No.62: Galaxy-Eyes Prime Photon Dragon** ATK 14000 - 4000

"Yes! Kaito has dealt a large 11600 damage!" A Heartland citizen excitedly said.

"Finish him Kaito!"

"But don't you forget that Kaito cannot attack anymore?!" Darkness reminded him as he got up, helped by the soldiers.

"Who said I cannot attack anymore?" Kaito said in a low and dangerous voice.

"What?"

"From the graveyard, I banish Galaxy Magician!" Kaito took it out and showed it to Darkness. "To allow Prime Photon Dragon to attack another monster!" The energy within Prime Photon ran through its body, shining it again.

"NO!"

"Even though Cipher Interfere can only activate once per turn, this is more than enough to beat you scum! Hellish Dragon only has 2800 ATK, which means a clean 1200 damage to you asshole!"

"Battle! Galaxy-Eyes Prime Photon Dragon, attack the abomination Red-Eyes Hellish Dragon!"

"ETERNITY PHOTON… STREAMMMMMMM!"

Suddenly, a ghostly form of Red-Eyes Black Dragon appeared. It seemed to get hotter and hotter, threatening to explode.

"What?! Red-Eyes Black Dragon…?! Huh!" Kaito was taken back by the sudden appearance of the dead dragon, then he realized…

Darkness had activated his Reverse Card.

"Trap Card, Red-Eyes Burn!" He explained. "The destroyed Red-Eyes Black Dragon's original 2400 ATK will be dealt to both of us AS DAMAGE!"

"The hell?!" The dragon exploded, causing everyone to get knocked down, everyone.

 **Kaito** : 800 - 0 [0]

 **Darkness** : 1200 - 0 [0]

Rio got up first, seeing the chains on the prisoners' throats had disappeared.

"Everyone! Come here! Now!" On cue, everyone ran to Rio and Kaito.

"Kaito! Kaito! Get up!"

He slowly stirred.

"Rio… Everyone…"

"Thank God! You are okay!" She let out her relief.

"Did we…"

"No, we're fine."

"Not you Rio." Gloria said, stopping her cold. "Don't forget you are still dueling."

Rio took up defensive position, wondering on what to do.

"Sa! Attack us with Blizzard Parrow!" She challenged her.

"Don't do it Rio!" Kaito talked to her.

"I know… but… what should I do…?"

As if God had arrived to help her, multiple vehicles suddenly burst into the base, along with several monsters, all of them were…

Xyz!

Which means Resistance is here!

"It's Resistance!" An Obelisk Force realized.

"Dammit! There's too many, we cannot take them all!"

The sounds were getting louder and louder, closer and closer.

"Dammit… Resistance…" Gloria muttered.

"They came in numbers. What should we do sister?" Grace wondered.

"Consider you are lucky today." Darkness said. "Get out, Grace, Gloria!"

"Understood." They took off their Decks and escaped quickly along with Academia soldiers.

"Hey! Wait up!" Kaito tried to catch up to them but he did not manage to. They had gone off very quickly on trucks. Kaito bitterly looked at their fading form.

Resistance' reinforcements flooded the destroyed base, its members quickly laid out the formation to rescue the prisoners.

"Alright, get in the trucks!" One of them said.

"Rio! Kaito!" Allen yelled and quickly ran to them. "Good thing you are alive!"

"We are still alive as you can see! Don't worry Allen!" Rio assured him.

He went on rapid-firing in his concern. "After you sent the emergency signal we quickly called as many men as we could from the temple and nearby Resistance hideouts, we thought you two have been carded by the time we got here!"

"Rio!" Akio also ran to her.

"Akio-san!" Rio smiled brightly and hugged her.

"Thank God, you're alive."

"Don't worry about it Akio-san, we are fine now. Good thing I quickly called you, but I did not think there would be many people to come here." Rio looked at the Resistance members who smiled warmly at her in return. As soon as Rio and Kaito were surrounded by Darkness, the Tyler Sisters and a group of Obelisk Force, Rio secretly activated a rescue beacon underneath her clothes. She was relived they managed to come when she nearly had to continue the torturous duel.

"How about Kaito?" Allen asked. At this, Rio and the prisoners' faces instantly paled. They struggled on what to say to them.

"What's… what's wrong…" Akio asked Rio, who looked down, shaking her head.

"Tell me what's wrong Rio!" She pressed. Suddenly Kaito went between them, he crouched down and took the cards below, then he gave it and his own cards in his other hand to her. There were twelve cards like that, all having the same fear face of carded victims. Akio became horrified.

"They are…! Resistance!"

"No, just innocent civilians who cannot fight. Academia forced me and Rio to fight…" Kaito turned away, holding his tears. "For each 1000 LP is lost, one person is carded. In my case is each time I lose 1000 LP but for Rio's… each time the Tyler Sisters lose instead…"

"The Tyler Sisters?! The Tag Duelists who eradicated many Resistance bases?!" Allen said in shock. "And they use such an underhanded tactic like that?!"

"Yes, and I duel Darkness, the Commander of the Academia force in here."

"Darkness?!"

"But that is not all. The soldiers in here are much worse. They raped those prisoners."

Silence creeped the area for a whole minute, everyone was traumatized by what Academia did, and even though Darkness and Tyler Sisters did not kill them, they forced Rio and Kaito to duel with their lives on the line. Just how much worse Academia could become?

Too overwhelmed by the emotions erupting inside, Kaito abruptly stormed off.

"Hey Kaito! Kaito! Stop!"

He did not listen.

"KAITO! STOP!"

Rio ran to him, forcing him to stop.

"Stop thinking that! We need you back, especially after all of this!"

"Ridiculous!" Kaito yelled, throwing Rio's arm off. "I got into this mess because of you! They got carded because of you! If you had not come with me, things would not have turned badly like this!"

"STAY AWAY FROM ME! ALL OF YOU!" He roared with all of his might, scaring everyone in here.

"Kaito… I…" Rio mumbled, unclearly…

"STAY AWAY!" He screamed at her again.

Rio had no other choice, she backed off.

Kaito turned around and walked away.

"Just remember Kaito…"

He stopped.

"They are gone today not because of me, but because of you too."

"They are gone because of us…"

Kaito glanced at Rio, wanting to argue with her, but he could not, for what she said…

Was right…

But he would never admit it…

Not in his messed-up mind right now…

Kaito finally walked away, leaving the cold wind behind. Rio, Allen, Akio and the Resistance boarded in the trucks and returned to their bases…

* * *

In an alleyway filled with old and disrepair buildings, a ball of light appeared. It then faded, revealing 15 Lancers standing. They all took a look at the place they were standing.

"Teleporting across dimensions sure ain't pleasant." Sawatari said, massaging his right shoulder and shaking his right arm.

"Where are we?" Yuya wondered.

"The Commons section of City." Yugo answered.

"Commons?" Yuzu said.

"And the cities floating above us." Yusei pointed at the sky where true to his words many buildings were there. "Belongs to the Tops."

"Tops? Commons? Seems like this place classified people." Ruri guessed.

"Pretty much." Aki said.

"Lucky we are all here together though." Gongenzaka said with relief.

"I predicted that possibility too so I spent all night last night to program the dimension travel program, making sure we would be staying in a same place when we travel." Reiji explained.

"You're insanely good in this Reiji-san!" Dennis told him admiringly.

"I actually got help from other scientists, but thanks by the way."

Yugo suddenly heard multiple footsteps and sirens coming pretty close to them.

"Sshhh!" He put his finger on his mouth, noting everyone to remain silent.

"Quick! Hide!" Everyone stepped back in the alleyway.

The sirens and footsteps were very close.

"Who are they?" Yuya said lowly.

"Security. What are they doing here?" Yugo answered.

Some people talking to each other.

After that, two people came near to the place the Lancers were hiding as indicated by four distinct footstep sounds.

"Dammit! They're close!" Yuzu whispered. "What are we going to do?"

"I got an idea." Yusei said.

The Security walked near the alley. They armed themselves with police batons and stormed in. As soon as they did it though, they were met with strong punches to their guts, next their batons were taken and they got hit in their heads, losing consciousness.

"Phew… gotta be better boys…" Aki said smugly. Yusei and she dragged the bodies to the alley.

"Tie them up and gag them." Quickly, they were tied like corpses.

"So this is Security." Reiji said.

"Yes, they are patrolling the Commons streets, but for what?" Yugo wondered.

"Probably Psychic Duelists…" Aki guessed.

"Either way, we are stuck in here unless we find a way out…"

* * *

 **Fanfic OC Cards**

 **Red-Eyes Wyrm**

DARK/Dragon/Effect/LV6/1200/2400

You can target 1 "Red-Eyes" monster you control: Equip this card to it. It gains 1200 ATK and this effect:

*Once per turn, during the Battle Phase, when a Spell/Trap Card, or monster effect, is activated (Quick Effect): You can negate the activation.

If the equipped monster would be destroyed, you can send this card to the GY instead. If you would Fusion Summon a "Red-Eyes" Fusion monster, you can banish this card from your GY as 1 of the monsters required for the Fusion Summon. You can only use each effect of "Red-Eyes Wyrm" once per turn.

 **Red-Eyes Gift**

Target 1 "Red-Eyes" monster and 1 face-up card your opponent controls: both players gain LP equal to the first target's original ATK, also the second target has its effects negated.

 **Galaxy Magician**

LIGHT/Magician/Effect/LV4/1700/1200

You can target 1 other "Galaxy", "Photon" or "Cipher" monster you control; this card cannot attack this turn, also the target gains 1700 ATK, until the end of this turn. You can banish this card from your GY, then target 1 "Galaxy-Eyes" monster you control; this turn it can make up to 2 attacks on monsters during the Battle Phase of this turn. You can only use each effect of "Galaxy Magician" once per turn.

 **Cipher Wave**

(Counter Trap Card)

When a Spell/Trap Card, or monster effect, is activated while you control a "Galaxy", "Photon" or "Cipher" monster: Negate the activation, and if you do, destroy that card. If your opponent controls a monster that was Special Summoned from the Extra Deck, you can activate this card during the turn it was Set.

 **Cipher Recruiter**

LIGHT/Machine/Effect/LV4/1800/1000

When this card is Normal or Special Summoned: You can add 1 "Galaxy", "Photon" or "Cipher" monster from your Deck to your hand. If this card is used as material for an Xyz Summon of a LIGHT Xyz monster: You can gain LP equal to that Xyz monster's original ATK. You can only use each effect of "Cipher Recruiter" once per turn.

 **Blizzard Prion**

WATER/Bird Beast/Effect/LV4/1800/1600

Cannot be destroyed by battle, also your opponent takes any battle damage from attacks involving this card. At the end of the Damage Step, if this card battles: You can target 1 monster your opponent controls: it loses 800 ATK. A WATER Bird Beast or Angel Xyz monster using this card as a material cannot be destroyed by battle.

* * *

 **Damn, probably the wrost duel I have ever written, in terms of cruelty. I wonder how wrapped up a human mind can be.**

 **This chapter marks the end of the first arc of the story, I am really grateful for all of the attention and reviews I have been receiving for the last 7 months. Seriously, you guys are amazing, I would not have continued writing this story if not for your help, a big thank you to all of you!**

 **During the Synchro arc, I hope I can continue writing high-quality chapters in terms of duels, story and character development and I am open to any suggestions you may give, so if you have one, just point out.**

 **Also, if you want to have a duel that you want to happen but was not from the anime, you can suggest it to me as well.**

 **Here is a clarification: In this story "Cipher" is an addition to Kaito's deck which has "Galaxy" and "Photon", hence all of the Cipher card effects will include "Galaxy" and "Photon" as well.**

 **That's it! Hope you guys enjoy reading my story and I will answer your support by releasing new chapters in the near future!**

* * *

 **Next Chapter Preview**

 **Escape from the Maze**

The Lancers are stuck in the Commons streets where Security are searching for Psychic Duelists. They need to find a way out.

 **This is matrixnis, out!**


	40. Scale 40

**Hello everyone! I am back with a new chapter!**

 **I got stuck in a group presentation that ultimately did not happen due to a change of timetable so this update was late. Sorry by the way.**

 **Ladies and gentlemen, boys and girls, men and women from the globe, it's time to get ARRESTED! (LOL)**

* * *

 _Previously on The Tainted Sidelines: The Lancers arrives in the Synchro Dimension, only to be in the middle of a Security's Psychic Duelist sweep. How can they get out alive? And what lies ahead of them?_

* * *

 **Chapter 40: Escape from the Maze**

* * *

"This is bad… Just like a purge…" Yuya whispered. "They even have drones as well! We are now trapped like rats in a maze!"

"How can we get out of here?" Gongenzaka wondered.

"We can't go out together like this, we need to separate." Reiji pointed out.

"Bringing too many people in a shithole, you are surely a good planner Reiji." Shun grunted.

"Shut up Shun." Yuto berated his friend. "No one expected this to happen."

"We thought this was over yesterday. We did not expect this." Yusei defended Reiji as well.

"Whatever it is, we need to get outta here first." Sawatari said. "Any bright ideas?"

"I got one." Reiji said, firmly, his leadership aura appeared, signaled by the glare of his glasses. "Yusei, Aki, Yugo, you know the surroundings around here right?"

"We do. Why?"

"Is the orphanage near?"

"Pretty much."

"Something about the drones that you want to tell us?"

"It takes a second after spotting someone to fire an energy net to capture a person." Yugo said.

"Good…"

* * *

From a corner, a person peeked out, checking to see if there was any movement of Security. The quiet atmosphere and the distant footsteps were enough to prove that there was no one there.

The person waved his hand, and after that Yusei, Yuya, Reira, Reiji and Yuzu came out together and slowly walked forward, still keeping thing quiet. Yusei was the one peeking out earlier, behind him was Yuya and Yuzu who were dragging Yusei's D-Wheel, Reiji followed behind to avoid any stragglers sneaking up on them and Reira always went in front of Reiji for protection.

They quietly went through the alley and met a T-junction and took cover behind the walls which Yusei, Yuya and Dennis on one side and Reiji, Yuzu on the other. Security patrolled nearby but after seeing the alley seemed to be empty, they went forward.

"Phew…" Yuya let out a small sigh. He and Yuzu never liked this hide and seek game on a large and dangerous scale like this. "Which way do we go now Yusei-san?"

"To the right." He quickly went out, the rest followed suit and remained their initial position.

For all the odds against them, Reiji's plan seemed to be working pretty well so far. He concluded that the group would separate into three with each group consisted of five people, each took a different route. To ensure the plan would work, at least one person in each group must know martial arts and take-down tactics to protect others. Yugo, Yusei and Aki each took leadership roles in their own small group since they knew this place well, two people dragged their respective D-Wheels as they could not start the engine and the rest followed.

 **########################################**

On another alley, Aki and Ruri just took down another two Security members along with their drones and hid them in the dumpster after quickly gagging and tying them. Good thing Resistance always got these binding ropes in reserve for silent navigation through enemy's territory and today it was put to good use. Yuto and Dennis dragged Aki's red D-Wheel and Shun stayed behind to protect them.

"That freaking President is actually good…" Shun muttered under his breath, low enough so only he himself could hear. He hated Akaba Reiji for putting him and his closed ones in a mess and now not going straight to Academia but here, but frankly he caused trouble first, besides he must try to get rid of that uneasy feeling to work together for the sake of Yuto and Ruri.

"How many more of these assholes?" Yuto asked in worry. Just what had happened that after one mess, he and others were put into another, and then another? Couldn't they just have a rest already? Or was this the joke Fate like to pull on them? He lost Kamishiro "Shark" Ryoga, but now he had Shun and his girlfriend Ruri back, at least he could think this was a good sign. He just did not want to lose them to another force again.

"Tops have many to spare." Aki told him. They continued walking through the alley

"Can't we just card them all?" Shun proposed.

"Forget it brother. It will be nothing more than an attack to Synchro." Ruri shut him down.

"Hey! Who's there?" A strong and threatened voice spoke up nearby. The group gasped and quickly hid in the buildings. They pressed their bodies against the wall, waiting for the storm to die down since they could not just take out many Security members, they would find things suspicious very soon.

And quickly enough, four Security members stormed in the alley.

"Check the buildings, see if any of those Psychic Duelists is here!"

They separated into two small groups and checked the nearest buildings.

"Nothing here!"

"No one's here!"

"All right go out! Check the next ones!"

" _Dammit! They are close…!"_

Ruri and Dennis hid behind a wall at the corner of the building, suddenly Dennis tripped slightly, causing a small piece or rock to roll. The police quickly heard it and stormed in, finding them.

"There you are, Psychic Duelists."

"No! We are not-"

"No arguing! Come here Psychic bitch!" He grabbed Ruri's hair and pulled it, the girl yelped. Dennis tried to free her but another police subdued him in a lock.

"Let Ruri go you BASTARD!" Yuto stormed from behind and swiftly stole one of the batons Security were holding.

 **XxXxXxXxXxXxXxXxXxXxXxXxXxXxXxXx**

Two polices went into the building, flashing flashlights at every corner. Shun and Aki hid just behind the wall, their heartbeats increased dramatically. Shun pulled out a rope, ready to choke them but Aki signaled him to stop.

The Security both pointed their flashlights at the final room, batons in hand. They both nodded and stormed into the room, but to their surprise, they found it to be empty.

Before they got out of the room though, Aki and Shun ambushed them from behind. Aki kneed one of them down and hit his neck while Shun choked another to the point of near-death before releasing him. They did not forget to tie them up, at the same time they heard another screams from where Ruri and Yuto were hiding, all male and old, indicating those were from Security, also there were small explosions coming from drones. Shun sighed in relief.

He and Aki got out of the place they hid to the building Dennis, Yuto and Ruri were in. But to their shock Yuto came out, numbly, baton in hand, blood in his face. Ruri followed behind, also with baton in hand and just as shocked and bloody as Yuto. Dennis looked at them in worry.

"What happened?" Shun immediately answered.

"We were spotted, Ruri was in danger. I took the baton and hit them…" Yuto said uncontrollably. "I… I did not mean to do it Shun, Aki! I don't want to hurt anybody but… Ruri was in danger… so…"

"It's alright." Shun confronted his friend. "Don't sweat too much about it. Are they dead?"

"Don't worry brother. They are not." Ruri said. "We did not kill them."

"Yeah, we did not kill them Shun." Dennis reassured Shun.

"Come on, we need to go forward."

Yuto helped wipe the blood of Ruri and the girl did the same to him. The trio continued sneaking through the slums.

 **########################################**

The final group consisted of Yugo, Selena, Gongenzaka, Sawatari, Tsukikage was the best one since Tsukikage's ninja training came in handy. No matter where the Security was he could simply take them out easily and that was not even counting the former Academia soldier Selena, the muscle Gongenzaka and Yugo who knew the surroundings. They easily maneuvered in the slums like it was a playground for them, unconscious Security polices dropped down like flies behind.

"What is this…?" Sawatari nearly gasped at the sight of what he saw at the corner of an abandoned building. It were a used syringe, white powder and there was dried blood nearby.

"Yeah. That place is where delinquents or gangbangers stay every night to use drugs." Yugo explained while he looked at it with pure hatred and anger, the eyes wanted to devour anything around, slowly.

" _He seems to be too angry… I wonder why…"_ Selena thought, noticing Yugo's strange reaction to it.

"Such a bad city to live in…" Gongenzaka commented. "I wonder how you could live in a rotten society like this…"

"I always want to do something to improve the City, but I cannot find a way. I am alone and powerless." Yugo told him. _"And I have a disease that is killing me every day…"_

Selena swore Yugo had gritted his teeth. The face he made caused her to remember, it was the same face that certain someone wore when she…

" _Stop! I cannot allow myself to remember him again!"_ She snapped out of the traumatizing thought. Now was not the time to reminisce, they needed to get out of the raid first. She gave one last glance to the spot before continuing with the group.

They easily went through another heavy-patrolled block, evading or taking out any Security personnel. Selena even scored several knockouts herself which was not really surprising since Gongenzaka and Sawatari knew she got training from Academia. Suddenly there was an explosion.

Everyone got alarmed. It happened pretty near, probably just several meters ahead of them. They quickly hid themselves behind a wall of a building and hid Yugo's D-Wheel behind, Yugo then peeked out. He saw several Security assholes, as usual, but the person with them took him by surprise.

It was another Psychic Duelist.

Two uniformed bastards forcefully pulled out a young man. He was pleading at them to be free but it was futile. They escorted him to the truck. Yugo immediately knew he was another Psychic Duelist, and the revelation made him disgust.

" _So what Aki said was right… They use Psychic Duelists to capture Psychic Duelists… just like Bruno…!"_

He gasped when a police officer ordered another one to check the building they were staying.

"Dammit! They will find us!" Sawatari whispered worriedly.

"What are we going to do? It's too many!" Gongenzaka said.

Yugo attempted to tap into his powers by becoming angry intentionally, but for some reason, it did not work. He was not angry enough.

" _Shit! It's not working!"_

"I got an idea." A female voice spoke up…

…

…

The officer quickly ordered the drone hovered above them to check the building. Nothing was there of course. He then armed himself with a baton and charged at the space next to the wall, where the crew was hiding. But to his displeasure, nothing was there, no one, nobody.

"No one's here sir!"

He reported and went back to the truck, driving it away.

From above the building, Yugo, Selena, Gongenzaka, Sawatari and Tsukikage sighed in relief.

"It was a good idea Selena. Kudos." Yugo complimented, tapping her shoulders. "Using Cat Dancer to fling us up here."

"Really afraid a hot-headed girl like you would just fight with them." Sawatari said, earning a harsh look from the violet-haired girl.

"I know when to and when not to okay? Now would you shut up before I kick your nuts?" She bluntly said, causing the son of the Mayor to sweat in fear and the rest to freeze briefly.

"That's too… straightforward Selena, girls are not supposed to say like that!" Gongenzaka pointed out.

"What? So girls are not supposed to say like that while boys can?! Who do you think I am?" She said back. Gongenzaka felt slightly offended since he considered himself to be a man, not a boy.

"Shut up, all of you." Tsukikage stepped up, stopping the petty argument. "We need to stick to the plan."

"All right…" Selena sighed. They all jumped down, grabbed Yugo's D-Wheel and continued travelling. After some more hide and seek and beat time they finally got out of the block. They took cover in a two-story building they planned earlier to hide from potential officers who might be searching outside of the block and wait for the rest. As of now there was only five of them there.

"This is Charlie, we are at the rendezvous point. What's your situation?" Yugo radioed in.

"This is Alpha, we are close, just stay there."

"This is Beta, we are getting out. How's the situation up there?" Aki quietly said through her D-Wheel communication.

"Good. Security is not active in here. Come here soon."

Five minutes later, Yusei's group got in the dark building, followed by Aki's a minute right after.

"Phew~~ We're out. Good to see everyone." Yuya smiled.

"That was such a good plan Reiji." Yuzu complimented.

"Is the orphanage near?" Reiji asked the Synchro Lancers.

"We're close." Yusei replied.

He peeked out to make sure no one was outside. After that the entire Lancers went out and resumed walking to the orphanage. The scenery around even more ruined than the previous slums.

"We're here."

They looked at the orphanage. Pretty old, the walls had not been repainted for years, but the upside was there were many rooms even though there was only one story.

"Phew… such a great welcome to another dimension…" Sawatari sighed.

"So this is the orphanage you three live?" Yuya asked Yugo, Aki and Yusei.

"Yes. We are all staying here for a while. I will go inside to explain things, then we will reserve rooms for you."

"How kind Yusei-san!" Yuzu said. "You don't have to do this far."

"We are in a war now, this doesn't matter." Yusei told the pink-haired girl before going inside the orphanage with Aki and Yugo.

* * *

Knock knock knock knock knock.

"We are here." Yusei said. Seconds later, the kids poured out of the rooms and greeted him, Aki and Yugo.

"Hello Yusei-niichan! Aki-san! Yugo-niichan!" They all yelled in joy. The teenagers smiled warmly back.

"You are finally back! It's been two days! We were worried about you!"

"Okay, okay, we are sorry okay?" Aki sweetly confronted them. She knelt down to meet them at eye-level. "But we are finally back now. And there is a surprise to all of you!"

"What?! A surprise?!" They all wondered.

"Uhm."

"What is it?"

"What is it, Aki-san?!" They eagerly asked her.

"If you all want to know, first off keep quiet and step out, so that I can open the door, okay?" The kids instantly replied, they stood out.

"Oh! Yusei, Aki, Yugo! You three are back!" Shinji stepped out along with the head of the orphanage, unable to hide his joy. Yugo noticed that he blatantly hid the cigarette case and his shirt got dirty from black oil.

" _Must have been checking your D-Wheel and taking a rest…"_

"Yeah, we are back. And we brought back a surprise to all of you."

"A surprise? What is it?" He asked while he opened the door.

Yusei looked to his left at the Lancers. "Come inside."

The kids and Shinji went out, seeing the Lancers. Instantly they were bewildered.

"Who… who are… they?!" The kids wondered.

"Who are those two boys? They look like Yugo-niichan!"

"And who are those three girls?! They look like Rin-neechan as well!" The three girls sighed, they knew this would just get them in trouble.

"Who are they Yusei?" Shinji asked. "And who are those five boys and girls?" He pointed at Yuya, Yuto, Yuzu, Ruri and Selena.

"These are friends we have made while we were away." Yusei simply explained.

Shinji instantly noticed their different clothing style compared to the Commons, and the Tops too… Also they were mostly teenagers, only the tall man with the scarf seemed to be an adult.

"You guys are not from here, do you?"

"Yes. And this is complicated." Reiji said. "We will explain everything to you later. Right now though we are literally just in here and we do not have a place to stay, Security is searching for Psychic Duelists and we are mistaken for them. We cannot stay outside, so would you please allow us to stay inside for several days?"

Shinji considered the request. He felt he should not let them in. It was true that he just met them and they were being chased by Security, if he let them stay then sooner or later Security would find them, dragging the orphanage to another mess as well. The fact that they were "literally" just here for some reason reaffirmed his suspicion more.

Noticing his uncertainty, Aki quickly told Shinji. "It's alright Shinji, we trust them. They will not harm you or anyone here, and if you let them stay, Security will not be able to find them since they would not think an orphanage would be stupid enough to hide Psychic Duelists, which they are not by the way."

The head of the orphanage (I will refer her as "the woman" from now on) gave him a nod to approve this proposition. Shinji finally relented.

"Alright. Get in."

"Thank you Shinji-san." Reiji politely thanked him. The Lancers got in the orphanage, leaving the kids speechless.

Yugo, Yusei, Aki, Shinji, the woman and some teens quickly rearranged the rooms. Since the Lancers consisted of 12 people not counting Yusei, Aki and Yugo, they decided to reserve three pretty large rooms: the largest room would be used by Yuya, Yuto, Gogenzaka, Sawatari, Shun, Dennis; another one would be occupied by the girls: Yuzu, Ruri, Selena; Reiji, Reira and Tsukikage would stay in the last one while Yugo, Yusei and Aki still got their own rooms.

"All right, so now you explain what the hell is going on?" Shinji pulled Yusei and whispered into his eyes. Clearly he was still very skeptical.

"They are the Lancers, the group created to protect the four dimensions."

"Lancers?! Four dimensions?!" Shinji muttered. "Unbelievable! You believe in Yugo's stupid fairy tale?!"

"Right after I, Aki and Yugo got out of the raid, Clear Wing shone up and transported us to another dimension. That was when I completely know what Yugo said is true."

"Yugo's Clear Wing?!" The woman gasped.

"Yeah. The leader of the group is Akaba Reiji, he creates Lancers to combat Academia, one of them… is Jean-Michel Roget."

"What?! Roget?! The Director of Security?!" Another surprise for Shinji.

"Yes. He's the spy of Academia and he is responsible for the Psychic Duelist extermination. Academia is the organization from another dimension, aiming for the four dimensions' extermination."

"Academia? Roget? But what is he up to?"

"Two days ago we were chased not only by Security, but also by another Psychic Duelist as well. His name is Bruno, Aki's friend back in the Arcadia."

"Security uses Psychic Duelists to capture more?! I thought they were kept underground!"

"That was I thought last time. If Roget still has Psychic Duelists serving under him, then it only means that he wants to do something with them."

"I understand… combine with the Academia and Lancers things…" The woman realized. "Roget wants to conquer City as well!"

"Shit shit shit!" Shinji freaked out. "This is freaking weird and complicated! As if City is not enough! What the hell is going on?"

"Accept it Shinji. We did not want this either."

"So what are we going to do now?" Shinji pointed out. "They might be working for Tops!"

"They are not! I swear!" Yusei quickly shot that stupid thought down. "We take down Roget, we protect this dimension and we take down Academia." Yusei said firmly.

"To hell with it!" Shinji snapped. "Unless we solve the City's social problems first, we cannot solve the Roget and Academia problems!" He stormed off to the garage, leaving Yusei and the woman behind. "And I don't believe this whole four dimensions thing either! I do not trust any of those calling themselves Lancers! Let them stay for a day and force them out the following!"

The woman sighed. "He's really stubborn… He only focuses on changing the system…"

"How can we talk to him that there is much more than just this society?"

* * *

"Thank you a lot." Yuya expressed his gratitude to the kids after they finished re-decorating the room, of course he and others helped them as well.

"No problem. So… what are your names?" He asked.

"My name's Yuya, the guy over there is Yuto. Sawatari, Gongenzaka, Dennis and Shun."

"Can you tell us why you and Yuto look like Yugo-niichan?" One kid pressed.

"Uh…" Yuto struggled to find an answer. "I don't know why, but this is not rare, the girls in our group are as well you know."

"It's good that Yugo is here, because…" He glanced at the girl's room.

"What do you mean…?"

 **########################################**

Yuzu, Ruri, Selena and the little girls did the same with their room. Selena noticed one of them was avoiding looking at them though.

"Hey kid! You are not looking as us, why?" She asked sternly. Clearly she did not have any girly attributes.

"Selena!" Yuzu stopped her. The pink-haired girl approached the small kid but she turned away.

"Hey sweetie, why are you not looking at us?" She asked sweetly.

"…" The girl mumbled something under her mouth, no one could hear.

"Don't be scared, we do not hurt you. You don't have to say if you don't want to."

She hesitated, still scared to say what she wanted to say. So she breathed in deeply.

"I'm… sorry… it's… just… seeing you… and the other two…"

She hiccupped.

"Reminds me of… Rin-neechan a lot."

"Rin?" Yuzu realized what the little girl meant.

"Rin lives in here too?" Ruri asked.

"Yeah… We have been waiting for her to return for weeks, but she did not… Now there were three other girls who look like her… but not her…"

"Yugo-niichan tried to find her but it was… nothing…"

Her friends quickly led her out of the room, saying sorry to Yuzu, Ruri and Selena along the way. They tiredly looked at each other.

"Sucks to have the face of their missed older sister." Ruri spoke up.

"What should we do now? We cannot just say we are going to find Rin." Yuzu just added more sadness to the room more. "Poor Yugo."

Ruri looked away, she was not sure she could forgive Yugo for causing Ryoga to be carded, but his life and emotional damage were just as much as her, Yuto, Shun and other Heartland people, if not even more.

Selena remained quiet, not having enough social skills to help with it. She sighed as well. So Yugo was more than just a stupid and tactless boy, he clearly cared about Rin and spent weeks just looking for her. In another word, Selena and Yugo made the same mistake of destroying their closed ones, and they lost them because of it…

 **########################################**

"Reira, take a rest. We will have a long day tomorrow." Reiji gently told his younger sister. She slowly approached the bed and took a nap. She felt asleep quickly since she spent the last night being tortured by Himika. The President took off her cap and her hoodie, caressing her long white hair, then he put the blanket over her.

He had always felt guilty about what his family did to her. She was a Japanese-Pakistan who lost both of her parents in the war. When Reiji and Himika went to Pakistan to try to popularize Duel Monsters there (of course without Real Solid Vision) they met Reira. Himika realized the potential of a war survivor in her and decided to adopt her to make her a strong Duelist. To protect herself, Reira lost her sense of self, hence she is unable to decide anything, leaving her with no personality. Himika used it to train her relentlessly which worsened her condition more. Even Reiji was disgusted by this and attempted to call his mother out many times, but the woman would always remind Reiji of what Akaba Leo did to them and countless Heartland citizens.

" _Is ruining the life of a kid crueler than doing the same to many?"_ Reiji always wondered whenever he took a look of Reira's peaceful sleeping form. That image warmed his heart anytime, something he did not felt ever since Leo left him and his mother when he was 13. Despite the traumatizing past, Reira never lost her innocent image when she slept which for Reiji, was a blessing.

Reiji turned to see his bodyguard Tsukikage, his most trusted one, hand-picked from the Fuuma clan himself. Besides Himika, he was the only other person he trusted and shared deep thoughts when he felt he became more vulnerable. He was glad Tsukikage could stand with his morally gray actions to stop the war, especially his family's treatment of Reira. As a bodyguard, Tsukikage might not know this, but deep down Reiji always owned him for life.

Feeling his master's bad mood, Tsukikage reassured him. "You don't have to worry, I serve under you for life." The ninja could have left Reiji whenever he wanted, everyone would do the same if they knew what he had done, but he chose not to. People had their own reasons to be cruel and heartless, the only thing that defined a (still) good person from a bad one was how far they would go, and Akaba Reiji had not crossed that line yet.

"One thing I want to tell you…"

"What Reiji-dono?"

"I am sorry for what happened to your brother."

Tsukikage's heart froze, as if a layer of ice had encased it. He could not forget it, he could never forget what the psychotic kid Shiun'in Sora did to his brother Hikage. Technically Reiji played a part in this as well since he sent the two ninjas and many more teenagers to fight Academia, however, he did not have a right to say, he was still his bodyguard, as a loyal one at that.

"Don't sweat about this Reiji-sama. I do not hold you blame for it."

"What am I going to do…? The Lancers are such a mess… I am nearly at my limit right now… how far am I going to push myself…" Reiji covered his head. "Is this how my life supposed to be? Defeating Academia with no one wanting to give me credit for what I did since I am the son of Akaba Leo?"

Tsukikage immediately answered. "No one will know, but whatever happens I will always be there to protect you, as a loyal bodyguard."

"Thanks Tsukikage…" Reiji resumed caressing Reira. The quiet atmosphere was broken when the woman got into the room.

"Uh… I think I shouldn't be here-"

"No problem miss. I am grateful that you allow us to be here."

"But you did recruit Yusei, Aki and Yugo, so we have to let you stay here no matter what happens." Shinji spitefully said as he passed by the room, earning a death glare from the woman. "Get the hell out of this place tomorrow!"

"I'm sorry, don't think about what Shinji said. He will accept you eventually." The woman quickly said.

"You don't need to." Reiji calmly told her. "We invaded your orphanage anyway."

"So can you tell me more about what is happening? I asked Yusei and Aki but I want to know more."

"Alright…" Reiji then went on explaining everything.

…

…

…

"Okay, this is… insane…" The woman could only say that after grasping the full situation.

"It is. I am glad that you believe it. We were afraid that no one would." Tsukikage told her.

"We will make dinner to all of you today."

"Thank you."

(Dinner, Reiji plans to meet the Council to tell them about the war and seek help.)

Time flew fast like a gust of wind, it was soon night and the Lancers got to the kitchen for dinner. Today all of the kids stayed at their own rooms to allow the guests to eat peacefully.

"The food is good! Thank you a lot!" Yuto expressed his gratitude to the head of the orphanage.

"No problem. I heard from Reiji that you came from the other dimensions. Would you please explain to us about them?"

Shun briefly glanced at Yuto and Ruri before starting his story first. "Just a warning: It is not pretty."

"Whatever." Shinji let out a sigh. He still did not trust them, but he had no choice, not in front of Yusei, Aki, Yugo and others.

"My name is Kurosaki Shun. The girl sitting next to me is my sister Kurosaki Ruri, the boy next to her is uh…" He winked at the boy with purple hair, causing him and Ruri to feel slightly uncomfortable. The rest immediately knew what Shun wanted to say.

"His name is Yuto." Yuzu quickly interrupted. "He's just got Shun's approval recently."

"A couple! Nice!" The woman "congratulated".

"S-stop! Stop this!" Yuto frantically waved his hand to stop them from continuing this "interesting" conversation. Ruri could only look at the table, desperately trying to hide her blush.

"Yuto is Ruri's boyfriend. You do not want to know how far they have progressed." Yuya said matter-of-factly, the couple blushed further. Everyone besides them took a good laugh. Shun continued. "We are from Heartland, the Xyz dimension as Academia calls it. Academia is a faction in the Fusion dimension. They invaded our hometown."

"Invade?" Yusei said. "Like, a literal war?"

"Yes." Shun confirmed. "Everything was destroyed, many people were lost in cards. Duel Monsters cards. They use a technology that seal people in cards if they lose the duel."

"Shit…" Aki said sadly. "Academia uses dueling to hurt people, just like in here…"

"No shit." Yuto took the turn. "We never think of Duel Monster that way, we only use it for fun to all people. That is what Duel Monster is supposed to be, and you know? I learn it from Ruri." He gave a playful look at Ruri, who sighed in defeat while smiling warmly at the same time because she knew what Yuto would do. And she was right: Yuto pulled Ruri close, the girl leaned to him, smiling. She openly expressed her love to Yuto in front of others without hesitating. Everyone felt uncomfortable this time.

"Ah… stop it…" Gongenzaka cleared his throat and closed his eyes. "The man Gongenzaka does not like this."

Ignoring his protests, they continued. Ruri leaned her head near Yuto's, lip wanting to kiss. "Call it payback for teasing us earlier."

"Stop, now!" Shun ordered. This time they stopped for real. "You two are too over-the-top… Dare to do it in front of me?"

"Suck it brother." Ruri teased Shun. She let go of Yuto's grasp. "I lost my parents, many friends, relatives, comrades. We spent many unrest nights staying awake, in fear of a sudden attack from Academia."

"Poor you… Only 16 yet you have to go through a war…" The woman sadly said. "We never want to have a war again, yet those Academia assholes…"

"What is worse: Most of them are about the same age as us." Yuto revealed.

"WHAT?! They are teenagers like you guys?!" Aki gasped.

"Yep." Ruri answered. "I don't know what Akaba Leo, the leader of Academia, did to them to make them sadistic like that. But what happened had happened, Heartland was destroyed, many people were lost, and it only happened for only about seven months. Sometimes I think I might not be able to continue fighting, maybe I will die one day…" She took a deep breath. Yuto quickly held her shoulders to confront her.

"But thanks to my brother and Yuto here, I was able to continue. I keep fighting to see them alive. I owe you a lot, brother, Yuto."

"I hope this will over soon." Yuzu encouraged her. "I promise. And I will try my best to stop this war."

"I will too." Yuya told her.

"Me too." Gongenzaka said.

"We all will!" Sawatari said.

"Thanks everyone."

"So, who's next?" Yugo invited. "Yuya?"

"Okay, my turn." Yuya started. "My name is Sakaki Yuya from Maiami City of the Standard dimension. My friends and comrades include: Hiragi Yuzu, the girl sitting next to me. We are childhood friends, not a couple by the way." He said cooly, winking at Yuto and Ruri. Everyone had to restrain themselves from laughing at the spot, Yuzu slightly blushed, she attempted to hit him with her fan but she chose not to in front of everyone. Obviously enjoying her anger, Yuya playfully winked at her.

"Next up, from left to right are Gongenzaka Noboru, Sawatari Shingo, Tsukikage, Dennis McField Akaba Reira, the younger sister of our leader, Akaba Reiji. Your turn Yuzu."

"I?" Yuzu nervously looked at him. Yuya nodded.

"Right…" She sighed. "I am Hiragi Yuzu, Yuya's close friend. I know all of his bad habits that I hope I can tell to all of you." She chuckled, everyone laughed. "Everyone got interested?"

"We do!" Yugo played along.

"You…!" Yuya said in embarrass. "Stop!"

"He usually stays up late and he gets to school really lat-" Yuya covered her mouth.

"Stop Yuzu! It's not funny!" He frantically pleaded. He had to make a nice face to convince her to stop.

"But don't worry. He's kind, caring and friendly." Yuya smiled warmly at that.

"I am the man Gongenzaka. I am Yuya's close friend as well, I will stay by his side to help him when he is in trouble." Gongenzaka introduced himself straight to the point.

"I am the Hyper Strong Duelist Neo~ New~ Sawatari~~" Sawatari said his name in an over-the-top and overly hammy way, annoying nearly every Lancers while the woman struggled to laugh to ease the tension.

"My name is Tsukikage, the personal bodyguard of Reiji-dono and Reira-dono." The ninja had taken off the cloth over his mouth to eat properly but he still had his ninja clad on.

"You're eating while you are still wearing that suit?" Yugo found it intriguing. Strangely no one seemed to care about it.

"Hello, my name is Dennis, I am from Standard."

"Hey Dennis! Did you learn Entertainment Dueling from my father?" Yuya asked him.

"Uh… I admired your father as an Entertainment Duelist and learned Entertainment Dueling myself."

"Really?! You are incredible Dennis!" Yuya complimented. "Now I have a rival in this field of Dueling now. Hope we can duel this way after the war!"

"Hell yeah!" Dennis clapped Yuya's hand.

Reira however did not say anything, she instead just stared numbly at the table.

"Reira, say something." Yuzu encouraged her, but the little girl did not speak.

"Sorry, Reira does not want to say anything." Reiji quickly explained.

"You shouldn't have brought her in Standard in first place!" Shun blamed Reiji again.

"As I have told you earlier, Reira is a strong Duelist, potentially better than anyone here." Reiji shut Shun down using the same quote he said earlier. Clearly everyone was skeptical about him bringing Reira to the war but the truth was because if Reiji left Reira back at LDS, Himika would force the poor girl to train more and more, which Reiji never wanted to.

They resumed eating, but it was short as Yugo noticed no one had asked Selena yet.

"How about you Selena? Have something to share?"

"Yugo!" Aki reprimanded him like a mother.

"Don't press her Yugo, you know where she is from." Yuzu reminded the tactless boy.

"It's fine." Selena spoke up. "It's nothing personal. I come from Academia."

"Academia?!" The woman gasped.

"Yes. Nothing else is worthwhile to tell you." She ate again. "Good food by the way."

The awkward silence returned, no one wanted to say anything. They continued eating.

Yusei cleared his throat. "So… what are you planning to do to bring down Roget?"

"Who is in control of City?" Reiji asked.

"The Executive Council. They consist of five members: White Taki, Azul, Bordeaux, Gael and Gray. They are in a not so good relationship with Roget."

"Not so good?"

"Yep."

"If I can convince them…"

"Stop it." Shinji shut Reiji down. "How can you travel to the Tops without being arrested?"

"What? Being… arrested?" Yuzu could not believe it.

"Uh. The Tops forbid any Commons citizens who even step their foot to the land of the Tops and will send Security to capture them. Since you are here now, you basically are Commons."

"Actually it may be not that hard." Yusei suddenly said.

"What do you mean Yusei?" Reiji wondered.

"I got a contact in Tops, he will help me. One more thing, there is a Commons citizen who managed to become a Tops by himself."

"Who is he?"

Yugo spoke. "Jack Atlas. He is currently the Duel King." He showed them the image of Jack. "The Executive Council and Jack Atlas are two powerful people in City. If you can convince them to stop Roget and Academia from conquering City then this city will be saved. Furthermore, Jack is a very skillful Duelist, the strongest one in here, if you can recruit him to the Lancers, it will be a boost to our power."

" _Jack Atlas… the strongest Duelist in the Synchro dimension…"_ Gongenzaka thought to himself.

"Good plan, I will meet you later Yusei." Reiji concluded.

…

…

After some more eating, dinner was done.

"Thank you for your meal." Yuya thanked the woman after finishing dinner.

"Let me help you with washing the dishes." Yuzu said.

Everyone took the dishes to the kitchen to wash. Yuzu, Ruri and Selena helped with the washing, although Yuzu and Ruri had to convince Selena to do it. "It is what a girl is supposed to do" as they put it.

"I really have to do this?" Selena complained while washing the dishes improperly. "I want to prove myself using my Dueling skills, not this!"

"You have to." Ruri sternly told her. "I understand you were from Academia, but now you are no longer, you need to learn some feminine manners."

"I still do not see the point of doing this though." She threw the dish she was holding to the basket, nearly breaking it if the woman had not grabbed in at the right moment.

"Selena!"

"You need to be more gentle!" Ruri told her as she gently put the dish to the basket.

Yuzu and Ruri sighed. They both agreed one thing.

"Selena is too tomboy-ish…"

* * *

After some talking, the Lancers went to sleep early. The lights were off, the doors were closed, only the moon and the skyscrapers at the Tops section were shining.

A person went to Reiji, Reira and Tsukikage's room and knocked the door. Seconds later, the door opened.

"Gongenzaka?" Tsukikage said. "What do you want?"

"I want to talk to Akaba Reiji."

 **########################################**

A while later, another person got out of the room and walked near the gate of the orphanage.

It was Yugo.

He took out a box of cigarette pack then he pulled out a cigarette and smoked. Yugo not only became an alcoholic after losing Rin but he also became a smoker as well. Yugo and Aki had tried to make him stop that bad habit several times but he was too deep in his guilt that he could not stop.

"It's not good for your health."

A female voice stopped him. He turned around and was surprised to see Selena.

For some reason, he thought Selena was Rin…

"Rin…?"

"Huh?"

"Rin?!"

Selena did not know what to do.

"I.. I am Selena! Not Rin!"

"RIN!" He ran to Selena and hugged her, weeping.

"Rin…"

Selena blushed intensely, her mind went haywire. Many emotions erupted within her at the same time, sending her to panic mode. Her wrath rose up to thresehold, she threw Yugo's face off and kicked him very hard, sending him crashing near the door. She hugged her body protectively.

"I'm not Rin, DAMMIT! You don't know personal space?!"

Yugo seemed to finally grasp on what he had just done. He frantically apologized. "Uh sorry Selena, I uh I-I am really sorry! I'm sorry! I did not mean to-"

"You perverted piece of shit!" Selena punched his face multiple times, leaving deep brushes. Yugo had to plead like a child to his mom to make Selena stop. He leaned against the gate, defeated.

"Please… I did not mean to do it… It just…"

"Don't say anything to me anymore-"

"I miss Rin!" Yugo finally said. He began to weep. "I miss her a lot… I lost her… because I took her for granted… and that bastard Yuri took her away…"

"Yuri?" Selena asked just to be sure. Her voice was less panic now, and more confronting.

"Uh… I realized too late I care about her a lot, and I paid the price… Now I don't know what to do anymore…"

Yugo's voice was only above a whisper, broken.

"Sorry for that… Selena… I never meant to do that… I am also sorry for punching you back in Standard too…"

Yugo kept his head down, waiting for any response from Selena, however harsh it would be. To his apparent surprise, Selena gave him a hand.

"Get up." She ordered, although her voice betrayed that. It was gentle, unlike her usual tomboy manners.

Yugo stared at the hand surprised, before accepting it and getting up.

"I don't blame you."

"How can you be forgiving? You are supposed to hate me a lot for hurting you."

She hesitated to give him an answer, it would make her weak, besides it was her own secret as well. But seeing the pathetic Yugo in front of her made her mellow for some reason…

"I made that same mistake…" She revealed, shocking Yugo.

"You too?!"

"Yeah. So don't lose yourself deep in the darkness. Get yourself together and try to bring Rin back. I made that same mistake once and I failed to bring that person back, so please don't follow my footsteps… try your best to bring Rin back before it is too late."

"I thought I was the only one who is too stupid… to…" Yugo bitterly said.

"Life is strange, isn't it…?"

They quietly looked at each other, neither was sure what to say and should they say or not.

"Come on, let's go back." Yugo eventually proposed. The Synchro Dragon boy and Fusion Bracelet girl went back to sleep…

* * *

"So this is the Tops section of City. The floating buildings are amazing." Gongenzaka commented as he looked outside the windows of the truck he was taking. Last night Yusei and Reiji had met in private and discussed about how to see the Council, Yusei had a contact in there since he was formerly a Tops, he would take them to the place where the five leaders of the Council were staying. And for some reason Gongenzaka tagged along with them as well. They were each wearing a vest which Saiga had quickly made for them.

"It's beautiful right?" The driver glanced at Gongenzaka. "Tops take the resources of the Commons to build those."

"No need to say it Saiga." Yusei told him. Saiga was Yusei's father's friend, Yusei would usually call him for help if he got something that he wanted to take from Tops. "Gongenzaka, you are not supposed to be here you know that?"

"I got my own reasons." He simply explained cryptically.

"Whatever, just don't ruin our mission." Reiji said.

"Picking you up at the bridge at 5am, it is really a burden to me. We could have been busted at any time."

"It's important Saiga. This could save our City." Yusei told him. "And I don't think I will have trouble speaking to the Council, my family knows them, including me."

"You called me last night and threw nonsense at me, lucky that your father knows me."

"Knowing you, you will accept my story. Thank you for helping us here by the way. I owe you."

"No, I owe your father."

The atmosphere became silent, Saiga kept driving. Eventually, they were at the central building. Saiga stopped at the corner far enough from the building.

"I will stay outside to watch for any stragglers. Good luck in there."

"Thank you Saiga." Reiji thanked him. The three Lancers went inside and Saiga drove the truck to the basement garage of the building. Thanks for Saiga's help, they did not have any trouble with Security. They eventually got into the room to see the people in charge of City.

"Hello Yusei." Gael spoke up. "Long time no see."

"What brings you here?" Gray asked him.

"Hello everyone. I am here with two other people as you can see. I will let them speak to you from now on."

"My name is Akaba Reiji, good to see you." Reiji said. "I will get straight to the point…"

Reiji then told them everything about the war, the Lancers, and the potential spy in City.

"I don't believe this!" Azul refuse to think it was true.

"It is the truth. I saw it myself Azul-sama." Yusei politely told her.

"There is a spy in here? Who?" Bordeaux asked.

"I don't know, but I know he is here." Reiji was sure not to say anything about Roget since it will just bring him and the Lancers trouble.

"So in short, you want us to help you save this dimension from Academia?" White Taki said, he chuckled calmly, but this caused a creepy feeling. "And find any possible duelists in here to recruit?"

"Yes."

"But we don't have enough proof that Academia is here, and we don't even know if the Lancers of yours is strong enough to save the four dimensions."

"So how are we going to prove that?" Gongenzaka said.

"We need to know if-"

"The leader is really strong." A sharp and strong voice cut Gael off. Everyone turned to their left, they saw a tall man wearing a long white trench coat with high collars, spiked shoulders, grey pants, white boots, a gray undershirt. He had purple eyes, fair skin, white blonde hair with two much longer strands in front of his ears that hung further down the rest of his hair.

"So Gael, you want me to duel him right?"

"What the…" Yusei said, surprised at his sudden appearance.

"This is…" Gongenzaka muttered.

"Jack Atlas!"

* * *

 **JOSSED!**

 **You have thought you would see a chapter full of action right? Wrong ^^^^^. Seriously, Reiji, Yusei, Aki and Yugo are enough to win any Security check.**

 **I tried to picture City as a dangerous city filled with social inequality, street crimes because this story is not a shounen anime.**

 **You guys may dislike that I made Reiji more vulnerable, but this is completely human, especially for a person like him.**

 **Since Reira's backstory is not clear, I decided to make her a Japanese-Pakistan (there is an actual Japanese community in there). One more thing about her, I need evidence of lack of sense of self due to being at war, if you can find any please let me know.**

 **Please review the story, I really need motivation now.**

* * *

 **Next Chapter Preview**

 **Approval From the King**

Jack Atlas duels the Lancers.

 **This is matrixnis, out!**


	41. Scale 41

**Hello everyone!**

 **Recently my story's review count has dropped significantly, I am really concerned. If it was because of my bad writing or late update, then I am sorry, but as I said earlier, university is not kidding with me at all. Please read and review my story, it will give me a lot of motivation to continue writing, I have a lot of ideas for this story and I need to get enough motivation to waste my time writing.**

 **To apologize, I release this chapter as fast as I can.**

 **Now we get to see Jack in action almost immediately! But who will duel Jack…?**

 **You will be shocked!**

* * *

 **Chapter 41: Approval from the King**

* * *

"Pleased to meet you Mr. Jack Atlas. It is a pleasure to meet you." Reiji greeted Jack politely.

"Don't tell me Mr. What are your names?"

"My name is Akaba Reiji. The person with me is Gongenzaka Noboru."

Jack walked in the hall room, standing next to Yusei and the two Lancers.

"Akaba Reiji… Gongenzaka Noboru… I take that you two are from the group called Lancers." Jack said. "Yusei told me earlier."

"You seem to know Yusei a lot." Reiji spoke.

"Of course. Yusei was formerly a Tops. His father and he used to try to strengthen the relationship between Tops and Commons. Yusei and I knew each other from their trips to Commons while Arcadia Movement was still a thing."

"You two know each other well!" Gongenzaka noted in surprise.

"We are." Jack said.

"I am sorry." Reiji spoke up. "May I want to know why Yusei is now a Commons?"

Jack and Yusei looked at each other before the former responded. "It's complicated. You are an outsider, you need not to know." (A reference to Detective Conan)

"I apologize…" Reiji said with sincerity, his face as stoic as ever.

"There is no need to, really." Jack eased Reiji. "Let's get back on track, shall we? I have been informed about you Lancers. I take that the group consists of people from different dimensions, right?"

"It is." Gongenzaka confirmed.

"Hmph. It sounds ridiculous, it seems the Commons has created a cult and they try to brainwash the people of Tops." Jack joked dryly, but inside it was visible disgust for people like that according to him.

"What?!" Gongenzaka sternly spoke. "What do you think we are? A… cult?!"

"You seem like so. And for some reason this cult manages to recruit a lot of teenagers like you, don't your parents take care of you?"

Yusei became surprised at Jack's distrust. "What the hell are you talking, Jack-"

"SHUT UP!" Gongenzaka yelled, shocking everyone in the hall. The Council froze momentarily while Yusei, Jack and Reiji remained their calm faces. "We want to save the four dimensions from a dangerous threat, we join in Lancers because they hurt our family and friends, not because of being brainwashed!"

"Stop now!" Gael ordered, but…

"Take it or not is your CHOICE!"

"I told you to STOP!"

"BUT!"

"STOPPPP!" He took the hammer and snapped it down strongly.

"DO NOT insult us like that!" The loud snap sound combined with Gongenzaka's roar silenced everyone for a full fifteen seconds. Jack and Gongenzaka exchanged death glares to each other. Jack showed the calm one while Gongenzaka flashed a dangerous one, for his pride as a Lancer and a duelist was crushed by a person who viewed himself as King. Just who the hell was Jack Atlas really?

"Calm down Gongenzaka." Yusei told him. "Don't let Jack control you."

"I know, but I… I can't stand it!"

"We are outsiders like he said, accept it. Let me handle this Gongenzaka, Yusei." Reiji then looked at Jack and calmly explained. "Jack Atlas, whatever you say we are, it is not true. I create the Lancers to protect the four dimensions. We come to this Synchro dimension to save this dimension from Academia, we also got information that a potential spy is in here as well. If you just stay in your seat as the King of City and antagonize people, this dimension will be in chaos sooner or later and you will take the blame for not saving it."

"Good point." For all of his apparent hatred for people like Jack, Reiji had raised a good reason.

"I will consider it."

"How?" Yusei asked.

Jack pointed his finger at Reiji. "A duel. With you Akaba Reiji! As I have said earlier. If you win, I will consider your words about the spy and the Lancers."

"Fair enough, I will show the true power of the Lancers to prove to you that-"

"Wait!" Suddenly, Gongenzaka cut off Reiji. "Don't duel him, Reiji, I will!" He declared boldly.

"You're going to duel him?!" Yusei stared at the big teenager in shock.

"Are you overconfident?" Jack inquired.

"You can say it. But now I, the man Gongenzaka, will tell you the reason I want to duel you. As a Lancers, I have the responsibility to protect the four dimensions and my friends, so I always want to become stronger in Dueling. Ever since I came to the Synchro dimension, I have heard about you, that you are King, the strongest Duelist in here. Fighting against a strong opponent like you, I can know if I am strong enough to fight Academia and protect my friends and I can probably become stronger as well."

"So in short, you want to duel me to test yourself?" Jack concluded.

"Yes, I do."

Jack chuckled slightly. _"It's been a long time since I last fought a strong and passionate duelist. This guy Gongenzaka fired me up…!"_ He let out a smile.

"Hmph. You begin to interest me Gongenzaka Noboru. Good! I will duel you!"

"That's the King I want to know!" Gongenzaka smiled. "But how are we going to decide?"

White Taki spoke up. "You are in City, where Duels decide pretty much everything. We have a special kind of Duel called Riding Duel that Yusei may have told you."

"Riding Duel… Duel on motorbikes?"

The old man nodded. He then called someone on the screen.

"Get the big boy a suit."

* * *

The Council, Yusei, Reiji and Gongenzaka were in a pretty dark room. Reiji was adjusting Gongenzaka's suit to fit the teenager and Yusei was tuning up a motorbike nearby. His Riding Duel outfit consisted off a big grey bodysuit with green stripes, yellow accents, a brown helmet, gloves and grey boots. In this suit he still has the long red scarf flowing on his back and white sash from his usual clothes. His D-Wheel was colored orange but it was just like any ordinary D-Wheels that Gongenzaka saw in several pictures.

"Stay still." Reiji ordered.

"Thank you the Council for this." Gongenzaka thanked the five old people. "You are so grateful."

"No problem. Just try your best to beat Jack Atlas, even though it may be impossible."

"I know what am I charging in. I, the man Gongenzaka, will try my best."

"Such strong resolve… Wish it would be enough to help you win…" Azul wished him luck.

"All right." Yusei said, coming out from under the D-Wheel. "This D-Wheel is good and ready to go. I know you have not riden a motorbike before, but this thing is easier since it has Auto-Pilot mode designed for Riding Duel. You will be fine. Now get in."

"Auto-Pilot… does it ride automatically for me?"

"Yes."

"Good."

"What?"

"So Yuya and Yuto can drive and duel freely since they are left-handed."

"So is Yugo."

Gongenzaka slowly climbed in his D-Wheel twisted the throttle, a loud roar happened. He had never riden one of these special motorbikes before, but just from twisting the throttle he could feel the difference right away. The sound was more subdued than a normal motorcycle, the control was smoother and the frame is more secured yet also more comfortable. All of these created a very unique feeling, new and interesting.

First time for a person always involved some nervousness and sweating, and Gongenzaka could feel his mind was racing and his palms were becoming sticky. He inhaled deeply, concentrating himself. He roared the engine several more times, he smiled, obviously enjoying this new experience.

"It's amazingly good!" He let out an excited compliment.

"Told ya, it is going to be good." Yusei told him. "Now get ready to duel Jack."

"Uh." Gongenzaka replied. He flicked the kickstand and rode off to the riding lane, where Jack Atlas was waiting for him.

"What took you so long?"

Jack was wearing his Riding Duel outfit, consisting of a white skintight suit with two gray linings running from the shoulders to the legs, a grey belt with an "A" in the middle, two shoulders plates, two arm plates and grey boots. He rode a very strange D-Wheel with only one big wheel and he was literally sitting at the center of the wheel. With this design his ears could have been deafened at any moment if not for the soundproof helmet he was wearing. Jack used a device on the left side of the helmet to communicate with Gongenzaka.

"Getting used to D-Wheels, that's all."

"Your first time right?"

"First time for everything, including dueling you Jack Atlas, but I will not go easy! I will try my best to win, to show my power and to show my resolve as a Lancer!" The man declared once again.

"Good. That's how a real Duelist would say! Now prove it! In this Duel!"

"Of course! Just a warning, I will show you my best in this Duel."

"Who goes through the corner first will take the first turn, is that clear?"

"Clear!" Both Duelists took out five cards and placed them on their respective Card Holders.

The Council, Yusei and Reiji had went to the control room to watch the duel. If this was a usual duel, they would call in an MC to commentate it, but Reiji told them not to to avoid the attention of the possible spy (Roget).

"Get ready." Gael told through the microphone. A screen showed up in front of the Duelists, telling them time.

They twisted the throttle, roaring the engine, eyes focusing on the road.

3:00

2:00

"Riding Duel…"

1:00

…

0:00

 **Acceleration!**

 **Gongenzaka Noboru** : 4000 [5]

 **Jack Atlas** : 4000 [5]

* * *

Both Jack and Gongenzaka rode their D-Wheels. They tried to reach the corner as fast as they could, neither wanting to give up. Jack, with his superior Riding Duel skill, had crossed the corner first and he took the first turn.

"I take the first turn!" Jack declared as he took out a card and slapped it down to the blade of his Duel Disk on the left side of the Wheel of Fortune. "Red Sprinter summon!" A reddish brown Jersey Devil appeared, running.

 **Red Sprinter** FIRE/Demon/Effect/LV4/ **1700** /1200

"Then using its effect, I can special summon the Tuner monster Red Resonator!" A rather cute demon wielding a tuning folk appeared.

 **Red Resonator** FIRE/Demon/Effect/LV2/ **600** /200

"I, using the Level 4 Red Sprinter and Level 2 Red Resonator, Tuning!" The fiery demon tuned its folk, turning into two Synchro rings which swept through the dog. It then turned into four shining star and then a stream of light shot out.

"The crimson souls shall become one. All shall tremble before the king's might! Synchro Shōkan! Appear, Red Wyvern!" A small dragon with fire on its head and the outer parts of its wings came out, splashing its wings.

 **Red Wyvern** FIRE/Dragon/Synchro/Effect/LV6/ **2400** /2000

"Finally, I set one card down. Turn end!" Jack concluded his turn. "Sa! Show me your strength and your resolve, Gongenzaka Noboru!"

"I, the man Gongenzaka, will do it! Ore no turn, draw!"

"I normal summon Giant Rat!" A teal rat materialized.

 **Giant Rat** EARTH/Beast/Effect/LV4/ **1400** /1450

"A 1400 ATK monster… what is he planning?" Yusei tried to find out Gongenzaka's play.

"Battle! Giant Rat, attack Red Wyvern!" The rat lunged forward and bit the neck of the dragon, but it grabbed the rat and crushed the small animal.

 **Gongenzaka** : 4000 - 3000 [5]

"What are you doing? Taking 1000 damage for nothing…?" Jack spoke up, but he stopped when he glanced at Gongenzaka's Deck. One card got pulled out and the teenager took it.

"Right. After being destroyed by battle, Giant Rat is sent to the graveyard, which I can then special summon an EARTH monster with 1500 or less ATK. Come out, the formation of my "Steadfast" Dueling! Level 8! Superheavy Samurai Big Benkei!" In a short moment, Gongenzaka replaced his rat with his signature monster. Giant Rat was one of the generic monster for his Deck that he got from Reiji.

 **Superheavy Samurai Big Benkei** EARTH/Machine/Effect/LV8/ **1000** /3500

"1000 ATK… are you kidding me?" Yusei gasped. This was definitely ridiculous for anyone.

"Watch it Yusei." Reiji said. "The real power of Gongenzaka's Deck."

"After summoning, Big Benkei can change itself to Defense Position." The large machine monster knelt down a bit. "And its real power will show up! Big Benkei, attack Red Wyvern!" He ordered, much to Yusei, Jack and the Council's shock.

"WHAT?!" Jack let out a gasp. "It can attack in Defense Position?!"

"Right. It will use its DEF to calculate damage!" Big Benkei punched the wyvern, destroying it. Jack lost control of his D-Wheel but he quickly regained normal driving stance.

 **Jack** : 4000 - 2900 [2]

"A… amazing…! A monster that can attack in Defense Position." Gael said.

"Never heard it before." Bordeaux sounded surprise as well.

"So this is… the power of Lancers…?"

From behind the smoke, Jack sped up, passing Gongenzaka. The teenager caught him smiling.

"Interesting…" Jack muttered. "It's been a long time to meet a strong challenger like you…"

"But don't think I will give up that easy!"

"I know it. Turn end." Gongenzaka finished his impressive turn.

"Ore no turn." Jack touched his Deck. "Draw!"

He glanced at it, and his eyes briefly went wide in surprise. He put it in the Card Holder and took another one out.

"King Wyvern's monster effect activates! Since only you control a monster, I special summon the Level 2 Red Resonator from the grave and Normal Summon this monster without Release!" Two light spheres appeared and broke, revealing Red Resonator and the black and red wyvern with its horn shaped like a crown.

 **King Wyvern** DARK/Dragon/Effect/LV5/ **1900** /0

"Red Resonator's special summon effect! I can gain LP equal to King Wyvern's ATK!"

 **Jack** : 2900 - 4800 [2]

"You gain back LP?!"

"As expected from Jack, he does not let the small LP loss bother him." Yusei complimented.

"Level 7 Synchro monster…" Reiji whispered.

"I, using the Level 5 King Wyvern and Level 2 Red Resonator, Tuning!" The demonic folk wielder did its job once again.

"The ruler's shouts echo throughout! Hammer of victory, shatter the very earth! Synchro Shōkan! Flap your wings, Explode Wing Dragon!" A greyish dragon with orange wings, strangely small body and large tail appeared.

 **Explode Wing Dragon** FIRE/Dragon/Synchro/Effect/LV7/ **2400** /1600

"Another Synchro monster!" Gongenzaka noted.

"But it only has 2400 ATK, nothing compared to Big Benkei's 3500 DEF." Reiji commented. "Does it have any special effects…?"

"The effect of King Wyvern will make Explode Wing Dragon gain 1000 ATK!" Jack explained, the dragon gained a red aura and cried.

 **Explode Wing Dragon** ATK 2400 - 3400

"But then it only has 3400 ATK, not enough to beat Big Benkei by battle!" Gongenzaka reminded the King.

"Batte!" Jack declared, Gongenzaka focused. "Explode Wing Dragon, attack Superheavy Samurai Big Benkei! King Storm!" Jack's monster breathed a stream of flame at the big monster, slowly melting down its armor while it tried to shrug it off.

"What are you doing Jack Atlas? Doing that nothing will be changed except you will lose 100 LP?!"

"Really?" Jack cryptically said.

"What?"

"Explode Wing Dragon's monster effect activates! At the start of the Damage Step it destroys the battling monster if its ATK is lower than it!" The dragon poured more energy to the stream, eventually melting down the armor and hitting the core of Big Benkei, destroying it in a huge explosion. Gongenzaka struggled to maintain control of his D-Wheel, nearly crashing to the wall to the right.

 **Gongenzaka** : 3000 - 2000 [5]

"So you never plan to destroy my Big Benkei through battle." Gongenzaka said after riding his D-Wheel normally again.

"To be honest, you have a very unique Deck, I can't simply just boost my monster's attack power to charge in." Jack gave a sincere compliment. "To make me use this monster after a long time not bringing it out, you clearly earn my respect."

"Hmph." Yusei chuckled. "Admit that you don't have a way to bring out your ace right now Jack…"

"Jack's ace monster?" Reiji asked.

"You will see…"

* * *

"Thank you for that Jack Atlas."

"Leave it after beating me, now duel first! Turn end!"

Gongenzaka touched his Deck, prepare for his turn. "Ore no turn… draw!" The draw was made at the same time as he crossed the corner, creating a pretty dramatic scene that would make the audience's heartbeat stop for a moment.

"From my hand, I special summon the Tuner monster, Superheavy Samurai Horaga-E!"

 **Superheavy Samurai Horaga-E** EARTH/Machine/Tuner/LV2/ **300** /600

"Since I have no Magic or Trap cards in my grave, I can special summon it.

"No Magic or Trap cards in the grave?" Jack wondered.

"Now that I remember, I haven't seen him use any Magic or Trap cards in this Duel." Yusei noted.

"That's his Dueling style." Reiji said. "Steadfast Dueling."

"More like a limit." Yusei shut Reiji's praise to his comrade down.

"Then I normal summon Superheavy Samurai Soul Iwatooshi!"

 **Superheavy Samurai Soul Iwatooshi** EARTH/Machine/Effect/LV4/ **1200** /0

"Level 4 Superheavy Samurai Soul Iwatooshi and Level 2 Horaga-E, Tuning!"

"Synchro Summon?!" Jack gasped.

"Rise your war cry. Divine ogre! Show yourself. On this battlefield infested by evil! Synchro Shōkan! Now depart for the front! Level 6! Superheavy God Oni Shutendo - G!" Another primary monster in Gongenzaka's possession appeared, and to fit with the dimension, it is also a Synchro monster.

 **Superheavy God Oni Shutendo-G** EARTH/Machine/Synchro/Effect/LV6/500/ **2500**

"A Synchro monster with low ATK and high DEF, don't tell me it can attack in Defense Position as well."

"It can." Reiji confirmed.

"Soul Iwatooshi's effect activates! I can add the Pendulum monster Superheavy General San-5 to my hand!" Gongenzaka showed Jack the card but the King did not show any emotion on his face.

"Pendulum monster… the power of Lancers…" Jack said to himself. "The evolution of Dueling…"

"Then I chain Shutendo-G's effect to it! It can destroy your Set cards after it is Synchro Summoned while I only have monsters in the grave!" The monster fired its chain club to smash the image of Jack's set card, but suddenly a monster wearing a white shirt, shorts and long black socks with white wings, long blue hair appeared and went through Shutendo-G, forcing it to step back. Yusei's eyes widened, knowing what Jack did.

"What the… what happened?!"

"Effect Veiler's monster effect." Jack revealed. "I discard it to negate Shutendo-G's effects."

"A… handtrap!"

Yusei smiled, remembering that old time…

" _Shit… I failed to destroy his Set card… he has a reason to protect his Set card. If I battle, it may cause trouble, but I have no choice!"_

"If so, I, using the Scale 8 Superheavy General San-G, Pendulum Scale Setting!" Gongenzaka placed his Pendulum card, a blue tube appeared and the monster hovered.

"Battle! Shutedo-G, attack Explode Wing Dragon!" The big machine monster fired is chain club again.

"Explode Wing Dragon's monster effect activates!" Jack acted. "Shutendo-G is destroyed!"

"Not gonna happen! Also at this moment, I send Superheavy Samurai Soulbuster Gauntlet to the graveyard to make Shutendo-G's ATK doubled its original value in this turn!"

 **Superheavy God Oni Shutendo-G** ATK 2500 - 5000

The resulting explosion knocked Jack's D-Wheel forward for a bit, but his experience ceased the trouble quickly.

 **Jack** : 4800 - 3200 [1]

"Superheavy General San-G's Pendulum effect activates! Shutendo-G can attack again after destroying a monster through battle!"

"This is the end! Shutendo-G, direct attack!" It pointed its club arm at Jack Atlas then released the club, flying towards King.

"Trap activate!" Jack flipped his Set card, much to Gongenzaka's dismay. "Reject Reborn! It negates the direct attack, ends the Battle Phase and special summons Red Wyvern and Red Resonator in the grave!" Shutendo-G got knocked back by the trap and from it, the two monsters returned.

"Once again, Red Resonator's monster effect activates!"

 **Jack** : 3200 - 5600 [1]

"Dammit… now Jack has 5600 LP!" Gongenzaka ticked his tongue. There was no excuse though, he knew the danger but he had no choice but to walk in it.

"But… I still have my Main Phase 2! From my hand, I equip Superheavy Samurai Soul Great Wall to Shutendo-G and it will gain 1200 DEF!" Shutendo-G armed itself with a new large green armor.

 **Superheavy God Oni Shutendo-G** ATK 5000 - 6200

"Soulbuster Gauntlet makes the ATK of the target become double its orginal value, so he did not equip it to Shutendo-G before." Yusei said. "Not bad."

"Turn end. At this moment, Shutendo-G's ATK returns to normal and its effect return to normal as well."

 **Superheavy God Oni Shutendo-G** ATK 6200 - 3700

"The duel is about to end now." White Taki said. "King is about to summon that monster."

"Ore no TURN!" Jack roared as he drew his card.

"I, using the Level 6 Red Wyvern and Level 2 Red Resonator, Tuning!"

"Here it is." Gael said.

"Jack Atlas' ace monster." Gray continued.

"The heaven and earth shall tremble before the king's might. Let the power of the one and only supreme ruler be carved into your soul! Synchro Shōkan!" A large bandaged right hand lit up in flame, coming after it was a roar of a dragon. It had brown skin with dark red accents, armor plates all over its body. It had two long horns on the sides of its head, sharp silver claws on its fingers and toes, a long tail. Its two large orange and brown wings had sharp spikes, adding to the strength of the powerful dragon.

"The savage soul, Red Daemon's Dragon Scarlight!"

 **Red Daemon's Dragon Scarlight** DARK/Dragon/Synchro/Effect/LV8/ **3000** /2500

"It's… amazing…!" Gongenzaka let out in awe.

"Red Daemon's Dragon Scarlight's monster effect activates! All Special Summoned monsters you control with ATK less than or equal to this card will be destroyed and you take 500 damage for each one!"

"What?! All monster I control with 3000 ATK or less?!" Gongenzaka became shocked.

"Jack's ace monster is a natural counter to Gongenzaka's Deck…" Reiji whispered. "All of his monsters have low ATK."

"Absolute Power Flame!" The dragon charged its right hand with fire, flame briefly appeared on its armor's accents. It then released the energy, fire flying towards Shutendo-G.

"Tsk! If so, I send Soul Fire Armor to the graveyard to keep Shutendo-G from being destroyed this turn." Gongenzaka quickly revealed a card in his hand and swiftly sent it to the grave. Shutendo-G was protected by the astral form of a body armor which took the blast.

"But it will lose 800 DEF in this turn."

 **Superheavy God Oni Shutendo-G** ATK 3700 - 2900

"Uuu…" Yusei whistled. "This boy… he surprises me every time… Jack would surely feel it too."

"Hoh… once again you amazed me by how you protect your monster." Jack said. "Attacking it will not do anything good, so I will set down a card." A card materialized face-down before it disappeared. "Turn end."

"At this moment, Shutendo-G's ATK returns to normal." Gongenzaka reminded.

 **Superheavy God Oni Shutendo-G** ATK 2900 - 3700

"That boy is really good." Yusei complimented Gongenzaka. "Usually Jack's opponent would lose if he summoned Red Daemon's Dragon Scarlight, but he managed to survive and Jack cannot do anything else."

"Ore no turn…" Jack touched his Deck. _"I am lucky to survive Red Daemon's effect, I must win this turn no matter what!"_

"DRAW!"

He glanced at his drawn card. "Yoss! My Dueling will now shine, and it will just not stop at there! From my hand, I equip Superheavy Samurai Soul Fire Katana to Shutendo-G." A fiery sword appeared and the big monster in red armor took it.

Jack's helmet showed the information of the monster Gongenzaka just played

"Its ATK remains the same, what's the point of using it?" Jack asked.

"Now I will send Soul Fire Katana to the grave…"

"To add the Tuner monster, Superheavy Samurai Kobu-C to my hand! Normal Summon!" Gongenzaka quickly slapped it down.

 **Superheavy Samurai Kobu-C** EARTH/Machine/Tuner/LV2/ **900** /900

" _Level 8 Synchro monster…"_ Yusei thought.

"Jack Atlas! This turn I will defeat you!" Gongenzaka warned. "Battle! Shutendo-G, attack Red Daemon's Dragon Scarlight!" Jack's signature dragon was gone in an instant.

" _Red Daemon's… sorry…"_

 **Jack** : 5600 - 4900 [1]

"Right now, I activate the Pendulum effect of San-5! Shutendo-G can attack again! Go!" The club hit Jack's D-Wheel, making it spin out of control. Jack managed to control it again though.

 **Jack** : 4900 - 1200 [1]

Jack balanced his D-Wheel back. "Hmph! Now only Kobu-C can attack, but it only has 900 ATK! Are you taking yourself for granted?"

"It may be ironic, but it seems that YOU are taking yourself for granted in my opinion!"

"What do you mean?!"

"Kobu-C's monster effect activates! I can perform a Synchro Summon during the Battle Phase!"

"The hell?!" Jack widened his eyes in pure shock.

"Synchro Summon during the Battle Phase?!" Yusei also said in shock. For once Reiji nodded in pride. His Deck focused on many summoning methods so a downside is he would not get access to each method's advanced forms.

"I, using the Level 6 Shutendo-G and Level 2 Superheavy Samurai Kobu-C, Tuning!"

"Shinobi hiding in the darkness, emerge onto this warground with a cry that echoes in the mountains! Synchro Shōkan! Come before us! Superheavy Ninja Saruto-B!"

 **Superheavy Ninja Saruto-B** EARTH/Machine/Synchro/Effect/LV8/2000/ **2800**

Jack let out a smile, one that he had not done for a long time since he last dueled…

With him…

The duel that changed him and everyone in City for forever, in a much worse way…

In a moment, he saw him in Gongenzaka. That teenager had something similar to him, the determination, the strength, the fiery spirit, the desire to improve himself… He had pushed him pretty far in this Duel, much further than any ordinary opponent.

"Divine… I wish you were still alive now…" His smile turned into a bitter one.

"Divine?" Gongenzaka wondered. "Who is he?"

Yusei gasped. Divine, the name that caused many bad memories to return again.

Jack looked down, unsure for an answer.

"Don't hide Jack Atlas, that is not an action of a man. Through Duel, two people can understand each other, isn't it the beauty of Dueling?" Gongenzaka told him.

Jack still looked down.

"It's… complicated. It's much more than just understanding through Dueling. Divine has that in him just like you now. Sadly I could not stop Roget."

"Roget?!" Gongenzaka gasped in surprise.

"Uh. You know about Psychic Duelists right?"

"I… do."

"You know the horrible treatment they are having now?"

"I am."

"It all because of that duel… And Roget took the move." Jack revealed.

"You dueled him?"

"Uh… I will not go into details for now."

Gongenzaka respected Jack's wish. Yusei looked away, not wanting to shed any tears. The incident was still very fresh for him and many others even though it had happened for a while. The Council sadly looked at him in pity.

"You see it Jack Atlas! This is my Dueling evolution! The manifestation of my resolve as a Lancer!"

Jack's smile stopped.

"The Duel will end right now! Saruto-B! Direct attack!" Saruto-B created a whirlwind powered by its machine. The cyclone it made slowly swept the field, coming near Jack Atlas.

The Council, Yusei and Reiji held their breaths, thinking about the possible outcome.

Jack did not respond, he kept looking down, his eyes hidden from view.

The cyclone came closer and closer...

It was very close to the Wheel of Fortune...

"From the graveyard, King Wyvern's effect activates!" He declared fiercely.

"What?!"

"I banish it to summon a DARK Dragon monster sleeping in the cemetery!"

"Don't… don't… tell me…!"

"Be reborn, my very soul! Red Daemon's Dragon Scarlight!" In an instant, Jack's signature dragon appeared again.

"No…" Gongenzaka sighed. "Dammit... the only card in my hand will not help much... But...!"

"Saruto-B's monster effect activates! With no Magic or Traps cards in the graveyard, I can destroy one card in your Magic/Trap zone, Jack Atlas, and inflict 500 damage!" Saruto-B used its cyclone to destroy Jack's set card.

 **Jack** : 1200 - 700 [1]

"Turn end…" He ended his turn bitterly.

"Ore no… turn!" Jack began his final turn. He slowed down a bit to face Gongenzaka.

"I have to take back one thing you said earlier. So you call it your Dueling evolution?" Jack asked Gongenzaka, who did not know how to answer. "Synchro Summon during the Battle Phase and you call it your Dueling evolution?! Wake up from your slumber!"

"Nani?!"

"What you call Dueling evolution, we call it ridiculous. We have done it many times over, you think you are special if you can do that? To be honest, when you use the Pendulum monster San-5, I expect to see you place another Pendulum card in the Pendulum Zone and perform a Pendulum Summon in action, Lancers' supposed weapon against Academia. That would be more appropriate to be called Dueling Evolution!"

" _What? Synchro Summon during the Battle Phase is just a… piece of cake in here?!"_ Gongenzaka panicked. _"I should have added another Pendulum card to my hand…!"_

"Wrong! There is more to it, and if you cannot find it, there is nothing called "evolution" in your Dueling!"

Gongenzaka was left speechless.

"Red Daemon's Dragon Scarlight's monster effect activates! Saruto-B is destroyed and you take 500 damage!"

"Absolute Power Flame!" The dragon punched Saruto-B, cracking its armor. The fire melted down the core and destroyed Gongenzaka's monster.

 **Gongenzaka** : 2000 - 1500 [1]

"It's over…" Yusei whispered.

"This is the end! Red Daemon's Dragon Scarlight! Direct attack!"

"Shakunetsu no… Crimson Hell Burning!" Scarlight charged its mouth with fiery energy, ready to attack. It then released it in a hot stream, striking the ground near Gongenzaka. He painfully yelled in defeat.

 **Gongenzaka** : 1500 - 0 [1]

The big teenager tried his hardest to drift his D-Wheel, hitting the wall with barely enough force to force it back to the road without breaking of falling out. Jack swiftly stopped next to him. They looked into each other's eyes, saying nothing. There was no need to say anything, they understood it all.

"That was the good duel, Jack Atlas… Sorry about the evolution though…"

"You did really well, Gongenzaka Noboru. Very few people can force me to play this badly." Jack complimented the strong teenager.

"I want to ask you something. What is the evolution in Dueling that you are talking about?"

"That is something you have to find by yourself. There is no definite form of that, but to be honest, I can see your Deck does not use any Magic or Trap cards right?"

"Right."

"It is already an evolution for me." Jack smiled.

"Thank you Jack Atlas. And what about Divine?"

"Uh…" Jack paused. He sighed. "You Lancers come here to save this dimension from Academia right?"

"We are."

"But what if I tell you, this place is not worth saving? That this City is too corrupt and dirty to begin with?"

"I don't know what you mean."

"You are outsiders, you don't know how this City works. And I warn you, you can't save it. I would just let this place being stomped by Academia. This place cannot be saved by outsiders."

Gongenzaka saw the Council, Reiji and Yusei coming from the distance.

"Whatever it is, we will try our best to save this dimension from Academia." He re-declared his resolve.

"I hope so…" Jack said cryptically.

"That was a good duel, Jack, Gongenzaka!" Yusei complimented both Duelists. "You both played well. Gongenzaka, you are the first person for a long time to nearly make Jack lose like that."

"Yeah, but my idea of "evolution" seems… stupid in here to be honest. My Dueling is nothing compared to where I live."

"As Jack said, find yourself your own way to improve your Dueling." Yusei told him.

"Sadly we cannot get you and the Council's help since Gongenzaka Noboru lost the duel though." Reiji spoke up.

"I am sorry, Akaba Reiji." He apologized.

"But I wish all of you would consider our proposal. Whatever you think it is, it's true and this dimension will be in chaos soon."

"Think about it Jack." Yusei said.

"Don't let Yugo's wishes be in vain…"

The Lancers then began walking out of the stadium.

"There is an upcoming Dueling competition." Gael revealed. The Lancers turned around. "The Friendship Cup. If you Lancers participate in and prove your strength, we will offer our cooperation."

"Good enough." Gongenzaka said. They then got out for real. Jack watched them fading from his view. Normally he would think it was crazy, but something else made him reconsider.

…

…

…

 _Jack woke up, breathing heavily. He realized he was sweating all over the place._

 _He wiped his face, remembering about the nightmare…_

 _Everything around was in chaos…_

 _Fire raging everywhere…_

 _Screaming…_

 _Crying…_

 _Mad laughter from an insane…_

 _Young man…_

 _White hair…_

 _Several adults futilely trying to stop that person…_

 _Two of them dropped down dead…_

 _They were…_

" _My parents…" His eyes became heavy._

 _Another kid with grey hair was crying, covering himself in his mother's embrace. His father…_

 _Was with another girl, adult, long, maroon… hair? His daughter…?_

 _Another blonde woman, pregnant…_

…

…

…

Jack was having a nightmare of the time when he was… he did not know, 8? For some reason he was dreaming of the end of the world, and also for some stupid reason he did not remember what happened to him before that time. The boy's face was blackened, but his hair seemed similar to…

"***** _…"_

Jack breathed heavily, looking at the distance.

" _This is definitely not normal…"_

* * *

 **Fanfic OC Cards**

 **King Wyvern**

DARK/Dragon/Effect/LV5/1900/0

If only your opponent controls a monster: You can target 1 Level 2 or lower monster in your GY; Special Summon it, and if you do, immediately after that effect resolves, Normal Summon this card without Tributing, also you can only Special Summon DARK Dragon-type monsters from your Extra Deck this turn. You can banish this card from your GY, then target 1 DARK Dragon-type monster in your GY; Special Summon that target. You can only use each effect of "King Wyvern" once per turn. A DARK Dragon-type Synchro monster using this card as a Synchro material gains 1000 ATK.

 **Superheavy Samurai Soul Fire Katana**

EARTH/Machine/Effect/LV4/0/0

You can target 1 "Superheavy Samurai" monster you control; equip this monster from your hand or your side of the field to that target. It cannot be destroyed by card effects. You can send this equipped card to the GY: add 1 "Superheavy Samurai" Tuner monster from your Deck to your hand. You can only use each effect of "Superheavy Samurai Soul Fire Katana" once per turn.

* * *

 **Surprise! Gongenzaka duels Jack Atlas, not Reiji! I have neglected him quite a bit during the first arc, but don't worry! He is back, and this loss is nothing to fuss about, he will duel more.**

 **I really thought the "Dueling evolution" part is really stupid, but for me there was no better choice.**

 **And Jack's reason why he wants to duel Reiji is hinted at the end. Can you guess who those people are in his dream (Very important later)?**

 **The reason Gongenzaka does not Pendulum Summon: Even though Gongenzaka said he would show his power in that duel, Pendulum Summon is still a new thing to the Synchro Dimension. The less they know, the better the Lancers are.**

* * *

 **Next Chapter Preview**

 **Riding Duel Training**

After Yusei, Reiji and Gongenzaka return to Commons and tell the Lancers the plan and the upcoming Friendship Cup, they decide to learn Riding Duel.

 **This is matrixnis, out!**


	42. Scale 42

**Hello everyone! I am back with a new chapter!**

 **One thing I forgot to say: In this story Jack is 24 years old, you may guess it from reading the last chapter.**

 **Besides that, enjoy the chapter!**

* * *

 **Chapter 42: Riding Duel Training**

* * *

 **5:30**

A girl groaned tiredly, wanting to stay in her bed for a little more, but she had to go. She could not be late since he was waiting, also she had asked him to.

She carefully got up, keeping the sound as low as possible to avoid waking up her two lookalike companions, who were sleeping soundly next to her. Their messy hairs contrasted their gracefulness during the day.

She went into the pretty small but comfortable bathroom to quickly adjust her hair, her face and change her clothes. Since she was hurry, she did not put makeup in her face. The girl then went to the garage at the corner of the orphanage.

"You're here… Yuzu?"

Spoke Yugo, slightly tired.

"Uh, I am here. Sorry for calling you early but-oh no!" Yuzu gasped when he saw the brushes on Yugo's face.

"What?"

"Your face…! What happened?"

"Last night I mistook Selena for Rin and I hugged her." Yugo revealed. Both of them felt uncomfortable.

"Uh… okay… Let's not talk about it… alright…" Yuzu muttered.

"Fine… but I don't know why you do not ask Yuya for this…"

"I don't want to bother him. I want to improve on my own, not depend on my friend."

"Good spirits. You remind me of Rin…" Yugo briefly smiled. His face turned saddened and serious again.

"Alright. Let's go…"

* * *

 **7:00 or so**

In the boy's room, Yuto woke up. He wiped his eyes, looking around to see his teammates. There were Dennis, Yuya and Sawatari, but Shun was nowhere to be found.

" _Where is Gongenzaka and Shun…?!"_

Looking at their sleeping forms, Yuto decided not to wake them up and go out looking for Shun. He got out of his bed, took a bottle, a toothbrush and a bottle that he brought in Standard and went outside.

" _It's already 7… I am such a hard sleeper… If this place was Heartland I would have died…"_ Yuto chuckled as he checked his military watch. He stretched his arms and his shoulders, inviting the sunlight into him.

" _Where is Shun anway…?"_ Yuto started to wonder when he saw Shun coming out of the WC with a handkerchief over his shoulder, a toothbrush in his mouth and a bottle of water in his hand.

"Good morning Shun." Yuto greeted his friend.

"Good morning Yuto." Shun said grossily thanks to his toothbrush. "Good sleep?"

"Yep. You too buddy?"

"Damn right. Have you seen Gongenzaka?"

Shun took off his toothbrush. "He's gone by the time I woke up. I went to Reiji's room and he was not there either. Tsukikage told me he went with Yusei and Reiji to Tops to get help from the Council."

"What the hell is Gongenzaka doing?" Yuto wondered.

"Who knows. Anyway, get yourself ready."

"Uh."

Later he walked outside, tempting to knock the door to the girls' room. He was about not to when the door opened. Selena came out.

"Oh Selena! Good morning."

"Good morning Yuto."

"Is Ruri awake?" He asked.

"She woke before but I convinced her to sleep more."

"Oh! Thanks Selena, but why didn't you do the same? You could have slept more. And where is Yuzu?"

"She's not here. I don't know where she is now but she's probably with Yugo. His D-Wheel is not here."

"Yugo?" Yuto looked at the garage and indeed, Yugo's white D-Wheel was nowhere to be seen. He thought of why she could go with him, and one thing came up to his mind.

"Back in Standard Yuzu asked Sora to learn Fusion Summon, so maybe she is asking Yugo to teach her… Synchro?"

"Synchro…? Probably."

"Probably?"

"The night before we came to Synchro I saw Yugo with two white cards in his hand."

"That's it…?"

"Yeah. Now excuse me, I need to exercise." Selena walked outside and started morning exercise.

" _Yuya is not gonna like this…"_ Yuto thought.

He quietly closed the door and looked at his beautiful sleepyhead. He did not know why, but seeing her calm and peaceful face always made his mind warm. She was beautiful, even in her gross morning form with her messy hair. Yuto had peeked at Ruri like this several times back in the Resistance, but today was the first time he completely captured her sleepy state.

And this time, since Shun approved his relationship with Ruri, Yuto could freely see her sleeping face. He smiled as he kept inspecting her, the angel God had sent to him to bring meanings to his life. A minute later, he felt bored, he decided to wake her up.

Yuto went near Ruri's ears and whispered. "Hey Ruri, wake up."

"Uhm…" Ruri stirred. Hearing a male voice however made her alert. She quickly became conscious, she opened her eyes but all of her worry was gone away when she realized it was Yuto.

"Oh… Yuto…?"

Yuto smiled. Ruri blushed, covering her bloated face while groaning and turning around at the same time.

"Uh~ Yuto… No…"

"Come on, you're beautiful like this." He continued pouring. "No need to shy baby."

"Where is my brother~?" She asked in embarrass.

"He's with the others. Wake up beautiful girl."

"Look away and I will wake up." Ruri requested.

"Why? I like seeing you like this..." Yuto said, slightly sad to convince her.

"No… I don't want my ugly morning face to be seen~~" She groaned. This made Yuto smile even more.

"Come on Ruri. We are a couple, we have kissed already, a morning face is nothing bad, it even makes you more beautiful. To me."

"Haizz… okay…" Ruri sighed. She hesitantly turned around, got up. Her hands still covered her face though. Yuto playfully held her hands and tried to force it down, Ruri pleaded by hiding her face tighter, Yuto kept pulling her hands. Eventually Yuto won, or Ruri let him win as he thought. She pouted, her eyes shut, revealing her messy face to Yuto.

"You're cute! Really!" Yuto said. "Don't be shy Ruri. I will not tell anyone about this okay? Not even Shun."

"My brother will kill you…" Ruri threatened. Yuto did not scare because he knew she would never do that. The girl finally wiped her hair, opening her eyes to look directly at Yuto.

"You're cruel Yuto…" She mocked.

"That's why girls cannot leave me." Yuto answered, making Ruri blush even more. She punched him playfully multiple times, smiling.

"Okay okay, that's enough, stop~~"

"No! I gotta punish you!" She punched him harder and harder. Yuto had to hold her hand to make her stop.

"You win, okay? I am sorry."

"Better not do this next time, lady boy." She giggled.

"We'll see about that." Yuto stated. He then leaned towards her and claimed her lips. Ruri felt he was doing it with more force than necessary, but she knew this was just a playful payback. She returned with another kiss.

"Come on, let's get the day started-"

"EWWWWWWWWW~~~~~~~~." Came a high-pitched voice from… Dennis?!

Yuto and Ruri frantically realized Aki, Shun, Yuya, Gongenzaka and Selena were at the door. To make it even worse, there were… several kids outside as well!

"Oh man! You two locked lips!" Dennis made a poker face with his two hands touching his palms and his mouth widened.

"I saw it all, Yuto, Ruri, hate or love the last part, I will think." Shun said in a serious tone.

"What the…?! You…?!" Yuto muttered.

"That's Selena's idea, you can blame her later Ruri, Yuto." Yuya told them, who angrily looked at the former Academia soldier.

"Sorry, I did not want to but I found you two are playing pretty well so I invited Aki, Dennis, Yuya, Sawatari and your brother in." Selena said, slyly, winking. "The kids are innocent by the way."

"You… bitch!" Ruri gritted her teeth. "Don't you know personal SPACE?!"

"As you and Yuzu had told me, I am not feminine~~~~"

"What the hell is wrong with you Selena?!" Yuto asked in disbelief.

"I love seeing this, that's all! Take it as payback for what you did last night!"

"Damn you ALL!" Yuto and Ruri roared at the same time. The moment-stealers roared with laughers.

"Uh, everyone…?" Yuya became serious. "Has anyone seen Reira, Gongenzaka and Yuzu? They're not here!"

"Tsukikage took Reira for some sightseeing, Gongenzaka is with Yusei and Reiji to Tops to meet the Council." Aki said.

"He went to Tops?!" Sawatari shouted.

"Uh. And Yuzu is probably with Yugo to practice Synchro Summon." Selena said.

"Yugo?! Synchro Summon?!" Yuya widened his eyes. "Why didn't she ask me?! Is she…?"

"She doesn't want to get help from someone close to improve herself, you know her well, you should have known that." Yuto told him.

"Haizz… fine… I just think she doesn't trust me…" He covered his head. "Gongenzaka too… I feel like I am alone in here…"

Shinji had come up behind them while they were still joking at Yuto and Ruri. The moment they saw him, heaviness occurred. Aki glanced at him, her eyes told him to stop making a fuss.

"I still do not trust all of you completely." He opened.

"But I respect Yusei, Aki and Yugo's opinion. I will not force you out of the orphanage for now, of course that's if you do not cause trouble in here."

"You… you allow us to stay in here?" Ruri asked to be sure.

Shinji nodded.

Everyone felt relieved, including Aki.

"Thanks a lot Shinji." Yuya politely said.

"Don't mention it. Come on, breakfast's on the way."

 **################################################**

"YAY! I am finally able to Synchro SUMMON!" Yuzu yelled happily, jumping up and down excitedly. Behind her was her Synchro monster that Yugo had asked Reiji to create. After meeting Yuzu, Yugo drove her to practice Synchro Summon at an abandoned ground, but not before eating breakfast at a fast food shop. Already having experience from learning Fusion Summon with Sora, Yuzu did not take much time

"Good job Yuzu! I knew you could do it!" Yugo complimented her. "Now, let's have some duels to improve and implement your skills!"

"Of course!" Yuzu gladly agreed. They then proceeded to have several ground Duels with Yugo winning most of them while Yuzu only got to score two wins.

"Haizz~~ I lost again~~" Yuzu pouted, annoyed at losing the final practice Duels.

"You are definitely improving quickly though. Besides Yusei and Aki, not many people would give me a hard time to duel like that. You are improving very fast!"

"With this I can now be strong enough to protect Yuya and my friends!" She smiled beautifully. Yugo noticed the pink-haired girl seemed to be brighter and happier when she mentioned Yuya, the boy who he unintentionally condemned to death. He felt ashamed.

"You care a lot about Yuya, don't you?"

Yuzu stuttered, blushing at the mention of her childhood friend. "Uh… yeah… but just as a friend, not as lovers like Yuto and Ruri!" She quickly answered, probably a little too fast, but at least she got out of the usual embarrassing question.

"Even after he snapped in the stadium back in Heartland?"

"…Yep…" She said, unsure.

"Good." Yugo said, causing Yuzu to wonder.

"Good? What do you mean…?"

"I mean it's good that you consider Yuya to be your friend. I disregarded Rin and I paid the price. But don't get close to him like Yuto and Ruri, I don't think their relationship will work out long-term, they are only like that because of the war."

" _How thoughtful…"_ Yuzu thought, surprised at the apparently thoughtless boy's maturity. "They gotta handle their thing by themselves, but everything will be fine Yugo." Yuzu tried to reassure him. She faced Yugo. "We will do our best to bring Rin back, I promise."

"I hope so…" Yugo trailed off. "But… how…? How can I do it since… I cause many bad things to happen to others? I made Yuya stuck inside Yuto's head, I cause Ryoga to be carded by that bastard Yuri, and I…"

"Yugo… It's really not your fault." Yuzu said with concern.

Yugo became emotional, he tried his best to hold himself together.

"I don't know…"

He struggled to say.

"How long… could I live…"

"Live? Are you kidding? What are you talking about?!"

Yugo sighed, he thought it was useless anyway. He caressed his left chest, then he held it tight. He circled his fingers around the small spot.

"Never mind. Sorry for saying that Yuzu."

The girl was not stupid to not realize something was troubling Yugo, but judging his actions, Yuzu decided it was best not to ask him.

"You're welcome. Don't sweat about it."

"Alright…" Yugo got up. "Let's go back."

Yugo drove Yuzu back to the orphanage, thinking back about the incident that would seal his fate real soon…

" _How could I bring Rin back… if I am going to die anyway and she has to see it all…?"_

* * *

 **8:00**

Everyone ate breakfast, including the kids. While it was good for Yuto, Shun and Ruri who were at war and did not have access to high-quality food, Yuya, Sawatari did not think the same thing since they got used to cooked food from Yoko for Yuya and the maid for Sawatari. For Yuya, since both of his childhood friends were gone right now, his mind became pretty heavy.

"What's wrong Yuya?" Sawatari asked, sensing his friend's brooding mood.

"Uh… nothing it's just…" He hesitated. "I miss the old times… my mom… her food… her berating… and my dad…"

"I just left my mom for two days and I already miss everything she did to me…"

The air around them became solemn.

Yuya quickly noticed others' uneasiness and apologized. "I'm sorry… I did not mean to…"

"Don't sweat it Yuya." Sawatari reassured him. "I miss my father and my maid too. I don't know how long I could hold myself."

"You will get used to it soon." Ruri told them, rather coldly. "We got it worse, we lost so many people at war."

Yuya eyed at the purple-haired girl. Her deceiving past to him made Yuya want to argue, but his kind heart and her two comrades told him not to. He sighed, he could not do it in front of them and the kids.

" _But at least you still have your closet ones besides you."_

The breakfast quickly became lively again thanks to Aki going mommy mode, cheering the kids up. They chatted with the teens and adults a lot, warming them up greatly. This was especially refreshing for the Xyz survivors who missed those moments and they also talked to them as well.

After breakfast, Aki and Shinji went to work, entrusting the head of the orphanage and the Lancers to look after the kids. Yuto and Ruri was playing with the kids, Shun, Dennis and Yuya later had a Duel for them to watch, an Entertainment Duel; while the two Entertainment Duelists was eager to have a duel, Shun was not into that much since he attacked Yuya back in Standard and he was now not the person who dueled for fun anymore after the war started. The kids had to tell them to duel and Shun reluctantly accepted it, not wanting to upset them and Yuto also joined in.

Ruri noticed Yuya becoming his usual Entertainment self whenever he dueled while he was broken just moments ago. The smiles he put on his face could be fake anytime, just like how Shun and Yuto would do, and they were probably doing it right now. The poker face they put to hide their pain away, no one could know if their smiles were genuine or not.

She stared longingly at them, wondering what would happen if they stopped smiling someday, after getting tired of faking it.

"What's wrong?" Selena suddenly asked, snapping her out.

"What?" She turned to the indigo-haired girl. "Uh-nothing."

"Just tell me. Stop hiding it." She said sternly.

Ruri sighed. "You see them. Are they smiling right?"

"I guess." She answered without a single second of thought. "They are smiling, what's about it?"

"Sometimes I wonder if they are truly smiling from inside or not. Academia destroyed everything in Heartland, taking the smiles away. Shun and Yuto would smile while they are with me to forget the pain. At times, I don't know if they could truly smile again, or they do it just to keep me from worrying them."

Selena's face saddened, realizing the deeper atrocities Academia had done, to which she was a part of. And she could not say she was not to blame due to not participating in any battle since she carded Hokuto, which she would pass as a normal thing if Ruri, Shun, Yuto and Yuya did not point out.

"Back in Standard I see Yuya smiling too, especially when he duels." Ruri continued. "But regarding his family issues, he may be using smiles to hide his pain, like pretty much any comedians. Yuya, Shun, Yuto… they use smiles to hide their pain. I guess I am their battery to make them keep smiling…"

"Are you… disregarding yourself? You're being passive. If you don't care about yourself, you cannot care about others!" Selena asked, not believing Ruri would be willing to forget herself for the happiness of others.

"Maybe you are alone or you are too neglected of others' feelings to know it. I have people I care about, if they get sad, I gotta do something to keep them happy, and I am fine with that."

"I guess you're right, the lonely part, but you know you cannot do that forever…"

"And Academia must pay for it…" Ruri whispered.

The two girls became quiet, they kept looking at the duel happening in front of them. The smiles in Yuya, Yuto, Shun and Dennis' faces were like a missing substance in Selena's body, riding her back to the past, where that cheerful smile she cherished stayed. Try as Selena did, she could not get rid of it, and those "fake" smiles were slowly bringing her back.

She missed it…

"You think the reverse could apply too?" Selena said what crossed her mind. "Crazy you know?"

"What? Crazy? What are you talking about?"

"Uh-" Selena stuttered. "Nothing, just something in my mind." Luckily, Ruri passed it.

" _Dammit!"_ Selena cursed to herself. _"I want to be strong and independent by myself, but why can't I…"_

…

…

After the duel, Reira and Tsukikage returned. The Lancers and the kids had a talk to kill time. Yuya tried to help Reira open herself more with her peers but she still could not say much.

About 11am, Yugo and Yuzu returned to the orphanage. Yuya immediately greeted them.

"There you are, Yuzu, Yugo!"

"Hello Yuya..." Yuzu said, slightly nervous.

"Why did not you two talk to me about what you were doing? And why Yuzu, did not you ask me to train Synchro Summon with me? I feel like I am being neglected!" He bombarded.

"That's uh… uh…" The pink-haired girl stuttered. "That's because I…"

"She wants to improve on her own." Yugo talked in Yuzu's place.

"But at least you could have told me Yugo! I would have thought you two were dating behind me!"

Big mistake.

Yugo and Yuzu blushed intensively.

"What… what are you talking about Yuya? We are not!" Yugo said. "She asked me to train her last night, I did not do anything bad to her!"

"You think I am dating Yugo?!" Yuzu said in disbelief. "STUPID YUYA!" She pulled out her signature fan and slapped Yuya hard in the head. Everyone sweatdropped.

"I just want to improve myself without relying on your help all the time!" Yuzu told him. "And you think I am having something with Yugo? She has Rin already!"

"WHOA WHOA WHOA WHOA WHOA!" Yugo denied frantically. "We are just friends!"

"Uh- sorry Yugo." She quickly apologized, but the kids did not let this go easy by laughing hard at the spot.

"What the hell did you two just do…" Shun sighed.

"Okay okay! Stop this mess!" Yuya raised his voice. "Everyone, take the kids away please." The Lancers quickly dragged them into their rooms, knowing they would get a serious talk. Yugo also went inside. Once it was done, Yuya stood in front of Yuzu.

"Yuzu, I appreciate you trying to improve yourself, really." He said, heavily, Yuzu knew he was serious. "But I don't want to see people doing things behind my back or lying to me like Ruri, especially the people I know. I feel like I am being ignored. Is what I said back in the stadium bothering you and everyone else? Is that what makes you and Gongenzaka stay away from me?"

"Gongenzaka?!"

"Uh. He is with Yusei and Reiji to try to convince the Council. Tell me Yuzu."

Yuzu hesitated, she looked away, unsure what to say.

"Don't hesitate, I am ready to hear." He encouraged her.

"Yuya I… I really don't think so…"

" _Liar…"_

"What you did back then was because everything was so sudden, and you got lost of tracks… but frankly…"

She looked at him, directly, blue glistening eyes met red dimming eyes.

"You exploded, you threw harsh words at Reiji, Ruri and others. That makes others scare you…"

"And I… I do feel…" She struggled to say.

"I do fell…" She did not want to hurt him…

"Scared of you as well…" But she had to…

Yuya looked down, letting out a deep breath, careful not to throw the air at Yuzu.

"Yeah… Maybe I was getting moody again…" He whispered, closing his eyes. "I try to bring smiles to others like my dad, but I don't even know how to make myself smile, and I failed."

Yuzu stared shockingly at Yuya, the boy just opened his wall, letting out a weakness she knew but both she and he did not want to accept.

"Yuya… No one forces you to make them smile, if you cannot smile for yourself now, just put it aside and try to find the reason you smile first." She meant his father, and Yuya knew it.

"But… how…? He's gone for three years and I don't know where he is now."

"You will find him, and I will help you. Others too. In the meantime, do your best to bring smile to others without your father, he wants to see his son has grown up."

"And if you are still unsure, then try to do it for your closed ones like your mom, Gongenzaka, the kids."

"Including you too?" He asked slowly, eyeing her.

"Uh… maybe…" She blushed.

"Yuzu." He whispered very lowly. The next words were very incoherent, but filled with sincerity. "You are… the main reason… I can…"

"…Can… what?" She asked.

"I can… bring smile to others…" They blushed hard.

"I want… to see you…"

"Happy…" At this Yuya completely stared at the ground, too shy to face Yuzu. The girl blushed intensively, trying to look away from his face.

"Yuya…" She smiled weakly, but then strongly. She faced him, as if the blushing did not bother her anymore. "Thank you."

"Yeah…" Yuya said, still looking down.

Yuzu chuckled at his shyness. She put a hand on his face, making eye contact with him, Yuya blushed even more.

"You're really… cute…"

Yuya froze. _"She's calling me… cute?!"_ His world seemed to be spinning. Yuzu's throat became dry, unable to say anything. She could not believe she could dare to say Yuya "cute" too. They stared at each other, eyes widened.

"And thus, the new couple is born!" A calm voice spoke at the door…

Yuya and Yuzu stopped dead on the ground. Reiji was the owner of that voice.

"Reiji?! Gongenzaka?! Yusei?!" They both yelled.

"Yep! We are just back, and am I a little too early to see you two kiss?" Gongenzaka teased.

"STOP IT GONGENZAKA!" They roared again. At least Gongenzaka had the decency not to crash-hug.

From behind, many disappointments were heard, ranging from the kids to Dennis, Sawatari, Shun and to Yuto and Ruri. The Standard counterparts wished they could dig a hole to hide in for eternity now. The massive embarrassment was more deadly than the war.

"Okay." Reiji cleared his throat. "Enough romance. We are just back from Tops."

"Did it work?" Aki wondered.

"Not much, but we got a new lead."

* * *

 **13:00**

After lunch, the Lancers regrouped at Reiji's room to hear him inform about the upcoming plan.

"I will keep it short. In the next two days, the Council will open a Duel Tournament called the Friendship Cup."

"Another tournament?!" Shun growled in disbelief. "I don't want to waste time in here! Academia is more important!"

"We don't have a choice Shun. We are in a foreigner's land, we gotta play by their rules." Dennis calmly pointed out.

"Usually it promotes friendship between Tops and Commons, but in reality it is just another way for the Tops to oppress Commons." Shinji said.

"However, this year is changing. The Council will see if the Lancers are strong enough to be their allies, and if we can prove it in this tournament, we can recruit Jack Atlas as well."

"Good." Sawatari said. "But Academia may attack during the tournament."

"That's why they pushed the annual date a month sooner." Yusei revealed. "This will probably create some rumors, but of course we don't want everyone to know it yet."

"How about Roget?" Yuya asked.

"As of now there is not enough proof to show Roget is from Academia, we need to win and tell them that, or we can tell them during the tournament if we are lucky."

"With the Psychic Duelists around Roget though, I don't think it is a good plan." Reiji said. "So, we will participate in the Friendship Cup and we make sure to win. Any disagreements."

No one, but there were questions.

"How is the Dueling in here?" Came from Yuzu. "They use those D-Wheels to duel, we don't know it."

"Don't worry, we can train Riding Duel to all of you. Two days may be short, but it is enough." Aki told her.

"Well we better start it now." Yuto said.

"Of course. 16:00 today, we will train at an abandoned ground pretty far from here. You are in, Shinji?"

"Sorry, I am busy this afternoon. I need to fix some air-conditioners."

"Okay. Get rest, and we will start training."

* * *

 **16:00**

"I get you are wearing long pants. Good, we are sorry that we do not have Riding Duel outfits for all of you yet, but we do have these few protective gears." Aki showed the Lancers a box of protective patches for the arms the knees.

"Of course." Yuzu said. "How could I be wearing a dress while I ride a motorcycle?"

"So what are we going to do now Yusei, Aki, Yugo?" Yuto asked.

"Alright, here's the drill: Each of you will take turn driving a D-Wheel to get used to it. They are tuned to fit for beginners." Yusei said. "Who will take the first ride?"

Yuya stepped forward. "I will take it."

"Good. Since you are left-handed, take Yugo's D-Wheel."

Yuya put on the arm and kneepads and got on the D-Wheel. He twisted the throttle, the engine roared up.

"Woah! It's actually pretty soft!"

"That's what set D-Wheels apart from normal motorcycles. The engine is designed to cause as less noise as possible." Yugo told him. "Now drive it."

Yuya hesitated. He had never ridden a motorbike before.

"You can do it Yuya!" Yuya encouraged.

"Don't worry Yuya, just drive!" Gongenzaka said.

Yuya took a deep breath, then he started driving the D-Wheel slowly. He did a full circle and in excitement, he made another lap.

"How was it?" Yusei asked.

"It was DAMN great!" Yuya smiled hugely. "It's awesome everyone!"

"I knew it!" Yugo did a thumbs-up.

"Okay, your turn to drive Yuzu!" Yuya told her.

"Oh yeah~" She smiled.

Yuzu then drove Aki's D-Wheel, after that one by one, all of the Lancers besides Reira tried their first time on a D-Wheel. Reactions were mostly approval with only some minor discomfort from Sawatari since he nearly crashed into the group.

"Yoss! It's all good!" The last Lancer to try out a D-Wheel, Dennis, smiled enthusiastically after testing it.

"Alright. Now part two of the training: You will duel us in a Riding Duel." Yusei said, earning surprised looks from the Lancers.

"You mean… right now?" Yuzu asked.

"Yep." Yugo told her.

"Niceeee!" Sawatari yelled excitedly. "I will duel you! I will! Duel me Yugo!"

"Calm down Sawatari, we cannot duel all of you today since the time is short. We will only duel three Lancers."

"You actually want to keep your arsenal secret to us don't you?" Shun pointed out.

"You can say that." Aki said. "Now, pick three of you out, each person will duel each of us, the rest watch."

Due to the large number of Lancers, Reiji decided to separate the group into three and settle with rock paper scissors and after a short. Selena, Yuya and Shun won in each group.

"All right. Who do you want to duel with? Step near that person." Yugo asked.

Yuya quickly stood in front of Yusei, to the surprise of Yuzu, Gongenzaka, Sawatari and others.

"I want to test your skills." He reasoned.

Shun gave a glare at Yugo and walked near him. Yugo became slightly nervous, knowing what he had done to him.

"Shun!" Yuto said.

"Your Deck is weak against Xyz monsters." Shun told Yugo, ignoring Yuto.

"That leaves you with me, Selena." Aki talked to the indigo-haired girl.

"Well enough, I will not lose." She declared.

"Good." Yusei said. "Aki will duel first."

* * *

Selena put on the helmet. She used Yugo's D-Wheel this duel. Aki rode near her, she was in her red Riding Duel outfit, red helmet and her signature red D-Wheel.

"Ready?"

"Always." Selena roared the engine.

"Who gets to that corner first will take the first turn, got it?"

"Loud and clear."

"Alright. Aki and Selena, get ready." Yusei said.

"Three!"

The girls roared the engine.

"Two!"

They looked at the road in front of them.

 **Riding Duel…**

Their eyes got fired up with determination.

 **Acceleration!**

 **Izayoi Aki** : 4000 [5]

 **Selena** : 4000 [5]

* * *

The two female Duelists quickly sped up as fast as they could. Selena tried to reach the spot but with her advanced Riding Duel skills, Aki quickly took the first spot and took the first turn.

"I take the first turn." Aki declared. She then took out two cards. "I Normal Set 1 monster, then I set one card down. Turn end." Two cards materialized, both face-down, they then disappeared.

Selena became annoyed. "You just set down two cards like that?! You think it can stop me?!"

"Watashi no turn, draw!" She quickly started her turn.

"Same old Selena…" Yuzu sighed.

"She did upgrade her Deck back in LDS, but will it be enough to win Aki?" Sawatari wondered, considering Selena's simple beatdown playstyle.

"From my hand, Field Magic Fusion Renaissance Agency activate!" The large ground turned into a factory at midnight thanks to the card Selena just played.

"Its effect activates! I discard Re-Fusion in my hand to add Fusion from my Deck." Selena showed Aki the card before replacing it with Fusion. "And then I activate it!"

"I, using Moonlight Kaleido Chick and Purple Butterfly, Fusion!" The two female monsters materialized before joining in the colorful spiral above. "Butterfly with violet poison! Spiral into the moon's gravity and become a new power! Yūgō Shōkan! Come to me! Beautiful beast that dances in the moonlight! Moonlight Cat Dancer!" In just a short moment, Selena's signature monster had descended to the battleground of the Synchro Dimension, marking its first dance show in the crapsack land.

 **Moonlight Cat Dancer** DARK/Beast-Warrior/Fusion/Effect/LV7/ **2400** /2000

"Kaleido Chick's monster effect activates! I add back the used Fusion to my hand."

"She has upgraded her tactics." Yuto pointed out.

"Uh. Fusion Summon loses hand advantage really quick." Yuzu said.

"Battle! Cat Dancer, attack the Set card!" Cat Dancer lunged forward and used the crescent-shaped dagger to slash the card, forcing it to reveal itself. To Selena's surprise, multiple petals flew out and wrapped Cat Dancer.

 **Draining Rose** DARK/Plant/Effect/LV1/0/ **0**

 **Moonlight Cat Dancer** ATK 2400 - 0; Beast-Warrior - Plant

"Huh? Cat Dancer is binded?" Yuzu said.

"Must be because of Aki's Set card." Yuya speculated.

"Cat Dancer!" Selena yelled. "What did you do Aki?"

"Draining Rose's monster effect!" She revealed. "If this card is summoned by any means, it changes one of your monster to Plant-type and its ATK will become 0."

"Shit…"

"I have studied your Dueling style while I was at LDS. You just simply attack and attack repeatedly, while it will apply pressure to your opponent, any Duelists who can handle it will break that playstyle."

"In other words, you want to say you place a trap just for me to walk in?" Selena became angry. "How could you dare say that to me?! Who do you think I am!"

"Whatever you think it is, you cannot attack anymore, so now end your turn."

With no other choice, Selena had to comply. "Turn end… At this moment, Fusion Renaissance Agency's effect will activate! I add one Fusion material in my graveyard to my hand." She added back Kaleido Chick.

"Watashi no turn, draw!" Aki drew her card. _"Resurrection...? Good! It's here…"_

"Selena, from this turn I will break you, get ready!"

"Stop with all that bullshit! Just go on with your turn."

"So harsh. I Normal Summon Lonefire Blossom!"

 **Lonefire Blossom** FIRE/Plant/Effect/LV3/ **500** /1400

"What?! Lonefire Blossom?!" Selena gasped as she realized the card. It was the same card that Yuri had in his Deck. "You use that card?!"

"So you know the card, which means you know its effect too well. Lonefire Blossom's monster effect activates!" Right after that, Selena's Cat Dancer disappeared into dust.

"What the hell is that?!" Sawatari wondered.

"It's Lonefire Blossom's effect." Yusei explained. "It tributes a Plant-type monster to special summon 1 from the Deck."

"Plant-type monster… but not on your field?!" Ruri noted. "Wait, does it…?!"

"Yes, it can be from anywhere on the field. It's probably the most powerful card in Aki's Deck."

"Appear from my Deck, Weed!" Aki pulled out a card from her Deck and slapped it down to the blade. From next to her multiple grass monsters showed up.

 **Weed** EARTH/Effect/Tuner/LV2/1200/ **400**

" _Tuner monster…"_ Selena thought. "It's here?"

"It is. I, using the Level 3 Lonefire Blossom and Level 2 Weed, Tuning!" The green monsters turned into two Synchro rings and swept through Lonefire.

"Synchro Shōkan! Appear now! Level 5 Young Rose Dragon!" From the light a dragon with black skin, red eyes and rose-filled wings appeared. It seemed to be still pretty young compared to Black Rose.

 **Young Rose Dragon** DARK/Dragon/Synchro/Tuner/Effect/LV5/ **1600** /2400

"Its ATK is only 1600! Are you freaking kidding me Izayoi Aki?!" Selena nearly lost control of her temper upon seeing the weak status of Aki's Synchro monster.

"What matters is not the attack point of the monster, it's the ability it possesses! When it is Synchro Summoned, Young Rose Dragon gains ATK equal to half of the total ATKs of its materials!"

 **Young Rose Dragon** ATK 1600 - 2450

"Now it has 2450 ATK." Yuya said.

Aki pointed her hand at Selena, declaring attack.

"Battle! Young Rose Dragon, Selena direct attack! Rose Flare!" The young dragon charged energy to its mouth and blasted it at Selena, hitting her back. Selena gasped painfully, losing balance of her D-Wheel.

 **Selena** : 4000 - 1550 [3]

"Selena!" Yuzu yelled.

The former Academia soldier used her strength to steer the D-Wheel, narrowly avoiding crashing. She sighed in relief.

"Phew…" Yuzu breathed. "I thought she would have crashed."

"I nearly got crashed while Dueling Jack." Gongenzaka said. "It's not a big deal for a first-timer though."

Selena increased her speed to normal again, driving near Aki. "Dammit, you inflicted a lot of damage for me there, but I will not give up! I will beat you in my next turn!"

"I highly doubt it since you are losing control right now, but I will accept it. To end my turn, I will activate this card." Aki showed that card to Selena before sliding it to her Duel Disk.

"Field Magic, Black Garden activate!" The facility was suddenly filled with a lot of plant petals, the scenery became darker and more mysterious, sending shiver to anyone seeing it, especially the teenagers. Reira quickly hugged Reiji for comfort, trembling in fear.

"What the? What is this?" Ruri asked slightly nervously. She subconsciously held Yuto close. Shun gave her a dangerous glare, forcing her to let her boyfriend go.

"Everything is now… darker…" Sawatari muttered. Yusei and Yugo looked on pretty seriously.

"She's setting up the field." Yugo said.

"How can Selena get through this?" Yusei wondered.

Selena looked around the now darker field around her. It brought her back some good memories of her past, but right now was not the time to think about it.

" _This Field Magic must do something since Aki did not activate it earlier… I need to be careful…"_

"Watashi no turn. Draw!" Selena drew her card without any hesitation.

"From my hand, Magic Card Moon Light Perfume activate! Be reborn, Moonlight Cat Dancer!" The image of the card burst into smoke, and from it, Selena's ace monster flew out.

"La la la…" Yugo whispered. "It's begun to happen now…"

"At this moment!" Aki suddenly said.

"What?!"

"Field Magic, Black Garden's effect activates!" Four long petals flew from behind and wrapped Cat Dancer, making it yell in distress.

"Cat Dancer!" Selena called it futilely. "What is this another trick? The Field Magic?!"

"Right." Aki confirmed. "Black Garden halves the ATK of a Normal Summoned or Special Summoned monster right after the summon."

 **Moonlight Cat Dancer** ATK 2400 - 1200

"Then special summons a Rose Token to the opponent's field. In this case, my field." A big rose formed near Aki.

 **Rose Token** DARK/Plant/Token/LV2/ **800** /800

"Halving the ATK of one monster and filling her own field with monsters?" Dennis noted after inspecting this particular play.

"Aki did not use it when Young Rose Dragon is summoned, so it still has high ATK. Good strategy." Shun complimented.

"But what is the point of doing that if she knows how Selena's Deck works? That Token is in Attack Position!" Yuzu said.

" _No… This Field Magic affects both players… there must be a way for Aki to benefit from it, not just draining monster's ATK…"_ Reiji speculated.

"Either way, just watch it and know Aki's Dueling skill." Yugo spoke up.

Selena glanced at her cards in the Card Holder. One of them was Moonlight Blue Cat.

" _I can Fusion Summon Panther Dancer, but then Black Garden will halve its ATK, which is the time I will use it…"_

Feeling sure with her strategy, Selena activated one card. "I will use the card I added earlier! Magic Card Fusion activate! I, using Moonlight Cat Dancer on the field and Blue Cat in my hand, Fusion!" The spiral appeared again above Selena, absorbing the two sensual dancers.

"Beautiful beast that dances in the moonlight! Blue cat that prowls through the darkness! Spiral into the moon's gravity and become a new power! Yūgō Shōkan!"

"Come to me! Supple beast that dances through moonlit fields! Moonlight Panther Dancer!" Coming out of the Fusion spiral was Selena's tan-skin dancer with a pretty revealing purple suit to show its prowess and panther claws.

 **Moonlight Panther Dancer** DARK/Beast-Warrior/Fusion/Effect/LV8/ **2800** /2400

"Moonlight Panther Dancer… Selena's upgraded monster…" Dennis whispered low enough. _"Back in Academia it usually finished the Duel the turn it is summoned, let's see if this is the case…"_ By then he had smiled rather… maliciously.

"Of course I will activate Kaleido Chick's effect to add it back to my hand."

"But at this moment, Black Garden's effect activates again!" Aki reminded as many petals strangled Selena's advanced ace monster and another Rose Token appeared besides Aki.

 **Moonlight Panther Dancer** ATK 2800 - 1400

"I have anticipated that." Selena said. "From the graveyard, I banish Moonlight Purple Butterfly to activate its effect! I can special summon a Moonlight monster from my hand! Appear now, Moonlight Blue Cat!"

 **Moonlight Blue Cat** DARK/Beast-Warrior/Effect/LV4/ **1600** /1200

"But it will still be affected by my Field Magic!" Black Garden did its job again, robbing half of its strength away.

 **Moonlight Blue Cat** ATK 1600 - 800

"She now has two monsters, but they have low ATK thanks to Black Garden, what is she going to do?" Yuto wondered.

"If Blue Cat is Special Summoned, one other Moonlight monster will have its ATK doubled!" Selena explained as Panther Dancer broke free from the petals and growled into the full moon (caused by Field Magic).

 **Moonlight Panther Dancer** ATK 1400 - 2800

"Nice! Now Panther Dancer's ATK is back to normal again!" Yuya cheered.

"Panther Dancer can attack all monsters you control, and the first battle will not destroy them." Selena revealed.

"It's stronger than Cat Dancer!" Ruri said in awe.

"And then! Reverse Card open! Moonlight Charge! I banish Blue Cat and this turn Panther Dancer gains its original ATK!" Blue Cat turned into dust and the tan skin monster absorbed it.

 **Moonlight Panther Dancer** ATK 2800 - 4400

"ATK… 4400?!" Aki gasped.

"With this, the duel will be over!" Selena said. "Panther Dancer, attack Rose Token!" Her monster threw a black energy sphere at the Token, hurting it deeply but robbing it a chance to go out peacefully. The explosion hurled Aki and her D-Wheel forward but as a veteran D-Wheeler, she managed to get out without a scratch. Everyone except Selena who remained neutral sighed in relief.

 **Aki** : 4000 - 400 [2]

"This is the end! Panther Dancer, attack that Token again!" The monster fired another sphere, hitting the Token, and another explosion occurred.

"I win!" Selena said confidently.

"Foolish…" Aki's voice suddenly spoke up, causing Selena to sweat. She drove out of the smoke.

To Selena's shock, Aki's Token did not disappear, but Young Rose Dragon was, and…

 **Aki** : 400 [2]

"What the…?" She panicked. "What did you do?! How is that Rose Token still alive? Where is Young Rose-"

Selena realized something was shining on Aki's right.

"Is that…?"

"Right. Trap Card, Plant Conversion. I Release Young Rose Dragon to end the Battle Phase."

"That card…!" Selena hissed.

"Then I draw a card, and if it is a Plant-monster, I can special summon it or gain LP equal to its ATK." Aki drew her card and inspected it.

"Monster Card, Evil Thorn! I choose to gain LP!"

 **Aki** : 400 - 500 [3]

"So sad for you Selena, still that same predictable strategy." Aki told her. "It may work back in Academia, but it will surely not work in here."

"Shit… I set down one card and end my turn. During the End Phase, I add back Kaleido Chick thanks to Fusion Renaissance Agency. Also, the ATK increase to Panther Dancer ends…"

 **Moonlight Panther Dancer** ATK 4400 - 1400

" _Well, this is the first time…"_ Dennis thought. _"This girl Izayoi Aki is really strong. I need to inform the Professor later…"_

" _With the right setup, I can win this duel…"_ Aki thought as she touched the top card of her Deck.

"Watashi no TURN…" She drew her card. "Draw!"

"Black Garden's other effect activates!"

"Other effect?!" Selena gasped in shock.

"I destroy this card and two Rose Tokens!" The petals exploded, along with two Tokens.

"To bring back from the grave a monster whose ATK is exactly the same as the total ATKs of the Tokens!"

"What?! The only monster that fits the criteria is…"

"Right. Come out from the cemetery, Young Rose Dragon!"

"I, using the Level 2 Rose Token and Level 5 Young Rose Dragon, Tuning!"

"The cold flame envelops the entire word, be born in the cloak of black flower and bloom brightly on the Earth! Synchro Shōkan! Appear now, level 7, Black Rose Bloomer Dragon!"

 **Black Rose Bloomer Dragon** DARK/Dragon/Synchro/Effect/LV7/ **2400** /1800

"Aki's signature monster." Yugo muttered.

"Then I Normal Summon Evil Thorn."

 **Evil Thorn** DARK/Plant/Effect/LV1/ **100** /300

"Monster effect activates! I Release it to inflict 300 damage." The dark plant released seeds and flew towards Selena, hitting her. She grunted slightly.

 **Selena** : 1550 - 1250 [2]

"Then I special summon two Evil Thorns from my Deck, but they cannot activate their effects." Two more identical monsters showed up.

"It's here…" Yugo whispered.

"At this moment, Black Rose Bloomer Dragon's monster effect activates! If a monster with 2400 ATK or less is Special Summoned, everything on the field will be destroyed!"

"What?!" Selena said in shock. She quickly regained composure though. "But! Panther Dancer cannot be destroyed by my opponent's card effects!" With that, only Selena's Set card was destroyed.

"Doesn't matter, because two monsters besides Black Rose were destroyed, I can bring back Black Rose!" The destructive dragon rose up again. "And then half of Evil Thorns' ATK is added to it."

 **Black Rose Bloomer Dragon** ATK 2400 - 2450

"So what are you going to do now Aki?" Selena asked. "It only has 2450 ATK, not enough to win this duel like you warned!"

"No, it's now over." Aki reconfirmed.

"Huh?"

Aki quickly grabbed one card and activated it.

"Magic Card! Resurrection of the Dead!"

"The hell?!"

"I target one monster in my or your graveyard and special summon it."

"No way…" Selena's voice faded.

"And I will choose…" She closed her eyes before opening it fiercely, looking at Selena.

"Moonlight Cat Dancer in your graveyard!" Selena could only watch in despair as her signature monster was now in Aki's field.

"Black Rose Bloomer Dragon, attack Moonlight Panther Dancer! Black Rose Flare!" Aki's dragon fired a purple stream at the weakened Panther Dancer, destroying it.

 **Selena** : 1250 - 200 [2]

"This is the end! Moonlight Cat Dancer!"

" _Cat Dancer…"_ Selena sadly looked at her monster, as if telling it not to worry hurting her.

"Direct attack!" Cat Dancer blasted a stream at Selena's back. The Fusion user yelled painfully, the impact sent her flying off Yugo's D-Wheel.

In defeat.

 **Selena** : 200 - 0 [2]

* * *

 **Fanfic OC Cards**

 **Moonlight Charge**

Quick-Play Magic Card

Banish 1 "Moonlight" monster you control or in the GY, then target 1 other "Moonlight" monster you control; it gains ATK equal to the banished monster's original ATK, until the end of this turn.

 **Plant Conversion**

Quick-Play Magic Card

When an opponent's monster declares an attack on a Plant-type monster you control: Tribute 1 other monster you control; end the Battle Phase, then draw 1 card, and if it was a Level 4 or lower Plant-type monster, either gain LP equal to its ATK or Special Summon it, otherwise banish it.

 **Draining Rose**

DARK/Plant/Effect/LV1/0/0

When this card is Summoned: You can target 1 monster your opponent controls: until the end of this turn. that monster becomes Plant-type, also its ATK becomes 0, also your opponent takes no further damage. You can banish this card from your GY, then target 1 monster your opponent controls; it becomes Plant-type until the end of this turn. You can only use each effect of "Draining Rose" once per turn, and only once that turn.

 **Young Rose Dragon**

DARK/Dragon/Synchro/Tuner/Effect/LV5/1600/2400

1 Tuner + 1+ non-Tuner Plant monsters

If this card is Synchro Summoned: it gains ATK equal to half of the total ATKs of the monsters used to Synchro Summon it. Once per Chain, during your opponent's Main Phase, you can (Quick Effect): Immediately after this effect resolves, Synchro Summon using this card you control.

* * *

 **That's it! That wraps the end of the first duel of the Synchro Dimension in this story!**

 **The first part of this story is the reason why this chapter is pretty late. I think of how many people would fake smiles to get over the stress of life. And now we got more information on Yugo's state, and if you can find out before I reveal, it will be… tragic.**

 **And more YutoxRuri and YuyaxYuzu moments to all of you guys!**

 **To make it clear to all of you: Even though Selena has Kaleido Chick, she** _ **did not have Lio Dancer in her Extra Deck yet!**_ **Here is a rule in this story: The power of Ray allows the Bracelet Girls to have upgraded forms or counterparts of their main monster, if the situation calls it, and the same applies to the Dragon Boys. Selena had not gone through any situations that needs Lio Dancer yet, also I wanna save it from the awful anime treatment it had.**

* * *

 **Next Chapter Preview**

 **Riding Duel Training - Part 2**

The training continues.

 **This is matrixnis, out!**


	43. Scale 43

**Welcome back everyone!**

 **Now Yugo and Yusei will take turn to duel this chapter!**

 **I thought a lot before releasing this chapter since this will be a big divergence from the main source material which I think many of you will not like it, but it was needed in this story. Hope you guys can enjoy this change.**

 **It seems you guys are pretty concerned about Yugo. Well, all I can say is: what happened to him is… heartbreaking, but not to the point of immediate death (like, he dies right after the Synchro arc, no, not that). I want to have a realistic picture of what would happen if that society in City really existed, and with that, what happened to Yugo is just a small part, which you will know later in the story.**

 **One thing before reading: If you read the Jack vs Gongenzaka duel, you would notice Jack had used Effect Veiler. The reason why will be hinted in this chapter.**

 **Enjoy!**

* * *

 **Chapter 43: Riding Duel Training - Part 2**

* * *

"Selena!" Yuzu yelled the name of the indigo-haired girl in distress. She and everyone else immediately ran to her spot.

Aki quickly stopped her D-Wheel and helped Selena get off her ride under which she got stuck.

"Are you okay Selena?" She asked in concern.

"I'm okay-ah!" She groaned due to the pain. "Ah… I don't think I can walk normally without pain for a while…"

"Is Selena fine Aki-san?" Yuzu asked Aki.

"It's not that bad really." Aki said after inspecting Selena's wound. "Selena will be fine soon."

"Dammit…" Selena breathed. "My Dueling usually works."

"But way too simple." Yugo pointed out. "Aki specializes in field control, you focus too much on just attacking so you lost this duel Selena."

"But you did not really have to use Cat Dancer to finish me off! It's painful!" She protested.

"I'm sorry, but I want it to be artistic. The real life here is harsh, unlike what you probably have learned in Academia."

"So how am I going to improve it? My Deck only focuses on attacking!"

"That's the question you have to find out by yourself. Now rest." Yusei said.

The girls helped Selena up and brought her near the wall to allow her to rest while Yugo dragged his D-Wheel.

"So I am next." Shun said. "Which D-Wheel am I going to use?"

"Use mine." Yusei told him. Shun got in and drove near the starting line, the rest of the Lancers went back to their spectator spot.

"It's my turn to duel everyone." Yugo said while he tightened his helmet.

"Do your best Yugo! Try to win!" Yusei and Aki wished him luck.

"I will!" Yugo returned. He then looked behind where Shun was being received good luck from Yuto and Ruri. Even though Shun smiled at them, when his two closed ones walked away, he became serious and hate-filled again.

"He seems very serious, there's no smile when he's dueling."

"He's always that way after the war. I got it when I was inside Yuto." Yuya told him.

"Considering what happened to his comrades." Sawatari said cryptically and Yugo knew what it meant.

"I know…" Yugo muttered. "He will be angry at me."

 **####################################**

Shun eyed at Yugo, carving his deeds into his heart: his attack on Yuto, being indirectly responsible for Shark being carded. The boy with the same face as his best friend, he never thought someone like that would do something bad to him. That thought creeped him a lot.

After that fateful day, he always dueled seriously, foe, or friend, or comrades, or reluctant ones like Reiji or Yugo. He would not accept help from them no matter how good they really were, he got tired of it.

Reiji came near to him before he knew it.

"Reiji?!" He said, surprised. "What do you want?" He asked harshly.

"You are still working alone aren't you? Even after you got back Yuto and Ruri."

"Don't forget you hurt Shark and Ruri!" He spat back.

"You carded my men, you should consider yourself lucky I still recruited you. Yuya was right, I should not have included you as a Lancer with that attitude of yours. Even your sister fears you."

"You shut up! You are just as horrible as I am!"

"You admit it now? That's the price for f***ing with the wrong people." Reiji mocked, Shun could only kept himself quiet. "But now we are Lancers now, learn to put it aside. Do not work alone anymore, work as a group, for your closed ones and your comrades. The two cards I created for you, they were not that simple, they hold my trust for you…"

"And Yuya's trust as well…"

Reiji walked off, but not before giving him one last glance.

"Try to use my cards to good use."

 **####################################**

Yugo drove near the starting line, eyeing Shun.

"You ready?" He asked after a long and awkward silence.

"Ready to punish you." Shun replied, in a threatening tone. "For what you did to Shark."

"Fine to me… I am already a dead man anyway…"

"Alright listen up!" Aki spoke up, noticing the hostile air between the two. "Same rule as before, who crosses that corner first will take the first turn. Even though this is a training duel, don't hesitate to use as much skill as possible, got it?"

"Loud and clear." Shun said.

"Good. The countdown will start now, get ready!"

"Three…!" Aki said loudly.

"Two…!"

 **Riding Duel…**

Both Yugo and Shun yelled.

 **Acceleration!**

 **Yugo** : 4000 [5]

 **Kurosaki Shun** : 4000 [5]

* * *

While everyone thought Shun was an angry individual, he was also smart and a pretty quick learner. He drove past Yugo the moment he roared the D-Wheel and he nearly got through the corner, Yugo's advanced Riding Duel skill helped him get through Shun at the last moment.

"Yoss!" Yugo smiled happily. "I will take the first turn! From my hand, I Normal Summon the Tuner monster, Speedroid Red-Eyed Dice!" The six-sided dice flew out.

 **Speedroid Den-den Daiko** WIND/Machine/Tuner/Effect/LV1/ **100** /100

"And then Magic Card Speedrift activate!" A toy card flew out of the image of the card. "I special summon Speedroid Bamboo Horse from my Deck!" A toy horse with big blue tail appeared.

 **Speedroid Bamboo Horse** WIND/Machine/Effect/LV4/ **1100** /1100

" _Already?!"_ Shun thought.

"I, using the Level 4 Speedroid Bamboo Horse and Level 1 Red-Eyed Dice, Tuning!" The dice turned into a Synchro ring which swept through the horse, turning it into four bright stars.

"Shining body nurtured by both wings, spread them and leap into the sky! Synchro Shōkan! Appear! Level 5! High-Speedroid Machago Ita!" A new monster flew out from the stream behind Yugo. It was a purple hagoita with teal green base and with two shuttlecocks flying besides it, making it like a hoverboard.

 **High-Speedroid Machago Ita** WIND/Machine/Effect/LV5/ **2000** /1000

"A pathetic Level 5 monster with 2000 ATK?" Shun voiced his disapproval of Yugo's seemingly misplay.

"I give you a chance to take it back." Yugo countered. "During your turn, I can Release this card to increase the Levels of all monsters on the field by 1."

"What?! Increase my monster's Levels?!" Shun became shocked, but he quickly regained composure upon realizing what Yugo might do. "I got it… you good bastard… so if I summon the Level 4 Vanishing Lanius, you will release Machago Ita to change its Level to 5, preventing me from Xyz Summon…"

"Hoh… Yugo wants to disrupt Shun's play? Not a bad idea." Ruri complimented.

"He may be foolish, but he is a good Duelist. Pretty much the standard rule to survive in Commons." Aki said.

"I set down one card, turn end!" Yugo finished his turn, one card materialized face-down near Yugo before disappearing.

"Right on the first turn Yugo causes Kurosaki a lot of trouble." Yuya said. "Not bad for someone who had defeated me."

"Ore no turn, draw!" Shun started his first turn. "Never thought a petty lookalike of my best friend can be this smart." He mocked, Yugo kept quiet while Yuto and Ruri became uneasy. "Magic Card, Allure of Darkness activate! I draw two cards." Shun drew two cards and inspected them.

" _Last Strix… and… WHAT?"_ Shun's face paled when he saw the other card. Reiji quickly noticed, as did Yugo.

" _You have drawn that card…?"_

Shun wondered what to do. He could have banished it with Allure of Darkness' effect, but Reiji's words for some reason messed him up. The harsh, but true words about his current mindset.

There was another one in his starting hand as well, but its effects were too good to get rid of…

He wanted to get rid of them at any cost, but for some reason, he couldn't…

Noticing Yugo eyeing him, Shun quickly put it back to the Card Holder and took another card.

"Allure of Darkness requires me to banish 1 DARK monster." Shun took it to the small hole on Yusei's D-Wheel which placed banished cards.

" _Necro Vulture…"_ Yugo managed to glance the card name.

"Yugo, you shut down my main strategy in one Synchro monster, but unfortunately for you, I have a second plan. From my hand, I Normal Summon Raid Raptors - Last Strix!"

"WHAT?!" Yuto and Ruri gasped.

"Are you…?" Yuto wondered as the small bird appeared.

 **Raid Raptors - Last Strix** DARK/Bird Beast/Effect/LV1/ **100** /100

" _Level 1 monster… Are you going to summon a Rank 1 monster…?"_ Yugo guessed in his mind. No one could be stupid to call out a weak monster for some reason, and his duel along with Ruri showed that Rank 1 monsters can be terrifying as well.

Chances were already slim for him, and Yugo could not let this go free.

"Machago Ita's monster effect activates! I Release it!" The monster combusted. "And Last Strix's Level becomes 2!" The resulting dust flew over to Last Strix, increasing its Level.

 **Raid Raptors - Last Strix** LV1 - 2

"How's that Kurosaki?!" Yugo boasted.

"Just what I have expected." Shun smiled slightly, causing Yugo to sweat.

"What?"

"The power of Last Strix does not include its Level, but its effects! Like Machago Ita, I can Release it!" Last Strix disappeared.

"But this case, I can Special Summon a "Raid Raptors" Xyz monster straight from the Extra Deck!"

"The hell?!" Yugo gasped in shock, so as the rest of the Lancers, even Reiji widened his eyes. Only Yuto, Ruri remained calm.

"Come out, Wings of Rebellion! Raid Raptors - Rise Falcon!" A fiery sphere appeared and broke, revealing Shun's signature monster which dyed itself in fire.

 **Raid Raptors - Rise Falcon** DARK/Bird Beast/Xyz/Effect/R4/ **100** /2000

"But its effects are negated and it cannot attack."

"Eh?" Yuzu said. "Rise Falcon cannot attack or activate its effects, and it only has 100 ATK, what is Kurosaki doing?"

"It's simple, he will replace it with another monster." Ruri explained.

Yugo eyed carefully at the monster and Shun, knowing what Shun would do soon since he had researched about Xyz and Fusion the day before the Lancers went to City.

"And then from my hand, Rank-Up-Magic Skip Force activate! Using Rise Falcon as a material, Overlay!" Rise Falcon turned into purple energy and crashed down to the Overlay Network opened below.

"Prideful falcon, spread your wings dyed in the blood of heroes! Advance through the path of revolution! Rank-Up Xyz Change! Come forth! Rank 6! Raid Raptors - Revolution Falcon!" The flame rose up from the portal and a large bird flapped its wings, clearing it out and paving its own way to the field.

 **Raid Raptors - Revolution Falcon** WIND/Bird Beast/Xyz/Effect/R6/ **2000** /3000

"Battle! Revolution Falcon, direct attack that son of a bitch! Revolutional Air Raid!" It flew up high and dropped down bombs, exploding the area near Yugo. He had to dodge pretty much all of it and the debris.

" _Kurosaki is always deadly in Dueling… one thing to remember…"_

 **Yugo** : 4000 - 2000 [2]

"With this card, your Clear Wing will just be a piece of trash! I set down two cards, turn end!"

"This is bad for Yugo-kun… Revolution Falcon's effect will render Clear Wing useless since it does not have Level while Clear Wing only works on Level 5 or higher." Dennis said.

"There is still a chance to change the table for him, but that will only happen if he has the right monster." Yusei noted.

"So everything is depended on this draw."

Yugo touched his Deck, hoping for luck to come to him.

"Ore no turn." Yugo prepared. "Draw!"

He looked at it, nearly jotting up in happiness. _"Kitaka…"_

"From my hand, I Normal Summon Speedroid Tri-Eyed Dice!" The pyramid toy appeared.

 **Speedroid Tri-Eyed Dice** WIND/Machine/Tuner/Effect/LV3/ **300** /1500

"And then, High Speedroid Machago Ita's graveyard effect activates!"

"Graveyard effect?!" Shun said in surprise.

"It special summons itself if I only control a "Speedroid" Tuner." Yugo explained as the destroyed Synchro monster resurrected itself near his D-Wheel. "I, using the Level 5 High Speedroid Machago Ita and Level 3 Speedroid Tri-Eyed Dice, Tuning!"

"Spread those wings shining with scared light. Strike down your enemies with that radiance! Synchro Shōkan!" A large stream of light erupted and from it, a beautiful dragon with glass-like wings flew out.

"Come forth! Level 8! Crystal Wing Synchro Dragon!"

 **Crystal Wing Synchro Dragon** WIND/Dragon/Synchro/Effect/LV8/ **3000** /2500

"Crystal Wing Synchro Dragon?!" Shun became shocked.

Yugo quickly declared. "Battle! Crystal Wing, attack Raid Raptors - Revolution Falcon!"

"Not gonna happen! I activate Revolution Falcon's monster effect! Crystal Wing's ATK and DEF becomes 0!"

"It's useless! Crystal Wing Synchro Dragon's monster effect activates!" Yugo countered, raising his hand at his evolved dragon.

"What?!"

"It negates a monster's effects and destroy it!" The white dragon used its wing to cover itself from the flame as it flew at the falcon and crashed to it. Revolution Falcon was gone in a blast.

"Shit!"

"This effect does not care whether that monster has Level or not! And then Crystal Wing gains its ATK until the end of this turn!"

 **Crystal Wing Synchro Dragon** ATK 3000 - 5000

"ATK… 5000?!" Shun exclaimed.

"With this attack power, you cannot escape defeat! Go now my dragon! Reppu no… Crystallos Edge!"

Shun looked at his hand, desperately trying to find a way to prevent the loss. He finally got one, but he did not want to use it, for it was another Reiji's card for him.

He swore he would never use it, but looking at the practical side, it would help him, that was why he kept it even though he hoped it would never appear on his hand.

" _To hell with it…"_

 **BOOOOMMMMMM!**

…

…

…

The smoke covered Kurosaki Shun from view, everyone patiently looked at it, waiting to see if anything would happen.

RIFFFFFFF!

"What?!" Yugo said in shock when he saw Shun coming out of the smoke with a new monster to boot!

A bird with a pretty heavy armor in front of it, shaped like a shield.

 **Shun** : 4000 - 1000 [1]

"During damage calculation, I special summoned Raid Raptors - Shield Vulture."

 **Raid Raptors - Shield Vulture** DARK/Bird Beast/Effect/LV4/ **0** /0

"This trick…!"

"It then copies Revolution Falcon's ATK in the grave."

 **Raid Raptors - Shield Vulture** ATK 0 - 2000

"Phewww…" Yuto and Ruri sighed in relief while the rest nearly froze from this sudden move from both Duelists.

"Dammit…" Yugo gritted his teeth. "Still survive? But I still have a play to make! Quick-Play Magic Speedroid Gain activate! I gain LP equal to the amount you just took!"

 **Yugo** : 2000 - 5000 [1]

"Turn end… At this moment, Crystal Wing Synchro Dragon's ATK returns to normal."

 **Crystal Wing Synchro Dragon** ATK 5000 - 3000

"Yugo has 5000 LP while Shun only has 1000." Yuto said.

"Please don't lose… brother…" Ruri preyed in her mind, her hands grasping her jeans tightly.

"Ore no turn, draw!" Shun drew his next card, but to his another shock, it was the second card Akaba Reiji created for him. And this time Yugo did not leave this expression aside.

"What the hell is wrong with you Kurosaki? You may be right to hate me, but you seem to be unable to use that card you've just drawn, just like the last one."

"Shut up! I don't need help from you or anyone else! I only trust myself, Yuto and Ruri!"

"Shun…" Yuto and Ruri whispered sadly. "You cannot change your nature…"

"I change Shield Vulture to Defense Position, turn end." Having nothing else to counter Crystal Wing for now, Kurosaki resolved to defend himself.

"It will not work that well! Ore no turn, draw!"

" _He seemed shocked to see that card earlier, just the when he used Allure of Darkness… what is happening to him?"_

"Whatever is bothering you Kurosaki, you need to solve it." Yugo gave Shun advice and to his prediction, he did not listen, only giving him a disgusting glare.

"Maybe winning this Duel will help. Magic Card, Hidden Shot activate! I banish Speedroid Bamboo Horse from my graveyard, and Shield Vulture will be destroyed!" A beam went to Shun's only monster.

"Foolish! Counter Trap, Raptor's Gust activate! Hidden Shot's activation will be negated and it will be destroyed!" Shun's Trap absorbed the beam and neutralized it.

"If so, from my hand, Equip Magic Meteor Strike activate! I equip it on Crystal Wing Synchro Dragon!" The dragon got charged with energy, making it glow in red. "This allows my dragon to inflict piercing damage!"

Sawatari exclaimed. "Piercing damage?! The difference between Crystal Wing's ATK and Shield Vulture's DEF is… 3000!"

"Right, this battle will solve the duel! Go now Crystal Wing!" Yugo's monster flew up high again, ready for another deadly attack.

"Reppu no Crystallos Edge!" The dragon made several dashed, leaving white trail on its way before colliding with the defenseless vulture, destroying it.

Shun swallowed the drool in his throat before activating his Set card. "Trap Card, Defense Draw activate! Battle damage becomes 0 and I draw a card!"

"Nani?!" Yugo gasped as the barrier protected Shun from the ensuring blast. "You are really lucky… However…"

Yugo slowed down to face Shun.

"You now lost all of your monsters, there is no Magic or Trap cards to reserve anymore, but you have two cards in your hand that you did not use."

"Shut up!" Shun dismissed Yugo.

"Tell me what is wrong with those two cards?" The foolish kid did not give up that easy.

"Stop that persistent shit! We are in a Duel!"

"I will not stop until you tell me why!"

Seeing Yugo's strong stubbornness, Shun resigned. "Those are the two cards Reiji created for me."

"Reiji… those cards?!"

"Remember Shield Vulture? That was his handiwork as well."

In an instant, Yugo grasped it all.

"You don't want to use them because of Reiji right?" Yugo took Shun's silence as a yes.

"Well Kurosaki Shun, I do not judge you for hating him for what he did to you, but don't let it blind you."

He then told Shun his own story. "When Rin was kidnapped, I worked alone, not trusting Yusei and Aki's help just like you and that leaded to some fatal mistakes… I am really sorry for what happened to Ryoga…"

Shun remained silent, holding his hatred back in respect.

"Yuto did tell me what you did after Ruri was gone, and from my experience, you still seem to only trust yourself. They are even afraid of you, I can see it. You need to open more Kurosaki. Please trust your comrades and people who trust you."

"Why should I listen to you?"

"Because…" Yugo stuttered. He looked down at his chest, the spot where the disease got into his body, dooming his fate.

"I want to… fix my mistakes before I cannot anymore…" His voice became incoherent, his eyes became heavy and sad.

Yusei and Aki looked at Yugo in concern, wondering what bothered him. They had a hunch it was more severe than just losing Rin.

"I made a mistake of not trusting my friends and… I paid a worst price possible… I lost my best friend Rin… And I don't want to see someone else stepping on that same footstep. You. You surely don't want to lose Yuto and Ruri do you?"

"So yeah, you can hate me all you want, you can hate Reiji and others all you want, but you can still become better, you can still have that chance. Think about Yuto, Ruri and many more comrades you have in Xyz. You are still not too far gone, so don't waste it. For the greater good."

Shun reprocessed what Yugo said, finding what that bastard said was…

" _Right… But how…?"_

But could he return to who he was before?

After all of the atrocities he had done?

"Yugo is right brother!" Ruri's voice suddenly spoke up from his D-Wheel. Shun looked at the screen and was surprised to find Ruri there.

"Ruri?!"

"Yugo is right brother. I know you become like this because I was gone, and I am really sorry for that. But now you have me back, you don't need to shut people out. I know this is hard considering the war, but please, I want to see my kind, caring and friendly brother I got to know since I was born!"

At this Shun's mind froze completely.

" _Ruri…"_

"You heard your sister right?" Yuto this time took the voiceover. "You have your sister now, you have me now, you don't need to be cold and distrustful anymore. And if you feel troubled, we are here to help!"

" _Yuto…"_

Shun realized it all. He thought he could sacrifice his conscience to bring back Ruri, and that would be fine. But he was wrong, he got her back, but she got scared of him, the now him. Was the price too much? Was destroying his old self to save Ruri worth it, if she did not want to see him again?

" _What kind of brother have I become…?"_

The question repeated itself in Shun's mind, like a bell of his conscience.

With each ring, Shun felt himself drowning deeper to the dark void.

He felt deeper and deeper, his mind shut, his ears closed.

Because he had failed…

To be a good person…

…

…

" _No…"_

A voice…?

" _You still have a chance…"_

Female…

Was he…

Hallucinating?

" _To be better to your sister…"_

…

" _To your friends…"_

…

" _And to yourself…"_

…

The voice disappeared…

…

…

…

Shun closed his eyes. He chose it.

He decided.

He decided…

"Maybe what you said was right… I need to change now…"

Yugo smiled, as did Yuto and Ruri. Unknown to everyone else, her bracelet shone and her eyes lit, briefly.

"Course I do not forget it, but I may…"

"May?"

"I may… forgive you Yugo."

"You… forgive me?!" Yugo asked in shock, not expecting that word to come out of Shun.

"You did not directly cause what happened to Ryoga, I blamed it before, but now I see it through, I decide to forgive you."

"Kurosaki…"

"But don't forget there is still a duel going on, and I do not play it easy during Duels!"

"Uh, bring it on Kurosaki!" Yugo's excitement reminded him of Yuma. Instead of the usual hatred, Shun briefly wondered what happened to Yuma that made him betray Resistance.

"Very well. Ore no turn, draw!" Shun drew his card. He glanced at those two cards and sighed deeply, making a deal with himself.

He took them and revealed them. "I, using the Scale 3 Raid Raptors - Hunting Strix and Scale 5 Raid Raptors - Reinforcement Strix, Pendulum Scale Setting!" The colorful word "PENDULUM" appeared on the Duel Disk and from behind Shun, two transparent blue pillars rose up, then two birds flew up from each one.

"With this, multiple Level 4 monsters can be summoned at the same time!"

"Pendulum Shōkan! Flock and appear!" Two monsters flew down and took form.

"Raid Raptors - Avenge Vulture! And, Singing Lanius!"

 **Raid Raptors - Avenge Vulture** DARK/Bird Beast/Effect/LV4/ **1700** /100

 **Raid Raptors - Singing Lanius** DARK/Bird Beast/Effect/LV4/ **100** /1800

"I, using the Level 4 Raid Raptors - Avenge Vulture and Singing Lanius, Overlay!" Two mechanical birds turned into purple energy and joined in the Overlay Network opened above, a stream of light shot out from it.

"Xyz Shōkan! Appear now Rank 4!" Rose up from the Network was a new bird to everyone but Yuto and Ruri. Its armor was white and teal, the tails were sharp and white, its teal wings also had sharp white feathers and attached to its belly was a long and big blade.

"Raid Raptors - Blade Burner Falcon!"

 **Raid Raptors - Blade Burner Falcon** DARK/Bird Beast/Xyz/Effect/R4/ **1000** /1000

"ATK 1000?!" Yugo wondered.

"Raid Raptors - Reinforcement Strix's Pendulum effect allows me to draw 1 card, also Blade Burner Falcon's monster effect activates! Since you have 3000 or more LP than I have, it gains 3000 ATK!" The falcon bathed itself in flame, gathering the power of the crying souls in the cemetery.

"3000 ATK?!" Yugo gasped in surprise.

"Thanks for increasing your LP earlier, I would not have pulled this off if you hadn't." Shun smirked.

Yugo grunted, but his move was not over. "Don't you forget Crystal Wing Synchro Dragon's monster effect Shun?" The dragon shone its crystal wings again.

"Course I remember! Reinforcement Strix's other effect, I return Rise Falcon back to the Extra Deck to negate its activation!" The ghostly image of Rise Falcon appeared and strangled Yugo's Crystal Wing.

"Shit!" Yugo cursed as the sparks on his dragon's wings dimmed.

 **Raid Raptors - Blade Burner Falcon** ATK 1000 - 4000

Shun then touched his Deck and drew one card from it.

"It's here! Raid Raptors - Hunting Strix's Pendulum effect activates!" Shun declared, the monster lit up. "I discard Vanishing Lanius to set a Rank-Up-Magic from my Deck!"

"Setting a Rank-Up-Magic straight from the Deck?!" Yuya exclaimed. "Reiji upgraded his Deck really well!" Reiji remained silent.

"Rank-Up-Magic Soul Shave Force activate! I pay half of my LP…"

 **Shun** : 1000 - 500 [0]

"To resurrect Revolution Falcon!" The purple portal opened in front of Shun and from it the armored bird flew up. "Then I, using Revolution Falcon as a material, Overlay!" It quickly flew into the portal again, causing a huge explosion.

"Dauntless falcon. Hoist up the flame of anger, and become the flash of light that sears the land to ash! Rank-Up Xyz Change!"

"Soar now, Rank 8! Raid Raptors - Satellite Cannon Falcon!"

 **Raid Raptors - Satellite Cannon Falcon** DARK/Bird Beast/Xyz/Effect/R8/ **3000** /2000

"ATK 3000! Same as Crystal Wing Synchro Dragon!" Yuzu thought out loud since she never saw it before.

"Satellite Cannon Falcon's monster effect activates! By detaching an Overlay Unit, Crystal Wing loses 800 ATK for each Raid Raptors monster in my graveyard!" The falcon absorbed its only Overlay Unit, then it guided its cannons straight at Yugo's white dragon.

"Cannon Drain!" It fired, multiple green streams hit Crystal Wing. The dragon cried out in pain as it lost power.

 **Crystal Wing Synchro Dragon** ATK 3000 - 2200 - 1400 - 600

"Crystal Wing!" Yugo yelled in dismay. "However, even if you attack with those two monsters, Speedroid Tri-Eyed Dice can still negate one attack!"

"Finally, Skip Force's graveyard effect activates!"

"Rank-Up-Magic's graveyard effect you said?!"

"I banish it along with Last Strix! And be reborn!"

"Revolution Falcon!" Shun's Rank 6 monster returned again, forming his winning move.

"Three… monsters on his field now!" Yugo muttered.

" _It's over…"_

"Battle! Satellite Cannon Falcon, attack Crystal Wing Synchro Dragon!"

"Eternal Avenge!" The cannons fired.

"Speedroid Tri-Eyed Dice's effect! I banish it to negate this attack!" The ghostly form of the pyramid appeared, hitting the streams.

"How about this next attack! Revolution Falcon, attack Crystal Wing!" The flame it emitted burned the dragon greatly.

 **Crystal Wing Synchro Dragon** ATK 600 - 0

Unable to withstand any further, the dragon exploded.

 **Yugo** : 5000 - 3000 [0]

"It will end now! Blade Burner Falcon, Yugo direct attack!" The falcon swung its sharp wing and flew to the sky, eyeing the white D-Wheeler.

"Blaze Shot!" It charged down and created a powerful wind blast by charging its belly blade.

Yugo got hit badly, groaning painfully.

He had lost the duel…

 **Yugo** : 3000 - 0 [0]

* * *

Everyone kept silent, fazed by the strong and emotional Duel. Shun and Yugo stopped near them, receiving compliments from the Lancers.

"Good duel Yugo! Kurosaki!" Yuya told them.

"Uh." They replied.

"This is more than expected! Good job both of you!" Reiji complimented. Yugo nodded while Shun simply shrugged off, still feeling uneasy to look directly at him.

Yusei quickly dragged Yugo off and whispered.

"What did you say about "disease" back there Yugo? Did you have something bad with your health?"

Yugo became slightly nervous before coming up with an answer.

"Nothing… I just exaggerated… that's all… Don't tell anyone about it."

Yusei eyed suspiciously at him for a moment before deciding to go along with it, returning to Shun to take the D-Wheel to duel.

"Okay Yuya, this is the final practice duel of today. Take Aki's D-Wheel and get ready, I will tune mine up and catch up later."

"Uh. Give all of us your best Yusei!" He did a thumbs-up and smiled, to which Yusei returned with his own smile as well.

Yuzu, Gongenzaka, Sawatari and Dennis helped Yuya get ready.

"All right, this is your Duel Yuya. Duel with all of your best!" Yuzu told her best friend.

"Show them the power of Lancers!" Sawatari said.

"I am counting on you Yuya. All of us are." Gongenzaka said to Yuya.

"Better be as entertaining as possible Yuya!" Dennis told him.

"I will do my best everyone. Thanks for the wishing!" Yuya answered. He noticed Reiji approaching him.

"Reiji?"

"This is just the practice Duel Yuya so don't put too much pressure on yourself, but be sure to play seriously. Show the Synchro citizens the power of Lancers." He gave him advice with a neutral face.

Yuya paused, reprocessing what Reiji said before telling him. "Uh!"

 **####################################**

Yuya got to the starting line first, Yusei went there a little bit after.

"So, are you ready, Sakaki Yuya?"

"I am ready, you?"

"As always. Do your best."

"Uh, and wish you luck Yusei-san!"

"Both of us."

"Okay two D-Wheelers, get ready!" Yugo took the countdown spot this time.

"Three!"

"Two!"

"One!"

 **Riding Duel…**

 **Acceleration!**

 **Fudo Yusei** : 4000 [5]

 **Sakaki Yuya** : 4000 [5]

* * *

The two Duelists raced each other to take the first turn. With his superior skill, Yusei got through the corner quicker, not that Yuya minded, he wanted to see his Dueling skills anyway.

"I take the first turn." Yusei declared as he grabbed a card. "I Normal Set 1 monster."

"Then I set down two cards, turn end."

" _He only set down one monster and two cards… Just like what Aki-san did earlier…"_ Yuya inspected. _"Those two Set cards might be troublesome since Yusei-san knows he cannot repeat the same tactic…"_

"Ore no turn, draw!" Yuya started his turn.

"I, using the Scale 1 Dragonvein Magician and Scale 8 Dragonpit Magician, Pendulum Scale Setting!" The word "PENDULUM" appeared on the blade, then two transparent tubes rose up behind Yuya, up which the two magicians also rose.

"With this, I can summon Level 2 to 7 monsters at the same time! Swing! Pendulum of the Soul! Draw an arc across the nether! Pendulum Shōkan!"

"Appear now, my monsters!" Two monster descended.

"Entermate Hammer Mammo! And the wonderful dragon with dichromatic eyes! Odd-Eyes Pendulum Dragon!"

 **Entermate Hammer Mammo** EARTH/Beast/Effect/LV6/ **2600** /1800

 **Odd-Eyes Pendulum Dragon** DARK/Dragon/Pendulum/Effect/LV7/Scale 4/ **2500** /2000

" _With Hammer Mammo's effect, all of Magic and Trap cards Yusei-san controls will be returned to his hand. Yoss!"_ Yuya thought. He then declared the Battle Phase.

"Battle! Entermate Hammer Mammo, attack the Set card!" The teal elephant threw its trunk forward.

"Also Hammer Mammo's effect activates! Return all cards in your backrow to your hand Yusei-san!" Yusei took them back without much hesitation, as if this move was planned in his mind. The trunk then slapped the card and forced it to reveal itself. It was a dark teal dragon-like beast with white wings; seeing the trunk was about to hit him, it quickly used one of its wings to intercept the attack, losing it in the process but it was safe.

 **Shield Wing** WIND/Bird Beast/Effect/LV2/0/ **900**

"What? Why was it not destroyed?"

"Shield Wing's monster effect!" Yusei explained. "It cannot be destroyed by battle twice per turn."

"Tsk… you expected me to attack…?"

"Don't worry. This is just a trick I sometimes use. There will be more things to come."

"Now if Odd-Eyes attacks it will not matter…" Yuya muttered. "Turn end."

"This is just like what Aki did to me earlier!" Selena noted. "Breaking my play with one Set monster."

"Hmph… City loves to surprise foreigner this way?" Sawatari joked.

"Ore no turn, draw!" Yusei drew his card.

" _Good…!"_ He quickly used it.

"Magic Card, Tuning activate!" As soon as the image of the card appeared, which consisted of a lyre being played by a person, Yusei's Deck automatically shuffled and a card popped out after Yusei clicked something on his Duel Disk. He took it out and revealed it.

"I add Tuner monster Junk Synchron to my hand, then I send the top card of my Deck to my graveyard."

"And then Junk Synchron Summon!" Yusei's trusty orange Tuner made its entrance by throwing its left punch.

 **Junk Synchron** DARK/Warrior/Tuner/Effect/LV3/ **1300** /500

"Tuner monster… Synchro…" Yuya muttered to himself.

"3 plus 2 equals 5…" Yuzu said. "Level 5 Synchro monster…"

"I, using the Level 2 Shield Wing and Level 3 Junk Synchron, Tuning!" Junk Synchron started its engine on its back, transforming itself into three Synchro rings and it then flew through the beast, turning it into two stars. A bright light erupted.

"Synchro Shōkan! Appear now Level 5! Junk Speeder!" A machine monster flew out. It had white armor with bluish purple lines, it had two long spikes, one is attached to its left arm on behind and the other one is attached to the front part of its right knee.

 **Junk Speeder** WIND/Warrior/Synchro/Effect/LV5/ **1800** /1000

"Junk Speeder's monster effect activates! I Special Summon Steam Synchron from my Deck in Defense Position!" Appeared next to the white armored machine was a black head of a steam train.

 **Steam Synchron** WATER/Machine/Tuner/Effect/LV3/600/ **800**

"I set down the two cards you spun into my hand earlier." Yusei re-set those cards.

"Battle! Junk Speeder, attack Entermate Hammer Mammo!" Yusei declared, shocking everyone besides Yugo and Aki. The machine monster charged forward, ready to punch the elephant, who prepared to counter.

"At this moment, Junk Speeder's effect! Its ATK is doubled!"

"What?!"

 **Junk Speeder** ATK 1800 - 3600

"Speed Fist!" The monster punched the elephant hard in its face, making it explode. Yuya was forced to steer sideways to avoid the blast, nearly hitting the barrier.

 **Yuya** : 4000 - 3000 [2]

"Yuya!" Yuzu yelled.

"Turn end. At this moment, Junk Speeder's ATK returns to normal." Yusei concluded his turn.

 **Junk Speeder** ATK 3600 - 1800

"One small tip for you Sakaki Yuya: if you return my Magic and Trap cards to my hand, you should immediately beat me right on that turn."

"I know it well." Yuya confidently answered. "But then the Duel would not be interesting, which I never intend to."

"Interesting?"

"My Dueling always aims to be entertaining to everyone as much as possible. That is the Dueling my father created and I proudly inherited."

"So you want to say you were holding back during your turn?!" Yusei said in surprise, he thought he was the only person who could do that in this Duel.

"Hm… Duel to be entertaining… I don't think it is possible in this place though." He sadly said.

"You will never know if you never try. Ore no turn." Yuya touched his Deck. "Draw!"

" _A newcomer like you do not understand…"_

Yuya put the drawn card to the Card Holder and grabbed another one. "Dragonpit Magician's Pendulum Effect activates!" The white-haired magician raised its staff. "I discard a Pendulum monster to destroy a Magic/Trap card!"

"What?" Yusei panicked in his mind.

"There are two Magic/Trap cards on Yusei's field now." Selena said.

"Those cards may be troublesome, destroying either one of them will determine the Duel." Shun noted.

Yuya looked at the two Set cards, then at Yusei who remained calm and collected. _"Yusei-san set those cards again last turn… which means those two cards must be important… which one should I destroy?"_

After some brainstorming, Yuya came up with a decision. "I destroy the card on the left!" The magician received the order, it immediately charged energy to the staff and released it at the left card. The card flipped itself up and was destroyed.

Yuya took a look at the card. "Scrap Iron Scarecrow… negate one attack and set it down again… such a dangerous card…" He smiled.

"And then, I discard another Pendulum monster to activate Dragonvein Magician's Pendulum Effect!" The monster raised its two-edged spear up.

"Junk Speeder will be destroyed!" It threw the spear at the white monster.

"At this moment, Steam Synchron's monster effect activates!"

"Nani?!" Yuya gasped as Steam Synchron released steam.

"I can perform a Synchro Summon during your turn!"

"Synchro Summon during my turn?!"

"Clustering wishes will become a new shining star! With the power dyed in the color of hope, become the path its light shines upon! Synchro Shōkan! Appear now, Level 8! Stardust Dragon Starlight!" From the powerful light, Yusei's signature monster flew upwards.

 **Stardust Dragon Starlight** WIND/Dragon/Synchro/Effect/LV8/ **2500** /2000

At the sight of the beautiful and shining dragon, the Lancers could only look in complete awe.

"Beautiful…" Yuzu whispered.

"So this is Yusei's ace monster…" Ruri…

"Stardust Dragon Starlight…" Yuto…

"How alluring…" Shun, of all people…

"This is your ace monster Yusei-san?" Asked Yuya.

"Yep. You have the honor of being the first Duelist outside of City to make me proudly show my dragon to. You should be proud."

Yuya chuckled. "Well, I would gladly take it as a compliment. Your dragon will add more heat to this entertaining Duel!"

"Uhm. Bring it on Sakaki Yuya."

"Uh! Nobledragon Dragon's graveyard effect activates!"

"Graveyard you said?!"

"I reduce Odd-Eyes' Level by 3 and Special Summon it!" A portal opened, allowing a female magician in a white longcoat with a white staff with a "U" front to fly up.

 **Odd-Eyes Pendulum Dragon** LV7 - 4

 **Nobledragon Magician** DARK/Magician/Pendulum/Tuner/Effect/LV3/Scale 5/ **700** /1400

"And now I, using the Level 4 Odd-Eyes Pendulum Dragon and Level 3 Nobledragon Magician, Tuning!"

 **Odd-Eyes Meteorburst Dragon** FIRE/Dragon/Synchro/Effect/LV7/ **2500** /2000

"So that was it?! You countered my Synchro monster with your own Synchro monster?!"

"Yeah, but I will not stop here! Finally, I, using the existing Scales, Pendulum Shōkan! Reborn from the Extra Deck!" A swirl crashed down, forming a monster.

"Odd-Eyes Pendulum Dragon!" Yuya's signature dragon had appeared again.

"Yoss! Yuya now has three monsters!" Gongenzaka said excitedly. "Go now Yuya!"

"Battle! Odd-Eyes Pendulum Dragon, attack Stardust Dragon Starlight!"

"Eh?! They have the same ATK!" Yuzu said, surprised.

"No… Odd-Eyes is a Pendulum monster, which means he can bring it back while Yusei can't." Aki corrected her. "Crashing Entertainment…"

Odd-Eyes jumped up, trying to hit heads with Stardust but it dodged; the former then flipped its tail at Stardust's face, hitting it. In return, the white dragon grabbed the tail and yanked it, throwing Odd-Eyes up before trading blows with it. The boxing match continued until a spark appeared from Stardust's wings, causing a mutual disintegration to both dragons.

"Odd-Eyes Meteorburst Dragon, Yusei-san direct attack!" Fireballs appeared behind Meteorburst and flew at Yusei. He grunted in pain.

 **Yusei** : 4000 - 1500 [2]

"Yossa! Yuya had inflicted 2500 damage to Yusei!" Sawatari cheered. "Good job Yuya!"

"He is really good, but Yusei would not give up that easy." Yugo told him.

"I set down one card, turn end." Yuya finished his turn.

"Ore no turn!" Yusei drew his card. He quickly revealed it.

"Card Breaker's hand effects! I send Scrap-Iron Statue to the grave…" The card flipped up before a hole appeared in the center. "To special summon it." A warrior wielding a staff with a huge green curled hand at the front flew out.

 **Card Breaker** LIGHT/Warrior/Effect/LV2/ **100** /900

"Scrap-Iron Statue's effect! Being sent to the graveyard allows me to bring back Junk Synchron from the grave!" The orange Tuner monster returned in Defense Position.

"And then Magic Card, One for One activate! I send Bolt Hedgehog to the graveyard to special summon a Level 1 monster from my Deck!"

"I will choose Tuning Supporter!" Yusei quickly slapped the card he pulled out to the blade. It was a human-shaped toyish monster with a pan on its head and a yellow scarf over its mouth.

 **Tuning Supporter** LIGHT/Machine/Effect/LV1/ **100** /300

"Finally, since there is a Tuner on my field, Bolt Hedgehog resurrects itself!" Coming out from the ground was an orange hedgehog with many large screws on its back.

 **Bolt Hedgehog** EARTH/Machine/Effect/LV2/ **800** /800

"In a moment, Yusei-san summons four monsters at the same time…" Yuya said. "It's here?"

"Level 1 Tuning Supporter, Level 2 Bolt Hedgehog, Card Breaker and Level 3 Junk Synchron, Tuning!" Junk Synchron pulled the string of the booster on its back, starting the engine. It quickly turned into three rings and swept through the remaining monsters.

"Gathering fighting souls will awaken the raging wicked god! Become the path its light shines upon! Synchro Shōkan! Obliterate, Junk Destroyer!" A new large monster powered itself up by stretching its muscle. It wore a black armor with white belly part, it had four hands, four long white metal spikes shaped like an "X" on its back.

 **Junk Destroyer** EARTH/Warrior/Synchro/Effect/LV8/ **2600** /2500

"When this card is Synchro Summoned, I can destroy cards you control up to the number of non-Tuners used to summon it!"

"What?!"

"Tidal Energy!" Water erupted and flooded Yuya's field, destroying his Pendulum Scales and Meteorburst.

"Shit!"

"No! Yuya no longer has monsters to protect him!" Dennis said.

"And then, with Tuning Supporter being used for a Synchro Summon, I can draw one card." Yusei inspected it, and he nearly grasped at the sight of it.

" _This card…!"_

Yusei put it to the Card Holder. "Battle! Junk Destroyer, Sakaki Yuya direct attack!"

"Destroy Knuckle!" It charged its hand and released it into four energy balls. They flew at Yuya, who nervously looked at it.

"Yuya!" Yuya's friends yelled.

"Continuous Trap activate! Entermate Pinch Helper!" The only card in his field rose up, forming a barrier around Yuya to block the energy balls. "It negates the direct attack and then I special summon Entermate Lebellman from my Deck with effects negated!" A cute monster with a bell over its head and two lollipops on its hands appeared in front of Yuya after the barrier faded.

 **Entermate Lebellman** LIGHT/Angel/Pendulum/Effect/LV6/100/ **2600**

"Hm… if so, Stardust Dragon Starlight, attack Entermate Lebellman! Shooting Sonic!" The dragon fired a stream, raining down Lebellman before destroying it.

"Phew…" Yuzu, Gongenzaka, Sawatari and Dennis sighed in relief.

"My turn is finished here." Yusei concluded his turn. "If not for that Continuous Trap, you would have lost then."

"Nah… everything to set the finishing stage is here!" Yuya countered. He waved his hands up the sky and declared with a smile and Yuzu smiled before she even knew it. The Entertainment Duelist had returned.

"The real fun has really just begun!"

"Yeah!" Yuzu cheered subconsciously. "His finishing move! Finish this duel Yuya!"

She quickly noticed everyone looking at her, the boys chuckling, the girls hiding their smiles. Yuzu blushed slightly before sighing.

"Stop…"

"Watashi no…" Yuya touched the top card of his Deck.

"Saigo no TURN!" The card shone up as it is drawn, leaving sparkles.

"It's here! Equip Magic, Odd-Eyes Resurrection activate! Since my field does not have monsters, I target Odd-Eyes Absolute Dragon in my graveyard and special summon it!" Yuya's Synchro monster was reborn.

"And then I draw one card!"

"After that I activate the powerful Magic Card called Amazing Pendulum! With its effects I add Dragonvein and Dragonpit Magician from the Extra Deck to my hand!" The Extra Deck slot opened, allowing Yuya to take his needed cards.

"Yoss! Yuya got back his Scales!" Sawatari said excitedly.

"I, using the Scale 1 Dragonvein Magician and Scale 8 Dragonpit Magician, Pendulum Scale Setting!"

"With this, I can summon Level 2 to 7 monsters at the same time!"

"Swing! Pendulum of the Soul! Draw an arc across the nether! Pendulum Shōkan!"

"Reborn from the Extra Deck now!" Three colorful swirls flew down and turned into monsters. "Entermate Lebellman! Nobledragon Magician! And finally the star of the show! Odd-Eyes Pendulum Dragon!"

"It's here! The power of Pendulum!" Gongenzaka said.

"Even after they are destroyed, they can be summoned to the field again!" Yuzu said with a smile.

"Entermate Lebellman's effect activates! I reduce its Level to 2!"

 **Entermate Lebellman** LV6 - 2

"To increase Nobledragon's Level by the change!"

 **Nobledragon Magician** LV3 - 7

"He has two Level 7 monsters now!" Yuto noted.

"Xyz!" Ruri said, Shun smiled at the scene from behind

"And now I, using the Level 7 Nobledragon Magician and Odd-Eyes Pendulum Dragon, Overlay!" The Overlay Network shot out a stream of light as soon as the two monsters with the same high level got in.

"O Dragon of perfection, come out of the cold ice surrounding you and let out a roar of prideful mighty! Xyz Shōkan!"

"Appear to the stage now! Rank 7! Odd-Eyes Absolute Dragon!"

 **Odd-Eyes Absolute Dragon** WATER/Dragon/Xyz/Effect/LV7/ **2800** /2500

"Battle!" Yuya declared Battle Phase. "Entermate Lebellman, attack Junk Destroyer!" This shocked Yusei, Aki and Yugo of course.

"You crazy Yuya?!" Yugo got shocked by his friend's apparent stupidity. "Junk Destroyer has higher ATK!"

"No Yuto." Ruri corrected him.

"He has another plan." Shun told Yuto.

"At this moment, I activate Odd-Eyes Absolute Dragon's monster effect!" The ice dragon absorbed one of its Overlay Units and created a frost barrier right in front of Lebellman and Junk Destroyer. "It negates this attack."

"Then I can special summon Odd-Eyes Pendulum Dragon that I just detached!" The frost barrier flew over to Yuya's field, forming his signature dragon.

"Odd-Eyes Pendulum Dragon, attack Stardust Dragon Starlight!" The two dragons clashed again, disappearing after another flashy and lengthy fight involving burst streams, physical attacks and a mutual headbutt.

"Odd-Eyes Absolute Dragon, attack Junk Destroyer!"

 **Yusei** : 600 - 400 [1]

"This is the end! Odd-Eyes Meteorburst Dragon, Fudo Yusei direct attack!" The fireballs hit near Yusei, turning into colorful fireworks, blinding everyone from view.

"I win!" Yuya confidently said.

"Not really." Yusei suddenly said, calmly, then a bell ringing sound was heard, following by multiple circular waves. In front of him was a monster with yellow weights.

"What the? What is that monster?!"

"Battle Fader summons itself when you declare a direct attack. It then ends the Battle Phase."

 **Battle Fader** DARK/Demon/Effect/LV1/ **0** /0

"That monster is…" Yugo gasped.

" _Jack…"_ Aki thought in her mind.

"How's that Yuya?" Yusei said mockingly at Yuya. "It seems you are no longer be able to end the show anymore. End your turn Yuya."

"Tsk… Turn end…" He reluctantly finished his turn.

"Haizz… the graceful end was derailed by a weak monster… ironic…" Shun murmured. "Call it reality, Sakaki Yuya."

"Don't ruin the mood more brother." Ruri whispered to Shun's ear.

"Ore no turn." Yusei declared. _"This draw will decide the Duel. My Deck, please answer me…"_

He drew…

…

…

" _Kitaka…"_

"Magic Card, Junk Swing activate! I return three Synchro monster from my graveyard to the Extra Deck." Yusei put back his dragon, Junk Speeder and Junk Destroyer. "To add two "Synchron" monsters to my hand."

He revealed it, shocking everyone, including Yuya.

"Pendulum monsters?!"

Yusei quickly put them to action. "I, using the Scale 0 Draw Synchron and Scale 5 Evolve Synchron, Pendulum Scale Setting!" The word "PENDULUM" appeared on his Duel Disk and from behind, two monster flew up. One had its headwear made by cards and the other had a transparent body, they looked quite similar to Yusei's Synchron monsters.

"With this, I can summon many Level 1 to 4 monsters at the same time."

"But before that, Evolve Synchron's Pendulum Effect activates! I Release Battle Fader…" The bell monster disintegrated. "To add back Junk Synchron and negate Odd-Eyes Absolute Dragon's effects!" Evolve Synchron fired two beams, one at Yusei's Duel Disk and one at Yuya's ice dragon, taking its color away.

"Absolute Dragon!" Yuya yelled in dismay.

"I Normal Summon Junk Synchron! With its effects, I special summon Tuning Supporter back." In an instant, Yusei brought back two of his used monsters.

"For a Synchro Summon, Tuning Supporter can be treated as a Level 2 monster. I, using the Level 2 Tuning Supporter and Level 3 Junk Synchron, Tuning!"

"Gathering stars will call upon a new force! Become the path its light shines upon! Synchro Shōkan! Show yourself, Junk Warrior!"

 **Junk Warrior** DARK/Warrior/Synchro/Effect/LV5/ **2300** /1300

"Tuning Supporter and Draw Synchron's effects allows me to draw 1 card for each!" Yusei drew two cards.

"And now, I, using the existing Scales, Pendulum Shōkan! Appear now!" Yusei slapped down his newly drawn cards, two monster appeared. One was a jet engine with an eye in the middle and the other was a dark-skinned warrior who wore a revealing blue armor and a large reddish shield on its right arm.

"Jet Synchron! And Gauntlet Warrior!"

 **Jet Synchron** FIRE/Machine/Tuner/Effect/LV1/ **500** /0

 **Gauntlet Warrior** EARTH/Warrior/Effect/LV3/ **400** /1600

"Level 3 Gauntlet Warrior and Level 1 Jet Synchron, Tuning!"

"Synchro Shōkan! Appear now Level 4! Arm's Aid!"

 **Arm's Aid** LIGHT/Machine/Synchro/Effect/LV4/ **1800** /1200

"Arm's Aid effect! I equip it to Junk Warrior and it gains 1000 ATK!" The arm flew to Junk Warrior's right arm and equipped itself to it, replacing the bulky one it originally had.

 **Junk Warrior** ATK 2300 - 3300

"It has 3300 ATK!" Yuya noted.

"Not over yet!"

"What?"

"Draw Synchron's another Pendulum Effect activates! I banish Junk Synchron and Junk Warrior gains 200 ATK for each of its Levels in this turn!" Junk Synchron appeared as a ghost before flying inside Junk Warrior, boosting it.

 **Junk Warrior** ATK 3300 - 3900

"Junk Warrior now has 3900 ATK, it can destroy any monster Yuya has!" Shun noted.

"But this will not be enough to win him the duel." Reiji pointed out. Aki and Yugo glanced at them, and at each other, knowing the duel was already over.

"Battle! Junk Warrior, attack Odd-Eyes Meteorburst Dragon! Scarp Fist!"

"You're not attacking Lebellman?" Yuya wondered as Yusei's machine warrior delivered a punched to Meteorburst's face, destroying it.

"Not over yet! I send Entermate Pinch Helper to halve the damage!" Yuya declared as he quickly slid his trap to the graveyard.

 **Yuya** : 3000 - 2300 [0]

"With Meteorburst is now gone, I can freely activate monster effects during the Battle Phase again! Arm's Aid effects!"

"Equip monster effects?!"

"It inflicts damage equal to the destroyed monster's ATK!"

"No way!" Yuya yelled as Junk Warrior lunged its equipped arm forward, creating flame from it and bathing Yuya with fire, causing him to lose the Duel.

 **Yuya** : 2300 - 0 [0]

* * *

Yuya stopped his D-Wheel, his head looking down emotionlessly. Yusei stopped near him, wondering what Yuya felt right now.

"Huh…" He said.

"I did not expect you won Yusei-san…"

Yuya looked up at Yusei, smiling.

"But that was a very good duel Yusei-san!"

"Uh! You did really well too Yuya." He complimented back.

The two Duelists shared a handshake, solidifying their friendship. Everyone smiled.

"The duel was really good." Sawatari said.

"Even though Yuya had lost..." Yuzu…

"But both he and Yusei connected us in this Duel." Gongenzaka gave a compliment. "And they now know each other as friends after this Duel."

"That's the real goal of Dueling." Dennis finished. Everyone nodded. They then ran out to meet the Duelists and give them countless smiles and nice words.

" _Duel to connect people… and to understand people…"_ Shun thought, sadly, remembering his friend, the betrayer.

" _That was always your goal… Yuma…"_

"Eh? What's wrong Shun?" Yuto asked, noticing Shun's bad mood.

"Uh… nothing." He lied.

"Come on, let's go with others."

"Okay." And Yuto and Shun and Ruri went to share the fun too.

* * *

 **Fanfic OC Cards**

 **Raid Raptors - Shield Lanius**

DARK/Bird Beast/Effect/LV4/0/0

When your opponent declares an attack: You can Special Summon this card from your hand in Attack Position, and if you do, it cannot be destroyed by battle this turn. If this card is Special Summoned: You can make its ATK become equal to the ATK of 1 of your "Raid Raptors" monster in your GY. You can Release this card: you cannot Special Summon monsters from your Extra Deck for the rest of this turn, also add 2 Level 4 "Raid Raptors" monsters with the same name from your Deck to your hand, then gain LP equal to their total ATKs. You can only use each effect of "Raid Raptors - Shield Lanius" once per turn.

 **Raid Raptors - Hunting Strix**

DARK/Bird Beast/Pendulum/Effect/LV4/Scale 3/1200/1600

 **Pendulum Effect:** You can discard 1 "Raid Raptors" monster; Set 1 "Rank-Up-Magic" that specifically lists "Raid Raptors" in its text directly from your Deck, also you cannot Summon monsters for the rest of this turn, except with the effect of that "Rank-Up-Magic" card. It can be activated the turn it was Set. If this card is destroyed by an opponent's card effect: You can Special Summon this card. You can only use each Pendulum effect of "Raid Raptors - Reinforcement Strix" once per turn.

 **Monster Effect:** When this card is Normal or Special Summoned: You can target 1 "Raid Raptors" monster in your GY; gain LP equal to its original ATK. You can only use each effect of "Raid Raptors - Reinforcement Strix" once per turn. If this card Special Summoned by its own effect is sent to the GY, banish it.

 **Raid Raptors - Reinforcement Strix**

WIND/Bird Beast/Pendulum/Effect/LV4/Scale 5/1600/1300

 **Pendulum Effect:** When your opponent activates a monster effect: You can shuffle 1 "Raid Raptors" monster from your GY to your Deck; negate the activation. If you Xyz Summon a "Raid Raptors" Xyz monster: You can draw 1 card. If this card is destroyed by an opponent's card effect: You can Special Summon this card. You can only use each Pendulum effect of "Raid Raptors - Reinforcement Strix" once per turn.

 **Monster Effect:** If this card is destroyed (by battle or an opponent's card effect); You can Set 1 "Raptor's" Counter Trap Card directly from your Deck, then banish this card. You can only use this effect of "Raid Raptors - Reinforcement Strix" once per Duel.

 **Odd-Eyes Resurrection**

(Equip Magic Card)

If you control no monsters: Target 1 "Odd-Eyes" monster in your GY; Special Summon it, and if you do, equip this card to it, then draw 1 card.

 **Junk Swing**

(Magic Card)

Return 3 Synchro monsters from your GY to your Extra Deck; add 2 "Synchron" Pendulum monsters from your Deck to your hand, also you cannot Special Summon monsters from the Extra Deck for the rest of this turn, expect Synchro monsters.

 **Draw Synchron**

WIND/Machine/Pendulum/Effect/LV1/0/0

 **Pendulum Effect** : If you Synchro Summon a Synchro monster: Draw 1 card. You can banish 1 "Synchron" monster from your GY, then target 1 monster you control; the second target gains ATK equal to the first target's Levels x200, until the end of this turn. You can only use each Pendulum Effect of "Draw Synchron" once per turn.

 **Monster Effect** : If this card is used as Synchro material not for a Synchro Summon of a "Warrior", Machine-type or WIND Dragon-type Synchro monsters, banish it.

 **Evolve Synchron**

WIND/Machine/Pendulum/Effect/LV1/0/0

 **Pendulum Effect** : You can Release 1 monster you control, then target 1 "Synchron" Tuner monster in your GY and 1 monster your opponent controls; add the first target to your hand, also the second target has its effects negated until the end of this turn. You can only use this effect of "Evolve Synchron" once per turn.

 **Monster Effect** : If this card is used as Synchro material not for a Synchro Summon of a "Warrior", Machine-type or WIND Dragon-type Synchro monsters, banish it.

* * *

 **Phew! Finally done!**

 **Initially I wanted to add in more scenes but I thought just these two duels were enough. Sorry if this chapter was a little sloppy.**

 **I always want Yugo to duel Xyz users more in the anime because nearly his entire playstyle (besides Crystal Wing) is dead against them, and you guessed, he lost against Shun; this is one of the clichés I want to deconstruct in this story. And a bad news for Yuya, this is just a beginning for his own…**

 **Also: Shun DID NOT have Ultimate Falcon or Final Fortress Falcon at this point yet.**

* * *

 **Next Chapter Preview**

 **The Tuning Snow and the Surging Altar**

A new day for Rin as she begins to get used to staying in You Show Duel School in the Fusion Dimension. The highlight…

 **This is matrixnis, out!**


	44. Scale 44

**Hello everyone! Welcome back to my story!**

 **First off, really sorry for the really late update. This is the first time I have completely lost any motivation to write anything down. Writer's block hit me like a plague and I lost an entire month doing nearly nothing to continue this story.**

 **But now I am back, and I promise you I will update this story again. And I know getting back after a month will affect my writing a lot, please understand it. I will need a while to fully recover it.**

 **Good news is, we should be getting to the Friendship Cup soon, maybe only after two more chapters.**

 **Hope you enjoy reading this chapter!**

* * *

 **Chapter 44: The Tuning Snow and the Surging Altar**

* * *

The sun has begun to rise on the West, the usual quietness, the humid air…

All of these would be peaceful if not for the foreign interference: the Juvenile Officers and Academia.

They were roaming discreetly in Domino City in search for two of Academia's escaping students, Duel Disks ready, flashlights on, Armoredogs, Hound Dogs and Gear Soldiers activated.

A flashlight pointed at a dark corner and briefly swept through another, nearly shocking a boy hiding in there. Someone quickly grabbed his mouth to keep him quiet.

"Quiet Abe." That person whispered.

He eyed at that person, a girl, same rank as him. She put her finger over her mouth.

Many more footstep and machine erring sounds were heard, deepening the fear even further.

At last, they were gone, for a while…

…

"Come on, let's go, Abe, Hana."

Yusho, who was hiding with the two students, signaled them to run. They quickly ran as fast as they could, keeping quiet at the same time. They were practically following behind the chasers until they crossed a corner, where they ran like hell to the near end.

They stopped at the church. Yusho knocked the door four times, seconds later it opened, revealing Ryo and another student.

"Nani?! Kaiser… Ryo…?!" The students murmured in complete shock. They did not expect to see Hell Kaiser Ryo, alive and well, while they thought Yuri had carded them.

"Leave it later. Get in!" Ryo told them. Yusho and the two students quickly got in and Kaiser closed the door immediately.

It was done, another former Academia students rescue…

 **#######################################**

The water flew down from the shower, hitting Rin's shoulders. She expected it to be very painful when it hit the deep scars like after every day of torture back in the prison, but strange…

Nothing happened, the pain was gone…

Rin swept the mirror, clearing the steam covering it and inspected her shoulders.

The scars were gone.

She did not believe it.

Rin checked again, and not only her shoulders were clear of scars, but her entire upper body and lower body as well, nearly no traces of the whip left.

" _What is happening…?"_

She swore this never happened to her before ever since she was born. Everytime she got hurt and bled, the wound took days to heal like anyone but in just a day after she got into You Show Duel School, her scars were no longer there. And she knew she must have got more scars in her body with that repetitive torture.

Was there any supernatural forces involved?

Or enhancement drugs that Academia injected to her body?

Either way, she did not know herself anymore.

One thing to keep in mind: Keep it a secret to anyone else.

Rin got dressed, dried her hair and got out. She was too drown in her thoughts that she forgot a very fainted voice in her mind that said:

" _Former…"_

* * *

Yusho stood outside the room, looking through the mirror as the students were being received medication and consolation from their fellow escapees. A lot of people in Academia were really bad and sadistic like his former friend like Leo, BB, Sanders, Yuri, Asuka's brother and many more, they did not deserve to live; but inside that wrapped and sickened hellhole, there were still innocent people. Adolescents, kids, the kind of people who were misguided by a bad influence who were needlessly dragged along with those sick sociopaths, only to die either by the hands of those people, Resistance or even their own reluctant comrades. These kids did not deserve to die no matter how bad they could be, which was why Yusho rescued them and taught them to learn to appreciate the more beautiful side of Dueling, unlike what Academia sucked into their brains.

Of course it was not easy to do that, he needed to get them through the grief of being associated with Academia and protect them from outside forces as long as he could. Unless the war was over, these kids could not go home, lest they would be killed by Academia or Resistance or any organizations aimed to destroy Academia.

Yusho heard footsteps coming towards him; he turned to see Rin.

"Hi Rin."

"Hello Yusho-sensei. What are you doing?"

"Uh… nothing, just checking my students."

Rin looked into the room and realized those students were not in here the day before. The moment she saw their faces though, her face became pale.

"What the… can't be!"

"What's wrong Rin?" Yusho quickly noticed her concern.

"They… are…" She murmured.

The students noticed someone watching them and looked outside. The moment they saw Rin however, they became cringed and nervous.

"What's wrong, Abe?" One students asked him.

Abe nervously answered. "That… girl…" He pointed at Rin.

"Ah, that girl is Rin. Yusho-sensei, Asuka-san and Ryo-san rescued her several days ago."

"Can't… can't be…" Hana muttered. "The girl we saw… the prisoner…"

The students quickly deduced that Abe and Hana probably got a hand on messing with Rin. Outside Rin clenched her fists tightly, boiling with anger.

"Don't worry, she would not do that. We did not even know Academia captured her until Yusho-sensei told us so." One student tried to reassure Abe and Hana, which naturally, did not work.

Rin eyed Abe and Hana intently. Those two students feared that she would punish them, and a part of Rin would like to do that for all she had endured under the hands of Sanders and them. What sickened her was not only Sanders enjoyed torturing her, some Obelisk Blue did as well and even helped that son of a bitch. Abe and Hana were two of them, those students would take turn beating her day by day. Now for some reason, they feared Academia and escaped?

That temptation was very great, it might release all of her anxiety somehow.

Rin grabbed the knock on the door harshly.

Everyone in the room cringed.

Yusho instantly grabbed her hand, stopping her.

Rin gave a dangerous glare at Yusho. She could ignore his warning and beat those two to death if she wanted.

Her eyes briefly flashed blue.

A pain came on her stomach.

That pain forced her back to her senses. Rin became shocked, wondering what had happened to her that she…

" _What the…"_

Rin slightly panted, calming herself down. As much as she wished, Rin could not do it, not if people were around.

She turned away and left.

"Rin, stop. You don't have to." Yusho held her back by her shoulders.

"I shouldn't be here any longer." She cryptically said. She shrugged her shoulders to let go of Yusho's hand and left.

"I'll be working on it."

Yusho saw Rin walking away before coming in the room. He crouched down in front of the scared Abe and Hana.

"I see you two are afraid of her."

The two students hesitantly nodded.

Yusho sighed lightly. "I don't know how to say, but I just want to tell you that you don't have to. You don't need to do that."

"But we were in Academia-"

"Were. You were. Right?" Yusho said, empathized on the word "were". "You hate Academia for what they did, which is why you escaped. In here I, no, we are going to help you."

"How?" Abe asked. "How can you help us?"

"Uh…" Yusho trailed off for a bit before coming with a reply. "For now, we will help you to uh… accept it."

"Accept?"

"Yeah, accept your past. To move on from the guilt you need to accept yourself and move on. You will learn Dueling can be really fun and entertaining."

"Can Dueling be fun? I never learnt it in Academia. They only told us Dueling is only used for war, every duel is life or death."

"Well guess what, they taught you the wrong way. Those people destroyed the good image of Dueling to harm people, that is not the way Dueling is supposed to be. If you learn the good side of Dueling, you will become better and you can move on from your mistakes. People like you deserve to be better."

Asuka got into the room before everyone knew it and continued. "Of course it is easy to say, it is hard to do. But I was in Academia before, I know my crimes will not be easily forgiven even though I never got into the battlefield, but don't worry, we will help you to get over that grief, okay? We promise that."

Abe and Hana reprocessed what Yusho and Asuka said, before replying. "Thanks…"

* * *

Ryo went downstairs to the basement, where the Dimension Travel machine was being built. Several students were building it along with Rin. He could see the determination to return to her hometown on Rin's face, she completely focused on it, and even though her face and clothes became dirty from the oil and dirt, she did not care. The incident with the escapees earlier did not even bother her, Rin was really that focused.

"Oi, you got dirt in your clothes Rin, you should stop."

"Yeah, a girl should not be working this hard, we boys got this." Another boy told Rin.

"Nah, I got used to it back in City, this is nothing new."

"Such a strong girl I see." Ryo spoke up and walked in. Everyone turned to see him.

"Oh, Ryo-san! Hi." Rin said.

"Hello Rin. You really want to go home soon I can see."

"Yep. I cannot wait."

"Let me help." Ryo requested.

"Oh no, you don't need to Ryo-san, we can handle things here well. You were supposed to teach them History right?"

"I'm free at the moment, and I cannot let my mind and body free like this. Gotta keep them busy you know."

"Uh… ok…" Rin relented. Everyone worked again.

"So Rin." The boy asked her after 30 minutes.

"Yeah?"

"How do you know mechanics? Not every girls in this world can put their delicate hands in these kind of things."

Rin wiped the sweats in her head. "Well, my friend Yugo and I worked on a special motorcycle when we were young and I sometimes asked my older friends to show me some more mechanic stuff."

"You seem pretty good for a 16-year-old girl." Ryo complimented.

"Life in City is harsh for me so I had to learn sooner than others." She explained. "I don't know if maturing this soon is good or bad."

"It depends on your definition. Is life in there that bad?"

"Of course. The society is divided into two sections of people: Tops and Commons. The Tops' population only consist of 1% in City but they have 99% of money and wealth. The reverse applies to us Commons."

"The heck?!" A boy gasped in shock. "What kind of that society is that?! I do not believe it exists!"

"You never live in City, that's why. We are looked down every day, every hour, and that is just nothing compared to the street crimes."

"Street crimes…" Ryo whispered.

"Rape, drug abuse, HIV, organized crime organizations and so on." Nearly everyone cringed at this.

"No way…"

"Yeah." Rin bluntly said. "There is one more thing, probably the darkest, but I will not say."

"Probably except Standard, all of the other dimensions are screwed up in one way or another." Ryo concluded.

"There must be a root for what happened. Do you know what is it Ryo-san, Rin?"

"I wish." Rin answered. She sometimes wondered why there were four dimensions but she did not know.

"Akaba Leo probably has something with this. He started the war after all." Ryo speculated.

The mood became down, no one dared to say anything. They remained working on the machine with little improvement, they spent the entire morning and they only accelerated the building little. Machine parts broke down, incorrect bolts and several more.

"Damn... this machine is hard." Rin breathed.

"It's not easy to construct one you know, especially with the limited tools we have. Those two card creating machines you see on your left, we took a month to do. We worked on this as soon as they were complete but we only got about 40% so far."

"Asuka and I usually go outside to buy foods and machinery stuffs but it is not that easy when Academia and the Juvenile Officers are around."

"How can you buy food though?" Rin wondered. For a self-forming resistance-like school like this it would be hard to manage finance.

Instead of an immediate answer, Ryo and other students chuckled.

"What?"

"I don't know if I should say or not."

"Stop hiding, I don't like it." Rin argued.

"Okay impatient girl…" Ryo joked. "We hack credit cards. I used to be interested in computer before joining Academia."

Rin stared at him, wide-eyed, in shock.

"Then I got interested as well and I begged him to teach me." One student bragged, earning a head smack from Ryo.

Rin continued to be fazed, shocked by how cunning these people were.

"It's been pretty successful so far, the government of Domino City and Academia did not manage to trace back to here yet." Ryo revealed.

She sighed in defeat. "Okay… I hope one day you will be arrested."

"That's not the only one. We also work part-time in several shops around this city with fake identities, also help if Academia sweeps the city."

"Damn…" Rin muttered. "Back in my hometown this would earn you several years tearing calenders."

"This is war, laws are useless." Ryo said seriously. "Besides, we need to finish this machine soon to get help form Synchro."

"With my help, this would be finished soon." Rin hoped. "And don't forget Academia is still hunting all of us, they may find this place real soon."

"I hope not. We hide pretty well so far."

"Things could go down any second."

"I know…"

A student came down from the stairs.

"Lunch time everyone. Wash yourselves and go upstairs." He informed.

"All right it's time people. Stop, clean up and eat." Ryo said.

* * *

Everyone stood in a line, holding an empty tray, patiently waiting to get food. Later they got into tables and ate lunch. Rin sat with Asuka, Ryo and the mechanic student.

"Where's Yusho-sensei?" Rin asked.

"He's busy in his room right now."

"Ah okay."

"Yusho told you to prepare." Asuka told Rin.

The green-haired girl looked up, eyes slightly widened. "Prepare?"

"Your Deck specifically. We are going to have several Duels this afternoon after some Duel teaching."

* * *

In the afternoon, Rin got into the largest room of the underground school, where Yusho, Asuka, Ryo and the rest were already there, 40 people in total. She avoided looking at the two students Yusho rescued this morning.

"Oh Rin!" Yusho greeted. "Hello little girl."

"I am not a little girl Yusho-sensei." Rin responded, slightly annoyed at being called like that.

"Just kidding Rin, open a little bit would ya?"

"So what are we doing now?" Rin switched subjects.

"Just wait." Ryo said.

Yusho got into the center of the room and began speaking.

"Hello everyone. I see that all of you are here. I call all of you here for a reason."

"Everyone who is sitting here right now, all of you have escaped from Academia, from their harmful influence it does. Each of you has your own story, bad ones and good ones included. But do you know what is the same thing you all share?"

Silence occurred, everyone remembered the past times, the times they were misled by Akaba Leo and his underlings. If Yusho had not rescued them, they would still have been stuck in that hellhole, thinking hurting people is completely fine.

"What is that… Yusho-sensei?" Abe asked after wondering what it was.

Yusho said slowly and carefully, seemingly becoming the passionate and caring big brother to the young students. "You stood up for what's right. At heart you know this is not true, the way Academia teaches you is not true… no, the way Akaba Leo teaches you, is never true. He tried to corrupt your innocent soul but it failed. All of you are here now not because I rescued you, but because you stood up on your own. I just help you do only one thing: taking back justice."

"Justice?"

"In You Show Duel School, I want to connect all of you together to go through this dark time. You will find the real meaning of Dueling in here, and I hope with that, you can truly enjoy Dueling again and many strong friendships will be made."

"And I know we can do that." Yusho finished his speech, everyone clapped their hands.

"To strengthen the relationship between us, I would like to have all of you Duel against each other. We will do Tag Dueling with Real Solid Vision at minimal level to avoid injuries. Pick a person you want to duel with and we will begin in ten minutes."

Everyone began to choose who they wanted to pair up with.

"Hey Asuka-san, shall we?" Rin proposed, wanting to pair with the strongest female Duelist in here.

"Not today Rin. We are special."

"What special?"

"You will know." Ryo said.

Besides Rin, Asuka and Ryo, the rest of the students have done the pairing.

"Good!" Yusho said. "We will begin. Use what you've learned in here to good use!"

* * *

The afternoon was filled with joy, laughter and smile. Everyone dueled enthusiastically and excitedly, almost like they had forgotten how corrupted they have become and how bad they previously saw Dueling as under Academia's "teaching". This pleased Yusho, Asuka, Ryo and Rin greatly.

After the pairs were finished, one student walked to Asuka.

"Hey! I saw you have not dueled yet, you don't want to cause you are the Honor Student?"

"Nah, the real thing shall begin now."

"Real thing?"

"Right." Yusho said right from behind, nearly shocking her. "This is the special event I have reserved." He then got to the center of the field again.

"All right everyone, from this moment there will be a special Duel."

"Special Duel Yusho-sensei?"

"Right. The Duelists shall be…" He pointed his hand at Asuka, who stood up confidently. "Tenjoin Asuka!"

"Woah!" The students cheered. "Finally!"

"And… Rinnnnn!" He declared hammily like any stage magicians, pointing at the other girl. Rin became shocked, she stood still, unable to believe what was going on. At first there were slight silence from the students, especially Abe and Hana, but they then quickly cheered and clapped their hands as well.

"As you might now, those two are two of the best students in here right now, besides Ryo and of course, myself." Laughter ensured at Yusho's self-boasting. "One is using Ritual Summon, the old but always powerful method and the other is the master of Synchro Summon, the specialty of the Synchro Dimension which I hope I can bring all of you to there one day."

"I have heard of Synchro Summon, does it include level like Ritual?" One student asked Rin.

"Uh… yeah, and it requires a special monster called Tuner monster." Rin answered.

"We got basic info from Academia, but we haven't seen it. Will you show it to all of us?"

"Uhm…" Rin hesitated a bit. She glanced at Asuka, who gave her a confronting smile. She smiled back at the student. "Of course!"

"Thank you Rin."

Rin then faced Asuka, she attached the Duel Disk that Yusho had given to her since her old one was badly damaged when she was still back at Academia. Rin waved her left hand, crossing it across her chest, a green blade shot out.

"Declaring already?" Asuka whispered before activating her own Duel Disk as well.

"Well, it seems that the two Duelists are ready to Duel. Hope you two will show your best in this duel!" Yusho wished.

Everyone cheered loudly as the girls declared.

 **DUEL!**

 **Rin** : 4000 [5]

 **Tenjoin Asuka** : 4000 [5]

* * *

"Who will go first?" Asuka asked.

"I would like to see the skill of the former Honor Student of Academia first." Rin proposed.

"I don't want to hear that title again, but fine." Asuka said, slightly harshly since she did not want to associate herself with Academia anymore.

Both female Duelists drew five cards and inspected it. Shortly later, Asuka started.

"I take the first turn!" Asuka declared. "From my hand, Magic Card The Merciful Machine Angel activate!"

"I Tribute Cyber Angel Benten from my hand to draw two cards." Asuka revealed the monster before sending it to the grave and drew cards. Rin noticed the strange background color of the card.

" _Light blue… what is that kind of card?"_

"Then I place one card to the bottom of my Deck. Since Benten was Tributed, I add a LIGHT Angel-type monster, Cyber Tutubon to my hand!"

" _Level 5… she cannot Normal Summon it…"_

"And then Ritual Magic, Machine Angel Absolute Ritual activate!" An altar rose up from the ground.

"Ritual Magic?!" Rin gasped in surprise, she never knew about the existence of that kind of card before.

"You don't know Ritual Magic or anything related to it?" Ryo asked.

"Yeah…" Rin answered. The night when Asuka rescued her, she was sleeping until she heard Diana's scream as she fell to death so she did not know Ritual.

"I Release Cyber Tutubon from my hand, Gishiki Shōkan!" The cute monster materialized before turning into flames and flew to the center of the altar.

"Angel of light who hides healing powers! With your elegant appearance, heal those who are wounded! Descend!" The fire got bigger and higher, shooting up towards the roof. From the inside of the intense flame, a centauride descended. Its trademark features were the large mask with long sharp horn-like pieces on its sides and the long cape on its back.

"Level 5! Cyber Angel Nasateiya!"

 **Cyber Angel Nasateiya** LIGHT/Angel/Ritual/Effect/LV5/1000/ **1000**

"Tutubon's effect after being used for a Ritual Summon! I add Absolute Ritual back from the graveyard." Asuka added it back. "And I activate it again!" The purple flame erupted again, flying to the sky and exploding.

"I return Tutubon back to my Deck to perform another Ritual Summon! Another Nasateiya appears!"

"The two Nasateiyas' monster effect activates! I gain LP equal to half of its ATK!" They clapped their hands, gaining a yellow aura and later Asuka got a same one.

 **Asuka** : 4000 - 4500 - 5000 [1]

"Nani? You only summon those weak monsters in Defense Position and gain a miniscule of LP?" Rin remarked, irritated by Asuka's play.

"Is that really so?"

"Huh?"

"Nasateiya can negate any attacks throw at it if I have another Cyber Angel monster."

"Which means I cannot attack at all since you have two of them, right?" Rin realized.

"That's it! I end my turn here. Sa, come at me, Rin!"

"Very well. Watashi no turn, draw!" Rin started her first turn.

"I Normal Summon Wind Witch - Freeze Bell!"

 **Wind Witch - Freeze Bell** WIND/Magician/Effect/LV3/ **1000** /1000

"After it is Summoned, effect activates! I can Special Summon the Tuner monster, Wind Witch - Heal Bell!"

 **Wind Witch - Heal Bell** WIND/Magician/Tuner/Effect/LV2/ **400** /900

"Heal Beal's monster effect! I gain LP equal to Freeze Bell's ATK!"

 **Rin** : 4000 - 5000 [4]

"Get ready Asuka! Everyone!" Rin told them. "I, using the Level 3 Wind Witch - Freeze Bell and Level 2 Heal Bell, Tuning!" The two rings formed from the bell swept through the other monster, changing it into three stars as well.

"The call of the winds brings forth a new power! Synchro Shōkan! Level 5! Wind Witch - Attack Bell!" Rin summoned a green-haired female warrior clad in a crystal-like armor with plates on the shoulders and legs. Besides the blue cape on its back, it wielded a long sword with clear handle.

 **Wind Witch - Attack Bell** WIND/Magician/Synchro/Effect/LV5/ **2000** /1500

"Battle!" Rin started the Battle Phase.

"Hmph. What does this mean?" Asuka gasped. "You forget all of your attacks will be negated by Nasateiya?!"

"Of course I know! Which is why I will activate Attack Bell's effect! When this card battles it can negate all other card effects!"

"What did you say?!" Asuka let out in shock as Attack Bell raised its sword, creating a frost wind swept through the field and hit the two female centaurides repeatedly, encasing them in ice.

"And for each card whose effects are negated when this effect activates, Attack Bell gains 300 ATK!" The warrior gained a green aura, signifying its increased strength.

 **Wind Witch - Attack Bell** ATK 2000 - 2600

"Also it can inflict piercing damage." Rin revealed as her monster slashed one Nasateiya, destroying it in an explosion. Asuka covered herself from the pretty strong blast.

 **Asuka** : 5000 - 3400 [1]

"Hm, so this is how Rin beats this strong defense. Interesting." Ryo commented.

"The two Nasateiyas combo has a weakness that they must activate their effects, leaving them open to activation or effect negation." Yusho explained. "Usually people would negate the activation, but Rin went straight forbidding the effect. Not bad."

"After damage calculation, Attack Bell's effect ends and its ATK returns to its original value."

 **Wind Witch - Attack Bell** ATK 2600 - 2000

"Don't worry, this is just my answer to your weak fortress." Rin said. She took two cards and set them down. "Two cards set. Turn end."

Asuka smirked in response. "I knew you would do it."

"What?"

"There are two scenarios in this turn that you might do, and I predicted all of them. Either way works. Watashi no turn, draw!" Asuka drew her card.

"I Normal Summon Cyber Egg Angel." A light blue oval sphere appeared from dust, then it opened, two green wings flew out and flapped, revealing a ball of light inside.

 **Cyber Egg Angel** LIGHT/Angel/LV2/ **200** /300

"With its effects, I add a Ritual Magic from the Deck." Asuka clicked the screen, choosing the card she desired. She took it out and revealed it.

"And I immediately activate it! Machine Angel Supreme Ritual!" From the roof, an altar crashed down again. This one however had continuous blue pulses running through it.

"Here it comes!" One student said.

"One of Asuka's strongest card!" Another one.

"With this card, I can Ritual Summon a Cyber Angel monster from the graveyard."

"Graveyard? Are you…"

"Right. I Release the Level 2 Cyber Egg and Level 5 Cyber Angel Nasateiya, Gishiki Shōkan!" The two monsters turned into six blue flames and flew up to the altar in a circle. They then joined into one big, bursting fire like one from a raging volcano.

A monster flew out and landed gracefully. It had long black hair tied at the end, a stylized mask shaped like horns, it wore a teal and grey tight suit, red gloves and boots and it had two tessen fans with red leaf.

"Level 6! Cyber Angel Benten!"

 **Cyber Angel Benten** LIGHT/Angel/Ritual/Effect/LV6/ **1800** /1500

"Another Ritual Summon… and from the graveyard…" Rin said to herself.

"Next up, Nasateiya's graveyard effect!"

"What?"

"I banish another Nasateiya and resurrect it!" After Asuka slapped down the blue card, Nasateiya returned to the field.

"Then, I take control of one of your monster!"

"Taking control?!" Rin gasped in shock, she quickly looked at her monster as it disintegrated and reassembled on Asuka's side of field. "Shit…"

"Nasateiya's monster effect activates!" The monster clapped its hands, glowing a yellow aura and Asuka also got it around her body as well.

 **Asuka** : 3400 - 4400 [1]

"Battle! Attack Bell, Rin direct attack!" The Synchro monster charged at its former owner. "And then, monster effect activates!" Frost wind generated, encasing every cards but it in ice.

 **Wind Witch - Attack Bell** ATK 2000 - 2900

Rin had no choice but to cover her face by instinct, forgetting that the Real Solid Vision was very low right now. She was knocked back only for a bit.

 **Rin** : 5000 - 2100 [2]

 **Wind Witch - Attack Bell** ATK 2900 - 2000

"And then, Benten, direct attack!" The warrior angel threw her two fans. They spun very fast as they approached Rin.

"You think so?" Rin clicked her Duel Disk, a set card flipped up and shone up. "Trap Card Poisoning Wind activate! Since I control no monsters, I can bring back Wind Witch - Freeze Bell with its effects negated!" A portal opened, allowing Freeze Bell to come back.

"But it has only 1000 ATK!"

"Not yet!" Rin interrupted. "Then all monsters you control lose ATK equal to Freeze Bell's ATK!"

"What you said?" Freeze Bell fired a barrage of ice needles at Asuka's monsters, weakening all of them.

 **Wind Witch - Attack Bell** ATK 2000 - 1000

 **Cyber Angel Nasateiya** ATK 1000 - 0

 **Cyber Angel Benten** ATK 1800 - 800

"So sad for you Asuka-san." Rin smirked. "If you hadn't attacked me with Attack Bell, I would not have pulled this play of."

Asuka could only tick her tongue annoyingly, she had lost her chance to end the duel. "Hm… consider yourself lucky that this duel did not end that quickly."

"I will not lose that pathetically like that!"

"Good point little girl."

"Stop that! Could you just shut that up and continue?" Rin was getting tired of this joke. The students, Ryo and Yusho had a pretty good laugh again.

"Fine fine… I end my turn here."

"Watashi no turn…" Rin touched the top card of her Deck. _"My hand is currently without monsters, everything is touched on this draw…"_

"Draw!"

She glanced at it.

Not a monster card…

But…

" _Yoss! Way better…"_ Rin quickly used it. "From my hand, Magic Card Wind Witch - Gale activate! I discard one card to add a Level 4 or lower "Wind Witch" monster to my hand."

"I add Wind Witch - Glass Bell to my hand, and Normal Summon!" The white witch waved its bell broomstick before climbing on it.

 **Wind Witch - Glass Bell** WIND/Magician/Tuner/Effect/LV4/ **1500** /1500

"When this card is summoned, I add another Wind Witch to my hand." Rin then waved her hand up. "Then I, using the Level 3 Wind Witch - Freeze Bell and Level 4 Glass Bell, Tuning!"

"Winds of winter, snow and ice! Become my power to blow everything away! Synchro Shōkan! Come forth! Level 7! Wind Witch - Winter Bell!" Finally the Synchro Bracelet Girl had brought out her ace monster.

 **Wind Witch - Winter Bell** WIND/Magician/Synchro/Effect/LV7/ **2400** /2000

"Wind Witch - Winter Bell…" Yusho whispered.

"Rin's ace monster." Ryo gazed at it.

"Winter Bell's monster effect activates! It copies Freeze Bell's effect in the graveyard."

"Freeze Bell's effect? The effect that changes Level?"

"It's not the only one." Rin told Asuka. "It can also deal 500 damage once per turn." Freeze Bell sent a wind blast towards Asuka, who covered herself with her arms.

 **Asuka** : 4400 - 3900 [1]

"Battle! Winter Bell, attack Attack Bell!"

 **Asuka** : 3900 - 2500 [1]

"At this moment, Trap Card, Call of the Living Dead activate! The destroyed Attack Bell returns to my field!"

"So that is what you were aiming for Rin. If Attack Bell attacks, its effect will raise its own ATK, then I am over."

"Damn right. This is the end now Asuka-san! Wind Witch - Attack Bell, attack Cyber Angel Nasateiya!" The sword lit up.

"Also, monster effect activates-"

"I am not letting you do it!" Asuka quickly responded and slapped her only card down to the blade. "When you activate a monster effect while I control a "Cyber Angel" monster, I can special summon Cyber Swimmer!"

 **Cyber Swimmer** LIGHT/Angel/Effect/LV6/ **2400** /2000

"This card then negates your monster effect activation and shuffle it back to the Deck!"

"What?!" Rin gasped in dismay, the newly summoned monster splashed water after doing a stroke which flew Attack Bell away. She reluctantly took the monster back to the Extra Deck.

"As you have already attacked with Winter Bell, you basically cannot attack me anymore. End your turn Rin."

Rin glanced at her hand before settling down with one set card. "I set down a card. Turn end. That was a pretty nice play there Asuka-san." She complimented. "But let me guess, you could have summoned it during my previous turn, you already had that card in your hand at that moment."

"Hmph." Asuka let out. "You saw it pretty well. It's true I did have that earlier, but I wanted to wait for the right moment to use it. It makes this duel more entertaining right?"

"Amen to that." Rin said. The crowd got fired up at this exchange, all noting how powerful they both were.

"Sa, let's return to the Duel shall we?" Asuka said, drawing a card at the same time. She slightly gasped at it before glancing at Rin, who noticed it.

"You know what, this is another challenge… to both of us. First off I activate Cyber Swimmer's monster effect! I add a Ritual Magic from my Deck."

"And then Magic Card Pre-Preparation of Rites activate! I can add a Ritual Magic and a Ritual Monster whose name is listed on the Ritual Magic."

"Add two cards from your Deck at the same time?!"

"I add Machine Angel Ritual and Cyber Angel Dakini to my hand. And then Ritual Magic, Machine Angel Ascending Ritual, activate!" This time an altar crashed down from the roof of the room.

"Besides the normal requirements, this card also lets me Release 1 LIGHT Angel monsters from my Deck as well since you control a monster Special Summoned from the Extra Deck!"

"Ritual Summon from… Deck?!"

"I Release Cyber Angel Benten from the field and Cyber Staker from my Deck, Gishiki Shōkan!" The holy fire struck up again, from the heat of it a new angel descended. It wore a headwear with a long fabric like a cape, an orange armor plate on its chest and shoulders, it had four hands with two wielding a sword and the other two holding a long staff.

"Appear now Level 8! Cyber Angel Dakini!"

 **Cyber Angel Dakini** LIGHT/Angel/Ritual/Effect/LV8/ **2700** /2400

"Dakini's monster effect activates! You must send one monster you control to the graveyard!"

"I have to do it?! Shit…!"

"At the same time, right after this Ritual Summon, Benten allows me to add a monster from the Deck." Asuka took the card that automatically got pulled out. "Also Staker lets me draw two cards and I have to discard one."

"Man! So many effects going off at once!"

"Asuka-chan is amazing!"

"Sa, send Winter Bell to the graveyard Rin."

Rin sent Winter Bell to the grave, but instead of the usual dismay, she smiled.

"Why are you smiling Rin? Is there something funny?"

"Thank you for sending Winter Bell to the grave Asuka-san!" Rin told her. "Since you Special Summoned Dakini, I can Set Poisoning Wind back from the graveyard and I can activate it this turn!" Rin took the Trap card out from the GY slot.

"Nani?!"

Rin quickly Set it down and clicked the interface of the Duel Disk. "Trap Card, Poisoning Wind activate!" Right after it Winter Bell returned to the field, it quickly generated a frost wind to weaken Asuka's monsters.

 **Cyber Angel Dakini** ATK 2700 - 300

 **Cyber Swimmer** ATK 2400 - 0

"Poisoning Wind is banished if I reset it with its effect. You cannot attack me with your weakened monsters now Asuka-san!"

Asuka inspected her drawn cards. "Don't get cocky Rin, my moves are not over yet! Nasateiya's effect! I banish Benten to special summon it!" The medic Cyber Angel rose up from a portal on the ground.

"Then I take control of Winter Bell!" The centauride fired a beam from its head armor at Rin's ace monster.

"Not gonna happen! I banish Refeshing Wind and this turn your card effects cannot affect my Wind Witch monsters!" Nasateiya fired a red beam at Winter Bell, attempting to force it to Asuka's side but a green and blue barrier formed around Winter Bell stopped it.

"If so, I activate another Ritual Magic Machine Angel Ritual! This time I Release Dakini and Cyber Swimmer!"

"Appear now! Level 10, Cyber Angel Vishnu."

 **Cyber Angel Vishnu** LIGHT/Angel/Ritual/Effect/LV10/ **3000** /3000

"Nasateiya's effect activates! My LP is returned to the start value."

 **Asuka** : 2500 - 4000 [1]

Rin thought. _"Dammit… with Nasateiya, she can gain LP back a lot… I must finish her in an OTK, but now I need to survive this turn first!"_

"Vishnu, attack Winter Bell!" Asuka declared, the machine angel charged energy to the ring behind it, then it released into a yellow stream, flying at Rin's monster.

"Reverse Card open!" Rin countered. "Guard Block! Battle damage becomes 0 and I draw one card." The lightning bolts got deflected by the barrier formed from the trap.

"But now your field is empty. Cyber Angel Nasateiya, direct attack!" The female angel warrior generated a sphere and threw it at Rin, who got knocked back a bit.

 **Rin** : 2100 - 1100 [2]

"One card set. Turn end. At this moment Dakini's monster effect activates, I add Machine Angel Ritual to my hand." Asuka finished her turn. Rin allowed herself to sigh in relief, another rough turn had passed and she was still standing.

"Never before had I dueled this long. You are really powerful Asuka-san, especially with the method you use." Rin said sincerely. "When I was back home, I tended to finish duels as quickly as possible, my friend Yugo usually got this many times." She laughed slightly. "Guess it's not working with you this time."

"Thanks for the compliment. I used to be ridiculed for not using Fusion. I've loved Ritual the moment my brother showed it to me, I took a lot of time creating a strong Ritual Deck, that made me a strong student back in Academia."

"It's good to see a strong female duelist like you, there are not really that many in our hometown. Watashi no turn, draw!" Rin drew her card.

"Magic Card Terraforming activate! I add a Field Magic to my hand."

"Field Magic you said?"

"Field Magic, Wind Witch - Sanctuary activate!" The scenery around the room slowly turned into an ice-like world. They were now standing in a temple made of transparent glaciers, beautiful and elegant. The atmosphere also became a little bit colder to fit the place.

Several male students who watched the duel shared their coats to female ones to keep them warm; Yusho and Ryo attempted to give Asuka and Rin coats as well but they refused.

"No need to Yusho-san, Ryo. This is nothing."

"It's not that cold you know." Rin argued.

"Okay."

The duelists returned to the duel. "Next up, I activate Wind Witch - Snowflake to summon back Winter Bell from my graveyard." The portal opened and from it Rin's ace monster rose up.

"The effect of Wind Witch - Sanctuary activates!" Rin declared, the temple glowed a blue aura. "I send the Level 5 Wind Witch - Frost Bell from the Extra Deck to the GY."

"Why are you sending it?" Asuka was intrigued.

"With Sanctuary, if a "Wind Witch" monster effect that would target a Level 4 or lower "Wind Witch" monster is activated, I can target a Level 5 or higher monster instead!" Rin revealed, shocking everyone.

"What did you say?!" Asuka stuttered.

"Target a higher level monster for an effect?!" Ryo muttered.

"I see…" Yusho said. "Usually higher level monsters have better effects."

"But before that, I need to have some set-up. I banish Wind Witch - Gale and Heal Bell to add back Freeze Bell from the GY." Rin took the card and slapped it down to the blade. "And I Normal Summon it."

"Then with its effects I Special Summon another Snow Bell from my hand!"

"Winter Bell's monster effect activates! I can now use the effect of Level 5 Frost Bell. I return Snow Bell to my hand." Rin took the monster back.

"What are you doing?"

"And your Cyber Angel Vishnu must be back to your hand as well!"

"Huh?!" Asuka became slightly paled.

"Woah!"

"Awesome!"

"Such a good effect!" The students expressed their surprise at this play.

"Sa, take it back to your hand Asuka-san."

"In your dreams." Asuka countered.

"Huh?"

Asuka waved her hand, looking down at the Set card she had. "Counter Trap activate!"

"Nani?"

"Grisaille Infection! I Release Cyber Angel Nasateiya and the activation of a Winter Bell's effect will be negated!" The centauride turned into yellow dust and flew into the card. Grey stream fired out from the trap, hitting Rin's monster.

"What?!" Rin gasped. Yusho, Ryo and the students held their breath, surprised at this unexpected play.

"Also, since Winter Bell is a Synchro monster, it will be returned to the Extra Deck!" Blaster Bell and Winter Bell.

"No way…" Rin whispered. "Dammit!"

Since Snow Bell needs two WIND monsters on the field to activate and she had used her Normal Summon on Freeze Bell, there was nothing Rin could do now.

"Turn end…"

"Well Rin-chan… the duel will finally be over." Asuka declared and drew her card. "Equip Magic, Fulfillment of the Contract activate! I pay 800 LP to bring back Cyber Angel Dakini." In a moment, the female deity appeared again from the cursed land of cemetery.

 **Asuka** : 4000 - 3200 [2]

"Dakini, attack Wind Witch - Freeze Bell!" Dakini slashed its swords at Rin's only monster, destroying it. The long and draining duel was finally over, expect with no carding for the loser.

 **Rin** : 1100 - 0 [0]

The field slowly disintegrated, giving back the usual gloomy view of an underground room again. After a long silence, Yusho clapped his hand, then Ryo, then eventually everyone in the room. It was a very long and heated duel between the girls, very well deserved to have a huge applause.

They flooded the field, helping Rin up and chatting with her and Asuka.

"Good duel Rin, Asuka." Yusho congratulated the girls.

"Thanks a lot Yusho-san, everyone." Asuka said. She then looked at Rin.

"You did your best Rin, don't feel bad."

"We both did." Rin smiled back. The girls then hugged tightly, deepening their friendship.

Seeing everyone conversing happily like that, Yusho gave a rare bright smile, his method was correct. Now the bond between the students was strong, and most of all, Rin was now firmly a part of You Show Duel School. She could now be able to move forward from her dark times.

What a great way to end the day.

* * *

Night fell down, the students were sleeping in their rooms. Since this place was a Catholic church, there were enough room for everyone. Yusho, Ryo, Asuka and Rin watched them from outside.

"Thanks for the duel earlier Asuka, Rin. I am grateful." Yusho thanked the girls.

"They really enjoyed it, I can see from their faces." Ryo said.

"You're welcome Yusho-san, Ryo-san. I just tried my best."

"We all better get some sleep, we don't know what will happen tomorrow." Asuka proposed.

"Uh. We all should." Yusho agreed. "Good night everyone."

"Good night Yusho-sensei." Ryo told him. They then moved back to their own quarters. However, Rin went out of her room after everyone closed their doors. She sneaked to the stairs and got to the roof of the cathedral.

Rin watched the lively night view of Domino City, feeling at ease for the first time ever since her escape despite Academia being nearby. She could now move forward in her life again, her new life. Being captured did have some benefits, or she was lucky enough.

Of course she did not forget her roots. Yugo, Aki, Yusei and others were in City, probably unaware of Academia and the invasion. But now she could think more positively, she promised to the full moon in the sky that she would return to them soon and save them and the City from the invaders.

"I will return soon…"

* * *

 **Fanfic OC Cards**

 **Cyber Swimmer**

LIGHT/Angel/Effect/LV6/2400/2000

When your opponent activates a monster effect while this card is in your hand (Quick Effect): You can Special Summon this card; negate the activation, and if you do, return it to the hand. During the next Standby Phase, if this card is in your side of field or in your GY: You can add 1 "Machine Angel" Ritual Magic Card or 1 "Cyber Angel" Ritual Monster from your Deck to your hand. You can only use each effect of "Cyber Swimmer" once per turn.

 **Wind Witch - Heal Bell**

WIND/Magician/Tuner/Effect/LV2/400/900

Once per turn, you can target 1 other "Wind Witch" monster you control: gain LP equal to its original ATK. If this card is in your GY: You can return 1 card you control to the hand; Special Summon this card. You can only use this effect of "Wind Witch - Heal Bell" once per Duel.

 **Wind Witch - Gale**

(Magic Card)

Send 1 card from your hand to the GY; add 1 Level 4 or lower "WW" monster from your Deck you're your hand, also you cannot Special Summon monsters from the Extra Deck for the rest of this turn, expect WIND monsters. During your Main Phase, expect the turn this card was sent to the GY: You can banish this card and 1 "Wind Witch" monster from your GY; add 1 "Wind Witch" monster from your GY to your hand. You can only use each effect of "Wind Witch - Gale" once per turn.

 **Wind Witch - Sanctuary**

(Field Magic)

You can send 1 "Wind Witch" Synchro Monster from your Extra Deck to your GY. To activate a "Wind Witch" Synchro monster's effect that targets a "Wind Witch" monster in the GY, you can treat 1 Level 5 or higher "Wind Witch" Synchro monster in your GY as Level 4. During your Main Phase, expect the turn this card was sent to the GY: You can shuffle 5 "Wind Witch" monsters in your GY to your Deck, then draw 2 cards. You can only use each effect of "Wind Witch - Sanctuary" once per turn.

 **Wind Witch - Attack Bell**

WIND/Magician/Effect/LV5/2000/1500

1 "Wind Witch" Tuner + 1 or more non-Tuner "Wind Witch" monsters.

If this card attacks a Defense Position monster, inflicts piercing battle damage. Once per turn, if your "Wind Witch" monster battles (Quick Effect): You can negate all other card effects on the field until the end of the Damage Step, during that damage calculation, the monster that battles it with your "Wind Witch" monster has its ATK/DEF become that monster's original ATK/DEF, also this card gains 300 ATK for each card whose effects are negated this way when this effect resolves during damage calculation only. If you control a "Wind Witch" Tuner monster and no other monsters: You can Special Summon this card from your GY. You can only use this effect of "Wind Witch - Attack Bell" once per turn.

 **Poisoning Wind**

(Trap Card)

Activating by targeting 1 "Wind Witch" monster in your GY while you control no monsters. Special Summon it, and if you do, all monsters your opponent controls lose ATK equal to that monster's original ATK. If a monster is Special Summoned from your opponent's Extra Deck, while this card is in the GY (except during the Damage Step): You can Set this card, it can be activated the turn it is Set by this effect, but banish it when it leaves the field.

 **Grisaille Infection**

(Counter Trap Card)

When your opponent's monster activates its effect while you control a Ritual Monster: Tribute 1 Ritual Monster you control or in your hand; negate the activation, and if you do, return it to the hand. If it was a monster Special Summoned from the Extra Deck, return it and all monster your opponent controls of the same type to the Extra Deck instead.

* * *

 **Phew! Finally I've got some mojo back to finish this chapter, and I know this is not going to be good, I apologize for that.**

 **We got more insight on how Yusho could create a school in Fusion without detection which ARC-V sadly could not do due to time restraints. I thought mentioning the escaped students potentially being carded by Resistance is worth it, showing how unsafe they really are. About Abe and Hana, these two will not have any strong impacts in this story.**

 **Unrelated: I am sure Konami could really make good Ritual Magic Card like the one I've shown in this chapter if they really wanted to.**

* * *

 **Next Chapter Preview**

 **Sick City**

Trouble comes to the Lancers when some dangerous gangbangers set eyes on them.

 **This is matrixnis, out!**


	45. Scale 45

**It's time for the next chapter in the Tainted Sidelines!**

 **I have set up a bit about what Yugo is going through, and this chapter will… yeah, you know the drill.**

 **To DARK REQUIEM XYZ: I will consider all of it, but I've planned out the story, some of which will not be in the way you wanted to. Also if you can, please review while you're logged in to your account.**

 **To Gentyman: Can you explain why Ryo is slate to you? Also Rin is basically a newcomer in You Show, she of course cannot do whatever she wishes.**

* * *

 **Chapter 45: Sick City**

* * *

Night fell down after a pretty hectic day for the Lancers, everyone had gone back to deep sleep. A person secretly got up and sneakily opened the door.

Dennis.

He closed it back carefully and went to the bathroom, making sure he was not spotted by anyone.

He took out a pretty thick black card and inserted it to his Duel Disk, a hologram popped up. Only blue particles could be seen, but the shape it formed clearly told Dennis it was Akaba Leo.

"Professor." Dennis said, his head bowed down in respect.

"Dennis. How's the spying so far?" He asked.

"Pretty good so far Professor. The card you gave me has saved all information you need about the Lancers, you are receiving it right now."

Leo quickly scanned the info Dennis sent him, his face was still as stoic as ever.

"Good job Dennis. Only one minor thing."

"Yes Professor?"

"The files said you are going to attend the Friendship Cup two days later. That place is Synchro, it must has its own rules, and from what I got about Rin, the tournament is not pretty. Even worse, Rin has escaped."

"What?!" Dennis jotted up, he quickly covered his mouth to keep himself shut. "Rin has escaped?! What happened?!"

"Yusho, Asuka and Kaiser broke her out."

"Kaiser?!" Dennis sweated in nervousness. "I thought Yuri had carded him!"

"Yusho saved him with his magic tricks." Leo answered the question.

" _Yusho-sensei is really good…"_ Dennis commented. As a former student who learnt Entertainment Dueling from him back in Xyz, he knew what Yusho was capable of. "Well, I need to get back as soon as I can. I need to capture her!"

"Keep infiltrating Dennis. We are currently busy, we need to capture Rin back and deal with the press at the same time. As soon as the situation is done, we will bring you back."

"But Professor-"

"This is an order." Leo's deep yet threatening voice scared Dennis. He sweated nervously before calming himself down.

"Roger that Professor…"

"We will get you back soon, don't worry." Was Leo's assurance, then the connection got cut off, the hologram disappeared.

The spy opened the door, leaving the bathroom.

 **################################**

Akaba Leo closed the door of his private room, checking the information.

He swiped at the info of Sakaki Yuya, his feeling intensified, to that of hatred. The name, the image of that person sent his anger up to the sky greatly. He swiped to Yuto's and Yugo's, his anger rose even more.

" _I will kill all of you soon…"_

* * *

The next day, one day before the Friendship Cup, the City became more hectic, Top and Commons were all for the tournament which was hosted sooner than usual but they did not want to wonder why. Of course they would, for the darker side of things needed to be kept secret for as long as it could. After eating breakfast, everyone watched news in TV; the orphanage was lucky to receive new furniture from volunteers, including two new, large TVs.

The tournament also attracted many people from overseas as well, mostly Westerners. However, in the recent years fewer people flew to Japan, especially from Asian countries like Korea, Philippines due to the deep hatred caused by Japan in WW2 which were further escalated by the eventual death of many former prisoners who did not have a chance to return to their home country due to old age. There were also rumors about the fate of the losers but the Japanese government and the Executive Council always denied it.

"Even in this dimension Japan is still…" Yuto commented while surfing the net on Yugo's Duel Disk that he borrowed. He was reading the news about the darker aspects of Japan that journalists from overseas wrote. "Hashima island is still a tourist attraction while we imprisoned many Korean people there more than 100 years ago."

"Why are you reading that Yuto?" Yuya snatched the Duel Disk. "It's not real! They simply try to deceive us!"

"It's real Yuya." Ruri explained, taking Yugo's Duel Disk from Yuya. "I got an uncle who lives in Korea and he told me that. The truth. Many Koreans still hate us, or more generally, countries we invaded in the 20th century. Yet our government has not said sorry about it, now all of the former prisoners in Hashima are dead."

"It's the same from the Fusion dimension as well." Selena said.

Yuya and everyone else became silent, not knowing what to say about it. One of the darker facts about Japan, not including suicide rate, sexism, racism, depression, all of which were still common as of today in, rather sadly, all four dimensions.

"It seemed that people in City really like this tournament." Shun changed the subject.

"Yeah, the place where many strong duelists from both the Tops and Commons participate." Yusei told him.

"Thanks to us, only the Lancers would be participating. Last day we dueled, are you sure no one caught us using other summon methods Yusei?" Sawatari wondered.

"Don't worry, people do not go to that place, besides, my friend Saiga can handle any footages of us dueling." Yusei reassured him. "If Roget dares to capture us, he would not have any evidence to do so until we participate. We will have that protection during the entire tournament."

"Reiji-san, will the Executive Council contact us soon?" Aki asked Reiji, who was watching TV with Reira on his lap.

"They will don't worry."

The news was over, the channel changed to an anime show.

"Yugo, do you know how this tournament is born?" Yuzu asked.

"It's pretty sad, but fine, I'll tell." Yugo said. "Ten years ago, there was a man named Chojiro Tomumatsu. He is a Professional Duelist who is admired by the Commons, including me. One day he had a chance to duel the Tops but with their money, they bought rare and powerful cards to defeat him."

"Typical social bullying." Ruri commented.

"You got the point." Yugo winked at her. "With the massive depression from the loss, he resorted… to cheating." At this, Yugo's voice got lower, feeling saddened for the nice man who fell from grace due to the higher-up.

"He was then arrested. This caused a massive revolt from the Commons." Yusei continued. "Aki and I were still at Tops back then, we were scared that the City would fall. The Tops then created the Friendship Cup to settle the problem. Since then the revolt was reduced greatly, everyone accepted it like a part of their life."

"How about the Psychic Duelists?" Yuya spoke up. "It is another massive problem in here right?"

"Uh… yeah." Aki said. "There are many people who have the power to make the monsters created from Solid Vision real like me. Don't ask me why because I don't know for sure. If this is not controlled the bad guys from both the Tops and Commons will take advantage of us. One man changed that."

"Who is that?"

"His name is Divine, he is also a Psychic Duelist as well. He created the Arcadia Movement as a sanctuary of sorts to Psychic Duelists, where we can train to control our power and use it for the good reasons. Besides he also worked on politics to keep a good image of us to City, Japan and the entire world."

"You miss the four dimensions." Sawatari joked.

"Yeah, the four dimensions." Aki eyed to Yusei, telling him to continue.

"All right." Yusei cleared his throat. "My father is a scientist, he created several inventions to help Psychic Duelists control their power, in Aki's case, her hairpin. He and I also went to Commons occasionally with Divine and Aki's father who was a senator to strengthen the harmony between Tops, Commons and the Psychic Duelists which is how I knew Aki. I also had some duels in there with teenagers and kids, that's how I met Jack Atlas. We exchanged one card from each of our Decks, promising that we would return it to each other one day. The Tops and Commons were connected better than ever, and there were plans to remove the social barrier between them. Everything was perfect then."

"And then Roget came…" Aki said lowly, her voice clearly had a hint of bitterness.

"The Director of Security?" Yuto asked just to be sure.

"Yes. One day he suddenly rose into that position, he deemed the Psychic Duelist unworthy and dangerous, he rallied everyone that we are bad and an abomination and then he either killed us, or imprisoned us, and anyone who was involved…"

"No way…" Gongenzaka gasped in shock.

"You may wonder how could he do that, well… he introduced Real Solid Vision to the Executive Council, that managed to convince them to approve of his plan."

"Everything went from bad to worse. Divine, my parents, Aki's parents were killed, many Psychic Duelists were either in prison or killed if they are old enough, sometimes not. We were lucky to avoid it but we were kicked to Commons and the rest is story."

Everyone fell silent, they felt mixed, happy, sad, hatred. How could this place be so cruel to people, how could Yugo, Aki and Yusei manage to live in that hellhole, they would never want to know.

"Reiji, you said you want to save this dimension, but this dimension may not be worthy to save." Yusei said firmly to the leader of Lancers, who did not respond, but they both knew it.

"Like you would really want to." Reiji said cryptically. "But what is done is done. We will save this dimension from Academia, not from the problems it has. You got to handle it yourselves."

"Damn right…" Yusei whispered.

The silence continued for a while, until Yuzu broke it.

"Uh… what is the plan today everyone?"

"Ah! Right right, the plan today…" Yugo quickly spoke. He slightly stuttered due to suddenly speaking. "If you don't call duel practicing a plan… then I don't know. Maybe just spend a day staying here, you know, we have six people who share the same faces and we cannot uh… attract attention."

"How about going out for some fun?" Dennis proposed. "Like uh, playing video games I suppose."

"Karaoke." Yuya said. "I have not sung for quite a while."

"Yeah yeah!" Gongenzaka chimed in. "Yuya sings pretty well, as his best friend, the man Gongenzaka can confirm it."

"Ok!" Sawatari yelled. "Yuya, Gongenzaka, Dennis and I will go to the karaoke! You go too Yuto, Shun?"

"Uh no…" Yuto denied. "Don't forget I look like Yuya, I cannot go with him."

"Um…" Shun was slightly shocked by that proposal. He considered not going, but Yuto already denied so… "Fine…"

"Yes! The deal is set!"

"How about us?" Ruri spoke up. "We're supposed to watch you boys and my annoying brother to play outside while us girls stay at the orphanage?"

"Well you can have Yuto to do something kinky." Selena joked, causing Ruri to punch her playfully. "Just be careful with Yugo okay?"

"Eh!" Yugo yelled, embarrassed. "I'm not that "that" anymore!"

"Do anything stupid to my sister and you will die." Shun shot a glare at Yugo, who could only freeze.

"Oh! I want to buy a new bracelet, I did not bring it with me to here. Aki-san, will you help me?" Yuzu requested.

"Sure." Aki agreed, smiling at the pink-haired girl.

"Yoss! All set!"

* * *

The day went on like that, the karaoke group spent an entire morning singing like maniacs, the rest stayed at the orphanage to play with kids and Yuzu managed to buy a new bracelet but (only there was no gem and it only had one circle instead of two). Even though he did not like it at first, Shun eventually showed his surprisingly good singing skills that shocked everyone which he tended to hide while he was back in Heartland during the war; Shun was now more open after his duel with Yugo to which Yuya was glad.

They returned to the orphanage, but suddenly, Yuya felt something bad behind him. He quickly looked around, feeling nervous.

"What's wrong Yuya?" Gongenzaka asked him, noticing his panicked expression.

"Uh…" Yuya muttered. There was no one there suspicious as he seemed. "Nothing, just a… wind I guess."

"Wind?"

"Ye-yeah, wind. Anyway let's go, we are learning Riding Duel this afternoon."

The group continued walking, unaware that several people were eyeing them from an alley…

* * *

In the afternoon the Lancers practiced Riding Duel, the ones who did not practice yesterday were given a chance today and it went pretty well.

Yuzu stopped her D-Wheel gracefully near the group. She took off her helmet and looked at Aki who did the same.

 **Aki** : 100 [0]

 **Yuzu** : 0 [0]

"You are really strong Aki-san." Yuzu complimented.

"You are, Yuzu. After that training with Yugo, you surely improved your skill greatly." Aki returned with her own comment.

"Nice duel Yuzu, Aki!" Yuya and others cheered as they ran to them. Yuya and Gongenzaka helped Yuzu get off the D-Wheel and Yusei took care of Aki.

"That marks the end of our training today. We will celebrate this night before the tournament." Yusei said.

"And save City and the four dimensions." Selena did not forget to remind them. This surprised the Lancers.

"Wow Selena… I thought you only wanted to duel the strongest of this dimension, why is the tomboyish girl I know getting humbler?" Yugo joked.

"No!" Selena quickly said and punched Yugo again, sending him flying. "Do you want me to tell everyone what you did to me that night?!"

"All right all right all right! Just don't!" Yugo was quick to plead the girl, not wanting his embarrassing encounter to be put into light.

"What was that Selena?" Yuzu asked. Selena slightly blushed, even though she tried to resist. Seeing her expression, Yuzu decided not to press.

"All right everyone." Aki cleared her throat. "Let's return home. The orphanage is nearly ready for the big dinner."

"Thank you a lot Aki-san, Yusei-san, Yugo-kun." Dennis said. "You really did not need to do that, just training us is too much already."

"We are comrades now, gotta have a good toast before the fight, Dennis-kun." Yusei told him.

"How about you Akaba Reiji?" Yuya asked the leader, wanting him to join in too. The President of LDS considered not to but Reira nudged his arm and looked up at him with innocent and pleading eyes. Reiji smiled softly.

"All right I will." Reiji replied, his face returning to serious mode the moment he made eye contact with Yuya.

* * *

Despite the financial problem the orphanage had right now, they were kind enough to host a party even though it was not big at all, which actually helped the Lancers not to feel awkward. They enjoyed the food, talking about the tournament, the future, hope and so on.

"You know, after all of this is done, I want to rebuild the orphanage, using the inheritance of my parents." Yusei said. "This is like a second home to me, my old one is gone along with my past."

"Sounds good Yusei-san." Yuzu nodded. "What about you Aki-san?"

"I will go to university and be a doctor. It's my dream since childhood." The redhead said.

"I want to be King along with Rin. We both share this dream, but right now I need to rescue her first." Yugo revealed. "If we get that place, we can use the advantage of it to do… something, unlike Jack."

"You three already have planned for the future, that's nice." Yuya said.

"How about you guys?" Yugo asked the Lancers.

Yuya drank his orange juice and spoke first. "I want to be an Entertainment Duelist like my father, bringing smiles and happiness to the world."

"That's noble." Yugo noted.

"I'd love to be a pianist." Yuzu said.

"Well, I have to take my father's place as a Mayor in the future." Sawatari said, sighing slightly, probably not 100% sure about this.

"I will be a Professional Duelist." Gongenzaka said.

"I'm… not sure yet, I don't have a clear plan for now." Dennis whispered.

The Xyz survivors had a hard time thinking about the dreams due to still being at war. Yuzu quickly noticed and spoke up.

"Don't worry you three, we will end the war soon. Just tell us what you plan on doing later in life."

Yuto rubbed his forehead. "I guess… I'll be a… journalist. Writing news about things in life."

Yuto glanced at Ruri, patiently waiting for her answer. The girl felt self-conscious at his eyes and everyone else's.

"Just say Ruri, don't feel hard." Shun encouraged her.

"All right…" She breathed. "I want to be a… duelist in the future."

"Good! Maybe I can write many stories about you and your story then!" Yuto smiled brightly.

"Someone's getting over his head." Yusei joked, to which Yuto did not mind. He poked Ruri's forehead playfully and the girl played along, pointing her finger at him with her mouth pouting.

"Well you can write about my career too Yuto, cuz I also want to be a Professional Duelist as well." Shun revealed.

"Nice! Now I can write about how you control your sister too much!" And this remark triggered Shun to choke Yuto. Everyone laughed hard.

"All right all right you two, stop." Ruri gently pulled Shun's arm away from Yuto's neck. "You! Control yourself more." She switched her finger to Yuto. "And you, don't hope too much. I can kick you anytime I want." Ruri said sarcarstically.

"Yes ma'am…" Yuto nodded.

"How about you, Selena?" Sawatari looked at the purple-haired girl, who jotted in surprise. "What's your dream?"

Selena was visibly confused, not thinking she would have to ask this, for she was very conflicted right now. Selena lost her parents when she was 8, then Yuri and she lived in an orphanage for several years until they were recruited to Academia by Leo. Spending several years in basically a military training base hampered her free will greatly.

"I… uh…" She began. "I uh… want to… I don't know…"

"Duel the strongest and win?"

A strange feeling occurred, everyone was speechless, not knowing what to say.

"What? Is that… not a dream? I was taught like that."

"Man, it's hard…" Yuya mumbled, wiping his eyebrows.

"Selena, have you been in a school before? Have you received education?" Yuzu asked.

"I used to be in a primary school for three years, later I learnt a little bit more in the orphanage until Akaba Leo recruited me. I only trained my Dueling skill and body since then…"

"Dammit… Akaba Leo… curse you…" Reiji hissed under his breath. He now had another reason to hate his father more: he destroyed the future of many innocent teenagers who he took to be his soldiers. While Reiji knew he was no better than the Professor in that aspect, it was necessary.

"It's 9 now, better take a rest to fight tomorrow." Aki cleared her throat.

"Right right, it's late now…" Yugo muttered and got up, taking the dishes to wash.

"The Council will take us to Tops the next morning, I agree we sleep now."

Selena silently watched as the Lancers finished the meal and clean the dishes, thinking nothing but the riddles in her mind. She did not know what to do after the war, and even worse, she got no one to belong to…

" _Expect him…"_

* * *

Yuya walked into the kitchen, where Yuzu was drinking water, mumbling about something.

"Hey Yuya."

"Hey. What are you thinking about?"

"Uh… just having nothing to do. I don't want to sleep now, it's still early."

"Should we go outside for some fresh air?"

Yuzu quickly agreed. "Yeah, but not too far from here okay?"

"Don't worry." He assured.

They quietly went out and walked. This particular part of the Commons lacked street lights, only the moon above the sky was the source for Yuya and Yuzu to see things. The boy took a peek at the girl, noticing her beautiful face sparkling in the moonlight; Yuya had heard stories about how the girl looked good in the night, and now he saw it from his best female friend. It made his heart flutter.

" _Why haven't I seen her like this… before?"_ Yuya thought, his face slightly heated.

Suddenly the crows from the rooftops squawked before flying away to look for prey, scaring the shit out of them. When they were gone, the teenagers realized for some reason Yuzu's hands were clasping Yuya's tightly, and his were holding hers just as tightly as well. They looked at each other wide-eyed, in full disbelief, before letting go uncomfortably. Yuya and Yuzu continued walking, eyes not looking at each other.

They walked straight until they got to the river. Yuzu elegantly stood near the railings while Yuya hopped on it. They looked at the full moon, neither talking, lost in the beauty of it or lost in the close moment earlier.

"So…" Yuzu broke the silence. "Who will… talk first?"

Yuya sighed nervously. He swallowed his droll to keep focus.

"What we did… earlier…"

"Yeah…" Yuzu looked at him apologetically. "I'm sorry, I did not mean to…"

Yuya looked at her, lost in her deep blue eyes. He shook his head. "Don't, Yuzu. I uh… I actually uh… I actually liked it… a lot."

Blushing and feeling happy at the same time, the pink-haired girl could only let out a warm smile. That heart-pounding smile Yuya always liked and for some reason, it had something else for him today.

"Yuzu." Yuya spoke up.

"Yeah?"

"I'm glad that you already have a future ahead."

"Thanks a lot Yuya." Yuzu said. "I always want to be a pianist even though I now duel more. I still hate my father for selling the piano set two years ago to support You Show Duel School after Yusho-san disappeared."

Yuya nodded with sad eyes, remembering his father. "Father, why…" He whispered. "Why did you leave me and mom behind…?"

"Yuya, do you hate your father?" Yuzu asked, seriously.

"Sometimes…" He revealed. "I got bullied for it ever since, why couldn't I hate him for that?"

"I know this may not help, just like it always did, but he must have left for a reason. Adults have a lot of things they have to bear, sometimes they cannot keep track. We are going to grow up soon and we are going to bear that shit soon. I understand my father for that, you should try."

"I know…" He whispered. "That's why I choose to honor him, I choose to become an Entertainment Duelist just like him, to bring smiles and happiness to the world."

Yuya sighed, his next words came out heavily. "But it is slowly not working…"

"Why?"

"I don't know Yuzu. As the son of Sakaki Yusho and an Entertainment Duelist myself, it's my responsibility to bring smiles to people and connect them through my Dueling, but the problem in Synchro lies deeper than that. It's rooted deep inside the City's citizens, inside Yugo, Aki-san, Yusei-san. I cannot sway their opinion with just one Duel alone." He confessed. He sighed and put his hand over his forehead. "I am too messed up Yuzu. If I cannot do it, what can I do…?"

Yuzu put her right hand on his shoulder. "Hey, listen to me. You cannot change a person's personality, it's their choice to do it or not we cannot judge. You only help them a bit to do that. But trust me." She placed her hand on his face now, guiding his eyes to meet her own. "No matter how hard it may be, I will support you. Me, Gongenzaka, the kids, your mom, my dad and everyone will support you. And your father will definitely do the same too."

Yuya smiled, holding her hand gently and tightly at the same time. "Yeah…"

"Close enough?" A male voice, deep and harsh spoke up from behind. Yuzu and Yuya quickly turned around. In front of them was three individuals, two men and one woman. They all had several yellow trail marks on their faces and from it, Yuya and Yuzu knew they are criminals; Yusei and told them that.

"Hello Yugo, trying to seduce Rin to bang her?" The largest of them said. "Clearly worth the effort of tailing you since the morning."

"Who are you three?" Yuya asked. "We don't know who you are, and I am not-"

"Don't deceive me you bastard! We still haven't forgotten what you did!" The other male roared with high-pitched voice.

"Calm down calm down Malcom." The women held him back. "Take it easy. We have an entire night to play with them."

"Oh, and don't try to run past us. This way is back to the orphanage right?" The leader said while pointing his thumb at the back alley; Yuya and Yuzu panicked.

They nervously looked at each other before nodding. Yuya grabbed Yuzu's hand and quickly ran away.

"Hey assholes! Stop!" The man yelled.

"Chase them!" Malcom said. The three then chased the teenagers.

Yuya and Yuzu tried to run as fast as possible, crossing a right turn. The criminals tailed them close. The teenagers frantically turned left and right, passing through every possible corners to cut them off. They hit a wall…

"Dammit! It's a dead end!" Yuzu noted.

Soon after Malcom and his two associates came, blocking their way out.

"Now you cannot run anymore." Malcom said with a creepy smile. "Assholes."

"We did not do you anything wrong! Let us go!" Yuya tried to negotiate.

"You did us this and now you try to lie?" The leader grunted. "Yugo?"

"Yugo?"

"That's your name you piece of shit."

"Wait wait wait you got the wrong guy! He is Yuya not-" Yuzu spoke up.

"Stop!" The woman yelled. "Those lies will not help you two outta here tonight!"

The leader slightly crouched down, bringing his face closer to Yuya. "It seems you are trying to deceive us. Let's get this clear, my name is Lotten, here is Barbara and Malcom. You put us in jail two years ago." Lotten said the story. "And now we are here to avenge, foolish kid."

"Yugo put you in jail? How?" Yuzu said in shock, fear and confusion.

"Hasn't this asshole told you about it?" Barbara said. "Whatever… you are not gonna survive tonight."

"Lo-look! What-whatever you think… think us as, we really… really… did not do you anything… please let us go…" Yuzu pleaded.

"Still trying to deny?" Barbara gritted in anger and delivered a punch to Yuzu's face, knocking her down.

"Yuzu!" Yuya screamed. Lotten quickly held him.

"Yuzu?! Not Rin? Or you two changed names?" He punched the teenager's stomach. Yuya yelled painfully.

"Yuya no!" The girl shrieked while Barbara held her down.

"That is for putting us in jail." Lotten breathed.

"And THIS!" Malcom punched Yuya. "Is for putting me and Sergey-sama in jail!"

"No…" Yuzu cried.

"And this…" Barbara kicked the Entertainment Duelist hard in the crotch. "Is for putting me in jail and my family in the grave!"

"No! Please stop… Yuya, Yuya!" Yuzu called her friend who crouched in pain.

Barbara held Yuzu up by her neck and threw her to the wall, Yuya got kicked one more time, sliding to the back wall as well.

"Now… what are we going to do with you two…?" Lotten asked himself. He looked at his two buddies.

"Got any ideas Malcom?"

Malcom pouted his mouth and shook his head.

"No? Baby?"

Barbara smiled slyly and pulled out two needles. Lotten took them and showed them to the beaten-up and bloodied teens.

"Remember these Yugo? No? Well let me explain again. The one on the left here is used, like several doses you used before."

"What…" Yuya mumbled in shock. "Used needles…?"

"Yeah, I wondered how you are not affected much by it then but I remembered you definitely liked it. Got any medical check-ups on HIV?"

At this point Yuya cringed. _"HIV… What did you do… Yugo?"_

"And the one on the right…" Lotten whispered close to Yuzu's face, his tongue nearly licking her face. "…has MDMA. One shot and you will really want to have it. Best used for the chicks."

"No… no… no…!" Yuzu mumbled uncontrollably. "No stop!" She curled, holding Yuya tightly.

"The best way to punish a man… is to punish his weakness." Lotten delivered with his creepy tone. "And I think the girl will love it."

"NO NO NO STOP!" Yuzu shrieked. She tried to run but Barbara held her back and pinned her.

"Stop it you son of a bitch!" Yuya yelled and attempted to punch Lotten but Malcom punched him. He helplessly watched as Lotten put the needle closer to the scared and crying Yuzu.

Lotten held her left hand tightly, Yuzu shook it but to no avail.

"Sa, welcome you to the-"

Suddenly, Yuzu's eyes glowed bright purple, blinding everyone present. The moment Lotten and his crew managed to see again, they were met with strong kicks to their faces, knocking them back. In front of them, Yuzu stood still with her eyes glowing like a warrior of Heaven.

Yuya froze, unable to say anything to what had happened to Yuzu. The Yuzu standing in front of him right now was very different, just like what his friends told him about him.

"Stay back." Yuzu told Yuya, her voice calm and cold.

"Yu…zu…?"

Lotten got up, charging towards Yuzu but she swiftly held his arm and threw him back. The criminals tried to run away but Yuzu ran as quickly as a flash, stopping them.

"You are not going anywhere…" She placed her Duel Disk. "Unless you win me in a DUEL!" She activated it.

"Are you… kidding me…?" Lotten muttered in disbelief.

"You want to DIE or not?!" She threatened. Lotten hesitantly pulled out his Duel Disk and activated it.

"Come here Yuya." Yuzu said. Still in shock, Yuya slowly came out of the dead end, trapping the three assholes in it.

"Yuzu, what happened to you? What's wrong with your… eyes?!" He asked. At the same time Yuzu's eyes returned to normal.

"Yu...ya…" She said weakly. "What the? Why-"

"Yuzu!" He smiled in relief. "You're okay!"

"Okay what?!"

"You beat those people up!"

"What?" Yuzu turned to see the criminals, clearly there was a dent in each of their faces.

"What happened?"

"You kicked them!" Yuya said. "Wait! You do not remember?"

"Uh… uh… I… don't…" Yuzu looked down, finding her Duel Disk ready. "What the…"

Lotten, Malcom and Barbara used this opportunity to try to run but Yuya and Yuzu quickly took stances.

"Stay back there!" Yuya slapped a card down to Yuzu's Duel Disk, Odd-Eyes quickly appeared and stopped them. "You are not going anywhere!"

"Dammit!" Lotten cursed.

"It's strange… I don't remember but… just stay back, I will handle them." She declared.

"Let me duel them! They hurt you Yuzu!"

"No, I have to Yuya! They tried to turn me into a drug and sex slave! They hurt you as well, I cannot forgive them!" She argued. "I need to make them pay!"

Wanting to argue but respecting her wished, Yuya reluctantly agreed. He armed his Duel Disk up and placed Odd-Eyes back to his blade, using his trusty dragon as a gate blocker.

"Be careful Yuzu… And remember, we can only use Synchro against those assholes. We cannot let them know we are not from here." Yuya whispered.

"I will…"

"Strong girl… whatever you did, it will not change your fate today!" Lotten seemed to find some of his juice back.

"We'll see… you hurt me and Yuya, you will pay!"

 **DUEL!**

 **Hiragi Yuzu** : 4000 [5]

 **Lotten** : 4000 [5]

* * *

"I take the first turn." Lotten declared. "From my hand, I Normal Summon Gatling Ogre!"

 **Gatling Ogre** FIRE/Demon/Effect/LV3/ **800** /800

"And then, Magic Card Ogre Load activate! I set three Magic or Trap cards directly from my Deck, but they cannot activate this turn." Lotten revealed the three Traps he selected before setting them down.

"He's setting down Magic or Trap cards from Deck?" Yuya wondered.

" _He has three Set cards but he cannot activate it… What is he going to do…?"_ Yuzu thought.

"Gatling Ogre's monster effect activates!" The bullets on Gatling Ogre's mechanical left arm slid down, loading the six-barreled gun on its belly. "I can send 1 Set Magic or Trap card to the graveyard and inflict 800 damage for each one!".

"What?!"

"Fire!"

The monster spun the crane, bullets hit Yuzu with lightning speed. She screamed in pain before flying backwards.

"YUZUUUU!" Yuya screamed, he ran to her and helped her up. "Are you okay?"

"I'm fine Yuya."

 **Yuzu** : 4000 - 1600 [5]

"Nice baby! 2400 damage before that bitch can do anything!" Barbara smiled at her lover's powerful move.

Lotten took out two cards. "You're lucky that I cannot send more cards to the graveyard the turn I activate Ogre Load. One card set, turn end." Lotten finished.

Yuya helped Yuzu get up. "Let me duel for you Yuzu."

"I'm fine Yuya, don't worry." She calmed him down though in her mind she was really worried. "These assholes need to be punished."

"Be careful Yuzu, he plays a burn deck, you need to get rid of it first."

"I know… Atashi no turn, draw!" She started her turn.

" _Shit… with my hand I could pull out Schubert or Berlize right away but…"_ Since they are not Synchro monsters, Yuzu could not risk summoning it. _"I'm not out of options."_

"Continous Magic Castle of the Gods - Vahalla activate!" A small castle identical to the image of the card appeared behind Yuzu. "With its effect, I can call out an Angel-type monster from my hand! Appear now Level 8! Melodious Maestra Prodigy Mozart!" On Yuzu's side of field, her high-level monster descended from a portal.

 **Melodious Maestra Prodigy Mozart** LIGHT/Angel/Pendulum/Effect/LV8/Scale 1/ **2600** /2000

"Level 8 monster with 2600 ATK…" Lotten commented. "Pretty powerful…"

"Battle! Prodigy Mozart, attack Gatling Ogre! Graceful Wave!" The singer flew up and waved its wand, releasing green circular waves.

"Foolish!" Lotten mocked and activated his Set card. "Trap Card Karma Flame Barrier - Fire Force activate!" The card flipped up and burst up in flame. "All Attack Position monsters you control will be destroyed!"

"What?!" Yuzu gasped as the flame started to engulf her monster.

"And then I take half of the total ATKs of those monsters as damage, after that you take the same amount!"

"Which means 1300 damage…" Yuya noted. "Yuzu no!"

"Hmph." Yuzu chuckled. "So sad for you asshole!"

"Nani?"

"Prodigy Mozart's monster effect activates!" Yuzu removed one card from her hand. "I send a "Melodious" card to the graveyard to negate a Magic/Trap card's activation or effect!"

"Graceful Nullify!" From the fire, Prodigy Mozart managed to get free and fired a green blast at Lotten's trap, negating it.

"The battle continues!" Yuzu's ace fired another blast at Gatling Ogre.

"Lotten!" Malcom and Barbara gasped.

"Shit! If so I activate Ogre Gardna's effect!" Lotten revealed the card. "I send this card to the grave to protect Gatling Ogre from destruction this turn." The wave hit the ogre repeatedly but failed to destroy it, only leaving several gashes.

 **Lotten** : 4000 - 2200 [1]

"Tsk… so you protected it to burn me on my next turn? I set down two cards, turn end." Yuzu finished her turn.

"Huh, only two Set cards?" Malcom mocked at Yuzu's seemingly futile play.

"No matter what those cards are, Lotten will finish you on your next turn little girl!" Barbara said.

"Ready to surrender girl?" Lotten threatened Yuzu. "Ore no turn, draw!"

"At this moment, Continuous Trap activate!" Yuzu suddenly declared.

"What?"

"Demon's Chain!" A dark green chain burst out from the trap after a thick black smoke, restraining Gatling Ogre.

"Uh… Gatling Ogre…! What did you do bitch?"

"Demon's Chain targets a monster and negate its effects, also you cannot use it to attack." Yuya explained. "With this, you cannot use the effect of Gatling Ogre anymore!"

"Dammit… such tricks!" Lotten said, greatly annoyed.

"This girl is clearly good…" Barbara muttered.

"Now your play is stopped, better surrender before I beat you to a pulp!" Yuzu confidently threatened back.

"Not yet." Lotten calmly said. "Who said I will surrender? I am not over yet!"

"Get ready Yuzu." Yuya warned, ready to protect Yuzu.

"Uhm!"

"From the graveyard, Ogre Load's effect activates! I banish it from the grave to send Full Armor Ogre monster from my hand to the graveyard, then I can add another one from the Deck."

"And then while Full Armor Ogre is in the graveyard, I can release Gatling Ogre to Special Summon this card! Appear now, Big Cannon Ogre!"

 **Big Cannon Ogre** FIRE/Demon/Effect/LV7/ **2400** /2400

"You released Gatling Ogre to call another Ogre monster?!" Yuzu wondered. "The target leaves the field so Demon's Chain is destroyed…" The trap disintegrated. "But it only has 2400 ATK! It cannot destroy Prodigy Mozart!"

"Tuner Monster, Ogre Gardna's monster effect activate!" Lotten revealed, shocking Yuya and Yuzu.

"Tuner Monster?!"

"If I special summon a "Ogre" monster, I can resurrect it, but it will be banished when it leaves the field."

 **Ogre Gardna** FIRE/Demon/Tuner/Effect/LV1/ **500** /400

"I, using the Level 7 Big Cannon Ogre and Level 1 Ogre Gardna, Tuning!"

"Synchro Shōkan! Appear now Level 8! Blaster Ogre!" From the Synchro light a new monster appeared. It looked like a smaller version of the deadly Flak gun used in WW2, complete with dark green painting and a demonic creature with black mask controlling it.

 **Blaster Ogre** FIRE/Demon/Synchro/Effect/LV8/ **3000** /2500

"ATK 3000!" Yuzu noted.

"Get ready to feel despair, Rin! Blaster Ogre's monster effect activates!" The monster loaded the gun. "Once per turn, it can inflict damage equal to half of a "Ogre" monster in the graveyard's ATK, and I can make you discard one random card from your hand as well!"

"The hell?!" Yuzu yelled as Blaster Ogre fired, hitting the ground near Yuzu, causing an explosion. Debris flew discriminately, cutting Yuzu in her cheek despite trying to cover herself.

 **Yuzu** : 1600 - 400 [1]

"Yuzu!" Yuya held himself from the blast and went near Yuzu. "You're hurt! Your cheek!"

"It's nothing Yuya…" Yuzu said between the blood and pain. She wiped it.

"Due to Blaster Ogre's effect, you must discard a card of my choice." Lotten reminded.

"Whatever." Yuzu shrugged off. "Choose which one asshole!"

"Such a foul-mouthed girl." Lotten mocked. "Take the leftmost card out." Yuzu complied.

 **Yuzu** : 400 [0]

"Now Rin, you only have 400 LP, if this attack goes through you are gone. Don't worry, after that dose you will have some pleasure time, your spirit will be heightened a lot."

"Shut up you sick bastard!"

"Still defiant in the end? Fine…" Lotten whispered dangerously. "Blaster Ogre, attack Prodigy Mozart!" The demonic gunner laughed before pulling the trigger. The bullet fired out at lightning speed.

"Yuzu!"

"Quick-Play Magic, Poison of an Old Man activate! I gain 1200 LP!" Yuzu gained a green aura, signifying her LP gain.

 **Yuzu** : 400 - 1600 [1]

"Nani?!" Lotten gritted his teeth. The bullet hit Prodigy Mozart and finally destroyed it. Yuzu and Yuya covered themselves from the ensuring explosion.

" _I'm sorry… Prodigy Mozart… your effort will not go to waste…"_

 **Yuzu** : 1600 - 1200 [1]

"Phew…" Yuya sighed in relief. "Good job Yuzu… you nearly freaked me out…"

"Sorry Yuya." Yuzu apologized with an ensuring smile. "At least we are fine now."

"Such a persistent bitch!" Malcom cursed.

"Don't you just gonna give up?!" Barbara sighed.

"Hmph." Lotten said, managing to keep his composure. "It's true that you survived this turn, but I will finish you when I get the control again, and let me tell you, Blaster Ogre cannot be destroyed by card effects, which means you have to kill it by battle, but it also has 3000 ATK, you will not be doing anything! Better give up now and follow us."

"So sad for you." Yuzu smiled. "It's not gonna happen. Since Prodigy Mozart is destroyed, I can add a "Melodious" monster from my Deck to my hand."

"Watashi no turn, draw!" Yuzu said without even checking her drawn card. "Get ready to lose Lotten!"

"Huh?"

"From my hand, Tuner Monster, Melodious Songstress Tempo Normal Summon!" A female singer in a white dress with green stripes appeared, waving her microphone.

 **Melodious Songstress Tempo** LIGHT/Angel/Tuner/Effect/LV2/ **900** /800

"Tuner Monster?! Don't tell me…!"

"When it is summoned, I can special summon a Level 4 or lower "Melodious" monster from the graveyard. Thank you for sending it to the grave earlier Lotten!"

"You…!"

"Be reborn, Melodious Songstress Duet!" Tempo turned on the mic, a portal appeared from its left, allowing the Pendulum monster to revive.

 **Melodious Songstress Duet** LIGHT/Angel/Pendulum/Effect/LV4/Scale 9/1800/ **1200**

"Watch it closely with your eyes, your gateway to the damned Hell!" Yuzu declared furiously. "I, using the Level 4 Melodious Songstress Duet and Level 2 Tempo, Tuning!" The singer waved its mic and sang, turning into two Synchro rings which swept over Duet and turned the other monster into four stars.

"Voice of the heaven, sing the greatest song of creation, and mark a bright star to life! Synchro Shōkan! Appear now Level 6! Floral Melodious Saint Bloom Donna!" A female monster appeared from the light. It was a beautiful Asian woman in probably her 20s, distinct white skin, bright eyes, a long white dress.

 **Floral Melodious Saint Bloom Donna** LIGHT/Angel/Synchro/Effect/LV6/ **1800** /2400

"Synchro Summon…" Lotten said in shock, but he quickly laughed. "But! It only has 1800 ATK! What are you going to do with it?"

"Bloom Donna's monster effect activates! It targets your Blaster Ogre and return it to the hand!"

"What?! Return to the hand?!"

"Since this is not destroying, Blaster Ogre is helpless against it!" Yuzu said loudly, Bloom Donna unleashed a massive blue wave of energy at Blaster Ogre. Lotten watched in horror as his monster disintegrated and flew back to the Extra Deck slot.

"Also, Bloom Donna gains ATK equal to half of the returned monster's original ATK until the end of this turn!"

 **Floral Melodious Saint Bloom Donna** ATK 1800 - 3300

"ATK… 3300!?" Lotten exclaimed in horror.

"Yoss! Finish him Yuzu!"

"Battle! Bloom Donna, attack Blaster Ogre! Bel Canto Donna!" The monster sang in high notes, shattering the steel of Blaster Ogre part by part, until it was nothing left. The ensuring explosion was so large that it knocked back Lotten, Malcom and Barbara, knocking them unconscious.

 **Lotten** : 2200 - 0 [1]

Yuzu breathed in and out heavily, feeling massive relief that the dangerous Duel was over. She dropped down tiredly on her knees.

"Yuzu, you did it!" Yuya helped her up. "You have won!"

"I told you I would Yuya." Yuzu let out a smile. "We need to get out of here now, this Duel must have attracted the police."

Yuya looked at the unconscious Lotten, Barbara and Malcom. Looking at the two dropped syringes near them, an idea popped up in his head.

"Let's deliver them back…"

* * *

Lotten groaned, he painfully got up, shaking his head in pain.

"Ah… That bitch… Barbara, Malcom!"

He shook the other two up.

"Dammit… they got away…"

"And you three are not getting away either." A stern voice voiced out from the other side of the alley, and when the criminals looked at the source, they saw numerous Security officers surrounding them, three handcuffs ready. Besides them were the two syringes they threatened Yuya and Yuzu earlier.

"Committing crime again right after early releasement, I did not expect you three to be this bestial. Lotten, Barbara and Malcom, you are arrested for drug possession and human trafficking."

* * *

 **Fanfic OC Cards**

 **Ogre Load**

(Normal Magic Card)

Set 3 Magic/Trap cards directly from your Deck, but for the rest of this turn, you cannot activate any Magic/Trap cards. You cannot Set any other Magic/Trap cards unless the Magic/Trap cards Set by this card's effect leaves the field. During the End Phase, banish the Magic/Trap cards Set by this effect (even if they leave the field). You can banish this card from your GY: Send 1 FIRE "Ogre" monster from your hand to the GY, and if you do, add 1 FIRE "Ogre" monster from your Deck to your hand. You can only activate 1 "Ogre Load" once per turn.

 **Ogre Gardna**

FIRE/Demon/LV1/Tuner/Effect/100/100

During either player's turn, if a FIRE "Ogre" monster you control would be destroyed: You can send this card from your hand to the GY; this turn "FIRE" Ogre monsters you control cannot be destroyed. If you Special Summon a FIRE "Ogre" monster: You can Special Summon this card from your hand or GY; but banish it when it leaves the field. You can only use each effect of "Ogre Gardna" once per turn.

 **Blaster Ogre**

FIRE/Demon/Synchro/Effect/LV8/3000/2500

1 Tuner + 1+ non-Tuner FIRE monsters

Cannot be destroyed by card effects. Once per turn: You can target 1 FIRE "Ogre" monster in your GY; inflict damage equal to your opponent equal to half of its original ATK, also discard 1 random card from your opponent's hand.

 **Melodious Maestra Prodigy Mozart**

LIGHT/Angel/Pendulum/Effect/LV8/Scale 1/2600/2000

 **Pendulum Effect:** (Condition) You cannot Pendulum Summon monsters, expect "Melodious" monsters.

Once per turn, if you have no cards in your other Pendulum Zone: You can place 1 "Melodious" Pendulum Monster from your Deck in your Pendulum Zone. If you control no monsters: You can Fusion, Synchro or Xyz Summon 1 "Melodious" monster from your Extra Deck, by banishing "Melodious" monsters from the GY or attaching 2 "Melodious" monsters from the GY if you Xyz Summon using this card's Pendulum effect, but banish those monsters if they are sent to the GY. You can only use this effect of "Melodious Maestra Prodigy Mozart" once per turn.

 **Monster Effect:** You can Special Summon up to 2 "Melodious" monsters from your hand, Deck or GY, but they have their effects negated, they cannot attack, also destroy them during the End Phase. When a Magic/Trap card is activated: You can send 1 "Melodious" monster from your hand to the GY; negate the activation. If this card is destroyed by battle or an opponent's card effect: You can add 1 "Melodious" card from your Deck to your hand. If this card is destroyed while in the Monster Zone: You can destroy all cards in your Pendulum Zones, and if you do, place this card in your Pendulum Zone. You can only use each effect of "Melodious Maestra Prodigy Mozart" once per turn.

 **Melodious Songstress Tempo**

LIGHT/Angel/Tuner/Effect/LV2/900/800

When this card is Normal Summoned: You can target 1 "Melodious" monster in your GY; Special Summon it in Defense Position, but its effects are negated, it is destroyed during the End Phase, also you cannot Special Summon monsters from the Extra Deck for the rest of this turn, expect "Melodious" monsters.

 **Melodious Songstress Duet**

LIGHT/Angel/Pendulum/Effect/LV4/Scale 9/1800/1200

 **Pendulum Effect:** Once per turn: You can target 1 "Melodious" monster in your GY; Special Summon it, but it has its effect negated, also destroy it during the End Phase. Once per turn: You can Fusion Summon 1 "Melodious" Fusion monster from your Extra Deck, by banishing Fusion materials listed on it from your field or GY. Once per either player's turn, if you Special Summon a "Melodious" monster from your Extra Deck: You can draw 1 card.

 **Monster Effect:** If this card is Normal or Special Summoned: You can add 1 "Melodious" monster from your Deck to your hand. You can only use this effect of "Melodious Songstress Duet" once per turn.

 **Floral Melodious Saint Bloom Donna**

LIGHT/Angel/Synchro/Effect/LV6/1800/2400

1 Tuner + 1+ non-Tuner "Melodious" monsters

The first time this card would be destroyed by battle or card effect each turn, it is not destroyed. Once per turn: You can target 1 Special Summoned monster your opponent controls; return it to the hand, and if you do, this card gains ATK equal to half of that monster's original ATK, until the end of this turn. If this card battled, change this card to Defense Position at the end of the Damage Step. If this card is destroyed by battle or card effect and sent to the GY: You can add 1 "Melodious" monster from your GY to your hand. You can only use this effect of "Floral Melodious Saint Bloom Donna" once per turn.

* * *

 **Phew! This is the final filler chapter of the Synchro arc, the next one will be on the Friendship Cup!**

 **Surprise! Who expected the crew from the Wild West of 5D's to return? Don't worry, they are not filler villains, they will appear later on. And I'm sure the Yuzu part will shock all of you!**

 **Don't get me wrong, I completely respect Japan and its people for what they've managed to do during the second half of the 20th century and I am absolutely not trying to start a meaningless fire, but history cannot be forgotten, good or bad, and the sinners must be paid for their crimes. As long as the Japanese government continues to neglect their sins, there will always be people who despite Japan.**

* * *

 **Next Chapter Preview**

 **Exhibition Match - The King's Sacrifice/The Future for the Dauntless**

The day for the Friendship Cup is near, and the night before it a certain person will be put on the altar of sacrifice.

 **This is matrixnis, out!**


	46. Scale 46

**Welcome back everyone! Hope all of you had a good Christmas with your family, friends, girlfriend and wife! Also a huge applause for any of you who are still single at the moment!**

 **The sacrifice duel is here! And the person who will duel will surprise you a lot!**

 **Hope you enjoy reading this chapter!**

* * *

 **Chapter 46: Exhibition Match - The King's Sacrifice/The Future for the Dauntless**

* * *

 **Early Morning**

Yugo got up from his room, doing normal morning routine before going in the garage to tune his D-Wheel one last time. While he was doing that, the sliding door he closed previously opened, revealing Yuya and Yuzu.

"I knew you would wake up early Yugo." Yuya said, his voice raspy due to having just woken up.

Yugo looked up, seeing the Standard couple.

"Hey Yuya, Yuzu. What's up?"

"We need to talk." Yuzu said. The look on her face indicated Yugo that this would be serious.

"Fine…"

Yuya carefully closed the garage door to avoid outside interference.

"I'll get straight to the point. Last night we were attacked by three people."

"You were attacked?!" Yugo exclaimed in shock.

"Sshh! Quiet." Yuzu whispered.

"Uh-okay…"

"Their names are Lotten, Barbara and Malcom." Yugo couldn't hide his shock when Yuya mentioned their names. "Ring a bell?"

"They mistook us for you and Rin. They said you used to be with them, as a gang. What the hell is that? Is what they said true?"

Yugo quickly answered. "There are idiots in City wanting to hurt other people. They accuse people a lot."

Yuzu saw through his attempt to lie. "You're a bad liar Yugo, you cannot deceive us. They said you used drug back when you were with them, but you kicked them to prison two years ago."

"It's a lie!" Yugo snapped back. He went back to working.

"Stop that shit Yugo!" Yuya raised his voice. "I need to know! Is what they said true or not?!"

The three stared at each other, not saying anything. The silence escalated the tension more.

In a flash, Yuya grabbed the tools, preventing Yugo from working.

"Hey! Give it back!"

"Unless you tell us the whole truth, we will not do it."

"Friends are supposed not to hide and lie to each other Yugo." Yuzu said firmly.

Yugo looked down, breathing deeply.

* * *

 **Morning**

"Is this the place Reiji?" Selena asked the leader of the Lancers.

"Yep. The Council called me last night to be here at the morning."

"Why does they want to be public though?" Shinji wondered.

They were now out of the slums, in a park at the more industrialized part of the Commons section. In the morning where most people were at work or eating breakfast or going to school or whatever, the park was quite empty and peaceful.

"They must have planned the time." Shun guessed. "No one in here recognizes us right now."

A short while later, two vehicles approached the park. One was a large blue bus and the other was a container.

"Here they are." Reiji informed.

The cars stopped, several people in blue suits came out and stood in two lines at the entrance of the park. A man then came out from the left door of the bus (they parked on the Lancer's left side), he wore a black tuxedo and sunglasses. He walked to the park and met the Lancers.

"Greetings. You must be the participants of the Friendship Cup."

"We are." Reiji said to the man. "I see the Executive Council have prepared quite well."

"Unless what you said is true, all of you will be in big trouble soon. Roget has some disputes about you."

"Disputes?" Ruri wondered.

"First off, why are there three girls and three boys sharing the same faces? Secondly, all of the participants are from Commons this time, and in truth, only four are from here, City." He explained. "This causes a massive argument between the Council and Roget, you will have to explain once you get in Tops. Luckily for all of you, this tournament always keeps the profile of the participants secret until the first day so we can cover it up, but Roget needs information from you first."

"We got it." Reiji said.

"I hope so. I am only giving you information under the Council's orders, I do not know much about the rumored "Dimensional War" thing going on and I do not care, all I care is getting all of you to there and getting money. Anything further is out of my capability to handle, is that clear?"

"Loud and clear." Shun told him.

"Good." He turned to Yugo, Yusei, Aki and Shinji. "Long time no see Yusei, Aki."

"Hello Ushio-san." Aki greeted him. "You have quitted your Security job?"

"Personal reasons. Anyway, get in the bus, all of you."

 **#################################**

The Lancers all got in the bus, the D-Wheels were put in the container. They took a good amount of time seeing the view of the Commons and Tops. One hour later, they were now at the Executive Council's building's basement floor.

"We'll keep your D-Wheels for the tournament from now on. As for the rest of you, we will give you yours."

"Thank you Ushio-san." Yuya thanked him.

"No problem. Now get ready."

The Lancers got in the large elevator and went to the top floor. As soon as they got into the room to meet the Council and Roget, they were in a middle of an argument.

"I told you! I do not allow these people to participate!"

"This is for the bigger good Roget! Besides if they are lying we can capture them in secret!"

"Do you think I don't know? For the last two days I've noticed strange disturbances, I have conducted a research on it and found out those were the summon methods besides Synchro! Fusion, Xyz and Pendulum Summon! And don't even tell me there are six lookalikes in there, I know that! They do not have a purpose to be in City, I need to capture them to investigate that!"

White Taki was arguing with a middle-aged man who was sitting at the table on the Council's left. He had white hair with spiked bangs, he wore a closed knee-length purple coat held by silver clasps over an orange collared shirt, grey pants and black shoes.

"Oh here they are!" Roget exclaimed upon seeing the Lancers.

"We are not lying by the way White Taki." Reiji said. He quickly glanced at Roget. _"Here you are… rotten rat…"_

"We want to keep the four dimensions from the threat of Academia of the Fusion Dimension, and we come to this place to make an alliance with you."

"Does the Council believe in those lies? They can be Academia's spies!" Roget argued.

"Spies?!" Sawatari yelled. "We are not spies! Don't try to deceive!"

"Shut up!" Roget ordered. "Four dimensions? Dimensional War? Such a good thing to include in comic books! Unless you are trying to and you are spies!"

"It's real Director of Security! The threat is real!" Yuto said. "Academia destroyed our home in the last seven months and they still keep doing that, they had also attacked Yuya's homeland Standard as well, there is no guarantee they would not invade Synchro!"

"That's enough! The Executive Council, I request to capture them immediately! Dammit, I could have done this sooner if you had not brought them here first!"

"We mean no harm to the Synchro Dimension Roget-san!" Yuzu tried to calm things down. "We are here to stop the bigger threat! Academia! If you do not believe what we say, this dimension will be at chaos too!"

"We will take care of whatever threat coming on our own! We do not need help, especially from dangerous people like you!" Roget spat.

"Dangerous people…?" Yuya repeated what Roget said in confusion.

"Roget, that's enough!" Gary ordered Roget to stop.

"Not yet-"

"ENOUGH!" White Taki had to yell very loudly, the wrath of an old man shut everyone up, including the middle-aged Roget. The strain caused him to cough several times before regaining his normal creepily warm smile.

"At first we did not believe what Akaba Reiji said as well, but for the last two days the so-called "Lancers" had not done anything serious, and since Fudo Yusei and Izayoi Aki are with them, I can assure you they are not Academia's spies."

"Ah… Those two again…" Roget mumbled disinterestedly.

"Of course we cannot fully trust them as allies yet, so we have conducted a trial for them to prove us that."

"Trial?" Roget wondered.

"The Friendship Cup."

"So that's why the tournament is early this year. I heard a lot of rumors from the citizens."

"It's mandatory. If they can win the King, this will prove that they are indeed allies to us and their intentions are good. How do you feel about this Roget, do you agree?"

Left with no other choice, Roget gave in.

"All right… but in exchange for my acceptance, I have two requests."

"Requests?" Yugo spoke up.

"Every year, on the eve of the Friendship Cup, the King carries out an exhibition match. I want to let one of them serve as the opponent."

"What do you want from this Roget?" Bordeaux asked.

"I knew one of the Lancers, Gongenzaka Noboru, had dueled the King two days ago, but I had not seen it with my very own eyes. I want to do it now."

"All right. We accept." Reiji agreed.

"Now… who is going to duel him…" Roget muttered, looking at the anxious Lancers. He took a quick look at each one of them before finally choosing one by pointing at him.

"Huh? Me?"

Yugo pointed at himself, both in nervous and excitement.

"I get the chance to duel the King?"

"Right. I have heard that you always wanted to be King one day, so I will give you a chance to face his power first." Roget explained.

"Yossa!" Yugo jumped up very happily, finally having the chance to duel the person he wished to the most.

"So, the Executive Council, do you agree?"

"We do." White Taki approved. "And what is your other request?"

"Since the total numbers of participants must only be 16, two of them cannot participate in the Friendship Cup. Choose, Lancers."

"We have chosen already." Gray said, to the shock of Roget and the Lancers.

"Have chosen?!" Dennis exclaimed.

"Akaba Reiji and Akaba Reira will not participate."

"We are not?" Reiji said.

"There is no need to test the skill of the leader of Lancers, we can do it later on if we like to. And surely we do not allow kids to enter."

Reira seemed to be a little bit distressed at this decision. She grasped Reiji tightly.

"Reira?"

"Brother… please… I don't want to leave…" She whispered.

"Leave? I am here with you Reira."

"No… I don't want… to… leave… Tsukikage…"

Reiji became surprised. He did not expect Reira to say it, of course she had spent time with Tsukikage doing normal stuffs like watching sunrise, buying lollipops or playing in the park (in which Tsukikage wore normal civilian clothing as well). Was Reira starting to develop her sense of self back?

Yuya quickly confronted the panicked girl. "Don't worry Reira, he will be fine. He can handle himself well and your brother is always there to protect you."

Yuya did not know, but Reiji briefly smiled.

"Good. Now we will prepare rooms for all of you. Meeting dismissed."

After that, Roget left the room first to go back to his Security job, giving one last disgusting look at the Lancers before walking away. During his way back to his office, he could not stop thinking about them.

" _Akaba Reiji… the son of the Professor… and those three boys…"_

His fists tightened, his eyes became bullets.

* * *

 **Afternoon**

After the meeting, the Lancers besides Reiji and Reira, who stayed at another room, moved to a hotel near the stadium where the tournament was held. Each of them was given a room to stay in. They rested for a while until afternoon where they went to the stadium to train Riding Duel in there, getting used to the terrain.

During the practice, everyone could notice Yugo was happier than usual. He rode for longer than the rest.

"He's really into it." Selena commented.

"To the point he did not care about being the sacrifice." Yusei said.

"Sacrifice?" Ruri wondered.

"You know why there is always an Exhibition Match before the tournament? To show the King's power. Jack does not directly join, he only duels the champion after all of the elimination rounds."

"In short, Friendship Cup is just a tournament to choose the person who will duel the King." Aki said. "The sacrifice duel is to show how strong Jack is. Every year Jack dominates his opponent with his absolute power, everyone wants to defeat him, this causes many people to participate more."

"It's annual practices." Yusei continued. "Honestly we do not want to participate in this tournament, it's just another way for the Tops to control us, but this year has a new purpose."

"The war." Ruri said.

"Right. And if Yugo wins, he can be King and we can stop the war, two birds with one stone."

"We will." Ruri assured. "At least with this, I can feel at peace with not being at Heartland for now."

"We all can." Yuto said and held Ruri's hands close. The girl stood close to him, receiving his comfront.

From nearby Yuya and Yuzu watched Yugo practicing, unlike the smiles on Yuto, Ruri and others' faces, they were frowns.

Because they knew why Yugo had to do it…

* * *

 **Night**

Night fell, the stadium became hectic, fireworks exploding in the sky. A hologram of the MC, Melissa Claire appeared and announced.

"At the Duel Palace of the center of City, there is now more than 20000 people gathering and waiting for the opening ceremony of the Friendship Cup. Tonight, let's enjoy the Exhibition Match with me, Melissa Clare!"

Everyone roared excitedly for the moment.

Yugo put on his gloves. He took a long look at his Deck.

"Rin… everyone… please support me… tonight…"

He put it in his pocket and came out of his room, walking to the garage where his trusty white D-Wheel was waiting.

 **#################################**

"And now, the main event of tonight, the proud Duel King of City, Jack Atlas, will come out for the special match!" Everyone yelled his name, waiting for his appearance, both Tops and Commons.

"But before that… First off, the person chosen to be the sacrifice of King in this match this year… allow me to introduce this lucky Duelist!"

Yugo began driving out of the tunnel.

"His name is… Yugo!"

Yugo flew out of the tunnel, waving his hands and smiling, truly a spectacular entrance. He drew fast to the starting line and stopped right in front of it with a stoppie.

"Now, this is what everyone's been waiting for! The King's entrance!" Melissa announced. "The City bowed down before that power, that majesty! While his origins lie with the Commons, he stormed along the road to success like a rising dragon! The living legend who rose to the summit of duelists! Now let me introduce him!"

The hologram of the King of Spades appeared, with the only minor change being a card replacing the sword. It spun around repeatedly.

"Our Duel King, Jack Atlas!"

Spotlights pointed at the entrance of another tunnel, smoke pouring out and from behind it, a white D-Wheel with a single wheel appeared.

Jack Atlas had come to the stage.

He did a spin and accelerated, a spotlight did not forget to point at him all the way. The crowd cheered and the girls squealed.

Jack raised his finger up.

"King wa hitori! Kono ore da!"

" _He's so awesome…"_ Yugo thought.

Jack stopped next to Yugo, giving him a smile. "Here you are…" He whispered. Yugo smiled in return.

"Here's a question for everyone! Tonight, how many turns will it take to defeat this guy here?" Jack declared to the audience.

"It's obvious!" One spectator said. "Just one turn will end this kid!"

Jack raised his fist up.

"The King's duel can only be entertainment!"

" _Entertainment…"_ Yugo said to himself, finding it similar to Yuya.

Jack raised his index finger. "Turn 1! The first turn is mine for the taking! When that curtain is raised…"

Middle. "Turn 2! My opponent will put forth his best highlights…"

Ring. "Turn 3! Lastly, I surpass him and show him the difference between his power and my overwhelming strength!"

 **#################################**

"Let's see what they got." Gael said.

"The strength of the Lancers." Gray. "Or more specifically, the strength of this Common resident."

"Will it surpass the King's?" Azul.

"This is worth the anticipation, Chairman." Bordeaux.

"Yes. Let's watch this carefully." White Taki said.

" _Are these old pricks mentally retarded?"_ Reiji thought while watching those old people talk.

In the Security office, Roget was also watching the duel anxiously.

In the hotel, every Lancers was doing the same through the TVs.

 **#################################**

" _I will lose in three turns… too confident Jack… just like before…"_ Yugo thought.

"Duel Mode On! Autopilot, Standby!"

3…

2…

"Riding Duel…"

1…

0…

"Acceleration!"

 **DUEL!**

 **Jack Atlas** : 4000 [5]

 **Yugo** : 4000 [5]

* * *

Yugo quickly accelerated, trying to run past Jack to take the first turn, but with his superior skill, the King won the small competition.

"I take the first turn!" Jack declared with a firm voice after swiftly outmaneuvering Yugo.

"Oh! Just like what he said! Jack has crossed the corner first and take the initiative!" Melissa announced.

"Magic Card, Resonator's Call activate! I add Red Resonator to my hand, and Normal Summon!"

 **Red Resonator** FIRE/Demon/Tuner/Effect/LV2/ **600** /200

"Effect activates upon summon! From my hand, Red Gargoyle Special Summon!"

 **Red Gargoyle** FIRE/Demon/Effect/LV4/ **1200** /1400

"Level 4 Red Gargoyle and Level 2 Red Resonator, Tuning!"

"The crimson souls shall become one. All shall tremble before the king's might! Synchro Shōkan! Appear now Level 6! Red Wyvern!"

 **Red Wyvern** FIRE/Dragon/Synchro/Effect/LV6/ **2400** /2000

"I set down two cards, turn end!" Jack inserted two cards to his Duel Disk and slowed down a bit to face Yugo.

"Sa, I have set the first light of the show, try to steal it as much as you can Yugo!"

"Uh. I will show you, the power of my will!" Yugo declared. "Ore no turn, draw!" He drew his card, heart bumping with the chance to face the King on his first Friendship Cup tournament.

"Here I go King, I will use all of my strength in this Duel! Magic Card One for One activate! I send a card to the graveyard to Special Summon the Level 1 Tuner Monster, Speedroid Akumagne from my hand!"

 **Speedroid Akumagne** WIND/Machine/Tuner/Effect/LV1/ **0** /0

"And then, monster effect activates! I can Synchro Summon using it and your Red Wyvern!" The magnets resonated, sending circular waves at the wyvern, turning it into six stars. Jack, for once, was genuinely caught off guard. His eyes briefly went wide before calming down again.

"Yugo's deadly move." Yusei commented, having experienced this before.

"Spread those wondrous and beautiful wings. Strike down our enemies at light speed! Synchro Shōkan! Come forth! Level 7! Clear Wing Synchro Dragon!" The appearance of the white dragon caught the audience in awe.

 **Clear Wing Synchro Dragon** WIND/Dragon/Synchro/Effect/LV7/ **2500** /2000

"Awesome!" Melisa announced. "With a swift move, Yugo has taken King's monster and use it to summon his ace monster!"

"It's not over yet!" Yugo declared. "From my hand, I Normal Summon Speedroid Double Yoyo!"

 **Speedroid Double Yoyo** WIND/Machine/Effect/LV4/ **1400** /300

"With its effect, I resurrect Speedroid OMK Gum!" The two yoyos flew out, grabbing the white toy Tuner from the portal out.

 **Speedroid - OMK Gum** WIND/Machine/Tuner/Effect/LV1/0/ **800**

"Speedroid - OMK Gum… that's the card he sent earlier using One for One…" Yuya commented from his room.

"Level 4 Speedroid Double Yoyo and Level 1 OMK Gum Tuning!"

"Synchro Shōkan! Appear now Level 5! High-Speedroid Chanbarider!"

 **High-Speedroid Chanbarider** WIND/Machine/Synchro/Effect/ **2000** /1600

"With the signature Synchro Summons, Yugo has summoned a strong toy weapon and a powerful dragon! Also Jack's field is currently empty, is he going to make it?" Melissa commentated.

"OMK Gum's monster effect activates after being used as Synchro Material! I draw a card and send it to the graveyard." Yugo drew his card, revealing it to be Red-Eyed Dice. "I have drawn Speedroid Red-Eyed Dice, which means its 100 ATK is added to Chanbarider!" OMK Gum fired a box from its body down, it then opened to reveal the six-sided dice.

 **High-Speedroid Chanbarider** ATK 2000 - 2100

"It only increases by 100, but it is already enough to beat you Jack! Battle! Chanbarider, Jack Atlas direct attack!"

"When Chanbarider battles, it gains 200 ATK!"

 **High-Speedroid Chanbarider** ATK 2100 - 2300

 **Jack** : 4000 - 1700 [2]

Jack struggled to keep his D-Wheel stable, but Yugo did not leave him to that. "This is the end King! Clear Wing Synchro Dragon, Jack Atlas direct attack!" Clear Wing flew high to the sky, facing its opponent.

"No way! Is Jack going to lose? King!"

"Atlas-sama!"

"Shinpu no… Helldive Slasher!" With a simple energy wave as a signal, Clear Wing charged down, aiming at the King of City.

The ground got struck, an explosion occurred.

The entire stadium fell into silence.

…

…

…

"Nani?" Yugo gasped in shock as Jack came out of the smoke unharmed. Behind him were two monsters: Red Wyvern and Red Resonator.

"Don't tell me…!"

"Right. Trap Card Reject Reborn. The Battle Phase ends and I Special Summon Red Wyvern and Red Resonator!"

"Tsk… I end my turn here." Yugo reluctantly finished as he could not find another way to beat Jack.

Jack slowed down, facing Yugo with a stern face. "That's why you haven't improved Yugo."

"Nani?" Yugo grasped, feeling offended by his remark.

"You always rush in duels, rarely thinking about the possible countermeasures the opponent may have. I bet you have ignored my two set cards over here, which will lead to your defeat!"

" _Uh… That's because I don't have a way…"_ Yugo denied, but only in his mind, as he knew saying it aloud will be a sign of being weak.

"Ore no… TURN!" Jack declared his turn with large ham. "I, using the Level 6 Red Wyvern and Level 2 Red Resonator, Tuning!"

"The heaven and earth shall tremble before the king's might. Let the power of the one and only supreme ruler be carved into your soul! Synchro Shōkan! The savage soul, Red Daemon's Dragon Scarlight!" Bursting out from the Synchro light, Jack's signature monster came out, breathing fire.

 **Red Daemon's Dragon Scarlight** DARK/Dragon/Synchro/Effect/LV8/ **3000** /2500

"Red Daemon's Dragon Scarlight's monster effect activates! Once per turn, all Special Summoned monsters with equal or less ATK than it will be destroyed, and my opponent takes 500 damage for each one!"

"Absolute Power Flame!"

"I was waiting for this moment!" Yugo suddenly cut off.

"The hell?!"

"Otto! The sacrifice has been waiting for this?" Melissa commented in surprise. "What is he going to do?"

"Clear Wing Synchro Dragon's monster effect activates! When a Level 5 or higher monster activates its effects on the field, it can target that monster to negate its effects and destroy it!" Clear Wing charged energy on its blue glass wings.

"A monster taking advantage of high-leveled monsters." Shun commented.

"Only Xyz monsters and Level 4 or lower monsters can be immune to its effects." Ruri said from her room.

"Dichroic Mirror!"

The green blast was getting close to Red Daemon.

"Oh no! While King's dragon is showing its absolute strength, the other competitor's dragon has taken advantage of it! The King is in great danger! What is he going to do?!" Melissa commented with a frantic voice, worrying for the dignity of Jack Atlas. From the audience, everyone held their breath, feeling overwhelmed by the sudden counter-attack from Yugo.

The blast was now close to Red Daemon, starting to burn the dragon from the outside.

Meanwhile…

Its owner chuckled.

"Continuous Trap, Daemon's Chain activate!" A fiery chain flew out and restricted Clear Wing, the blast also disappeared.

"Clear Wing!"

"This Trap negates Clear Wing Synchro Dragon's effects and it cannot attack!" Since its effects were negated, Yugo had no choice but to watch his ace monster explode.

 **Yugo** : 4000 - 3000 [2]

"Yes! The King has his own counter to Yugo's answer! He's in the wake of winning the duel!"

Jack spun the D-Wheel sideway, drifting on the course. He waved his hand towards Yugo. "And now, Red Daemon's Dragon Scarlight, direct attack! Shakunetsu no… Crimson Hell Burning!"

"Kneel down in front of King's power!"

The scorched flame struck Yugo, the white Duelist screamed painfully as he flew out of his D-Wheel due to the impact, he would hit the ground head-first now.

All of the Lancers got shocked, no one can hide their concern over Yugo.

"Yugo!"

Yugo had already lost consciousness from the impact of the direct attack, he would bleed from his head if he hit his head down the ground.

"Red Daemon's!"

Jack's dragon quickly flew over to Yugo on its owner's command, using its wings to help Yugo land safely to the ground.

Everyone in the hotel sighed in relief…

 **Yugo** : 3000 - 0 [2]

* * *

 **Done! You surely wouldn't expect Yugo to face Jack right?**

 **So yeah, I will confirm: Yugo will take the place Yuya had in the Synchro arc this time.**

 **I always feel sad that Yugo never gets to accomplish his goal in the anime. He did not even at least podium (hichic) and he lost Rin, and the worst offender: he got stuck in Yuya's body for probably eternity. I will give him the rightful place he belongs this time.**

 **A really big thank you to maxtime for suggesting me to have Yugo duel Jack. Your idea about how the other three boys should be involved in the story helped me a lot.**

* * *

 **Next Chapter Preview**

 **Opening Duel! Muscle vs Elegancy**

The first duel of the Friendship Cup carries out.

 **This is matrixnis, out!**


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